After Lily died, I didn't go crazy. I didn't scream. 

The trauma was so massive that my mind simply shut down. I engaged a kill switch on my emotions. 

I became an exquisite, soulless marionette. Alexander locked me in a villa on the Sicilian coast. 

No matter how he humiliated me, I did it.

Everyone thought the wildest dog in the family had finally been tamed. 

One month later. The engagement gala for the union of the Alexander and Camorra families. 

Alexander ordered me to attend as a server. To pour wine for Sophia. 

That night, I didn't wear a maid's uniform. 

I wore a deep V-neck red dress. I had bought it with the commission money I had saved for years. 

I looked like a poppy blooming on the edge of a cliff—dangerous and mesmerizing. 

Tray in hand, I wove through the crowd of Mafia royalty, stepping closer and closer to the perfect couple on the dais. 

Sophia clung to Alexander’s arm, beaming with triumph. When she saw me approach, her eyes glittered with malice. "Ivy. Pour the wine. Do it on your knees." 

"Of course, Miss Sophia." I obediently dropped to one knee, raising the wine glass. 

The moment Sophia reached out to take it— 

I thrust a sharp blade upward, aiming straight for Sophia’s heart. "Go to hell and apologize to Lily!!!" 

It happened too fast. Sophia’s smile froze into a mask of terror. 

But Alexander was faster. 

Just as the blade was a centimeter from her chest, the gunshot echoed through the ballroom. 

A blossom of blood exploded just below my left collarbone. He missed my heart, but the impact lifted me off my feet and threw me backward. 

Behind me was the terrace railing. Beyond that, a hundred-foot drop to the sea. 

As I plummeted, I looked up.

“No! Ivy!” Alexander cried out in terror, reaching out to grab me.

But Sophia clung to him, slowing his pace.

The corner of my mouth lifted in a smile of pure relief. 

Alexander. Never to see you again.