My Mother’s Dying Wish Was My Happiness,Not Your Ring

My mother sat thirty hours on a cramped bus to get here, all so she could see me married into the Falcone Family beside Lorenzo.

I knelt ten hours outside the Estate gates, clutching her medical records, before he finally agreed to play along with the union.

But when the moment came, I screamed myself hoarse, and never once saw him cross the threshold.

My mother breathed her last the instant she stepped into the banquet hall. My wedding became her wake.

At midnight, after I'd finished arranging her affairs, I saw that Lorenzo's courier had posted something:

【The one who isn't loved is the real intruder.】

Calmly, I sent him a message, severing ties.

And Lorenzo came home, to the apartment we'd shared, with his courier in tow.

……

By the time my mother's affairs were settled it was past midnight. I came back to the cold rooms and peeled off the cheap rented union dress.

Ten hours had passed since I'd sent Lorenzo the message ending things.

This wasn't the first time Lorenzo had abandoned me alone for the sake of Bianca Romano.

Ever since she'd appeared in the Falcone household, every quiet hour we had was interrupted by her, by accident or by design.

Sometimes it was an allergic reaction. Sometimes a stomachache.

Those ordinary little complaints, once they reached Lorenzo's ears, became matters of life and death.

At first I made a scene. Later I came to see my place clearly. A woman from outside the life, never made part of the Family, never given a ring.

All that was left of my feelings was numbness.

I sat down on the cold tile floor and, without realizing it, drifted off to sleep.

When I woke, Lorenzo was on the couch, smoking, staring at the union dress draped there with open irritation.

"Why aren't you in bed? Sitting out here, what's wrong with you? I walked in and you nearly scared me to death."

He frowned at my red, swollen eyes. "It's just some lousy ceremony, isn't it? It was for show to begin with. I'll make it up to you later, all right? Are you ever going to let this go?"

The words had barely left his mouth when Bianca came in, a bag of breakfast in one hand and a key in the other, letting herself in like she belonged.

Every bit of my wretchedness was suddenly laid bare with nowhere to hide.

Seeing the heavy air between Lorenzo and me, Bianca spoke up, all innocence:

"I'm so sorry, Adriana Costa. My cramps started this afternoon, nearly made me pass out. If Lorenzo hadn't noticed in time and carried me to the hospital, I might not even be here right now." Her fingers brushed the pendant at her throat, just once, as if checking it was still there.

I let my gaze drift coldly over her delicate little face, too weary to bother with her.

But Bianca seemed to remember something, and turned at once to pull a black plastic bag from her purse.

"Lorenzo ran half the block to buy this for me. It doesn't really suit me, so I should give it back to you, Adriana."

Those innocent eyes blinked and blinked.

She thought I still cared about this laughable arrangement.

A mocking curl tugged at the corner of my lips, and the moment she finished, I said in a cold voice: "Lorenzo, let's break up."

For show or for real, I didn't want the union anymore.

Even the air near him turned my stomach.

When I'd said it, I ignored his reaction, got up, and went to the bedroom for the suitcase I'd packed the night before.

Holding one position so long had left my movements stiff. My thumb found the bare spot at the base of my ring finger and pressed there, where no ring had ever been placed.

But Lorenzo only kept his head down, eating the breakfast Bianca had brought, acting as if he hadn't seen a thing.

I dragged my small suitcase to the door, then remembered something in the fridge.

So I turned and walked back, ending up standing right in front of Lorenzo.

His hand froze, and he let out a cold snort.

"So you finally know you were wrong? It's not too late to apologize. Don't throw away the kindness I've shown you. I've spoiled you too much these past few years."

But I didn't give him so much as a glance. I just looked at the fridge and said: "Excuse me. Let me through."

His face darkened and he pretended not to hear, so I stepped straight past him.

On the very bottom shelf of the fridge, I took out the dumplings my mother had wrapped for me the last time she visited.

I tucked them carefully against my chest.

As I turned to leave, Lorenzo stuck out his leg and tripped me.

My head struck the corner of the coffee table head-on.

He knit his brows, full of displeasure. "A box of garbage and you treat it like a treasure? That junk should've been thrown out ages ago. It's made the whole fridge reek of meat filling."

I forced myself up on both hands, my eyes falling to the flour-dusted floor.

But my sight was slowly soaked over with fresh blood, until I couldn't see clearly.

Lorenzo's face loomed above me, dark and grim as he reached, agitated, to light himself a cigarette. He cracked the knuckles of one hand against his palm, slow and deliberate.

"Adriana, can you stop being so pathetic? Why don't you just kneel on the floor and grovel? All I did yesterday was help Bianca out a little. Who's all this pitiful act for?"

"You knew the union was for show, so what are you losing your mind over now?"

"A ceremony for appearances. Surely it can't matter more than a human life?"

Even now he still thought I was only angry about him missing the union.

I understood it perfectly. It wasn't that the ceremony didn't matter.

It was that in Lorenzo's eyes, I had never mattered at all.

Five whole years, and in this thing between us I had always been the one beneath.

Maybe, compared to me, Bianca could make a more useful woman at his side, one the matriarch would bless.

Countless nights I waited for him to come home.

What came instead was always word of him out entertaining the Family's associates with Bianca.

I'd send him a message, telling him to drink less, caring.

And the only reply was ever a red exclamation mark.

When it got too late, the two of them would simply take a suite at one of the Family's banquet hotels, and then Bianca would use his phone to lift me off the blocked list and send me a message.

Complete with the room number and a photo of the two of them.

【Adriana, I'll take good care of Lorenzo, so get some rest soon!】

She did take care of him well, all right. By now Lorenzo had no need of me at all.

I looked at Lorenzo, my eyes cold. "Human life does matter. But my mother's life doesn't, does it, Lorenzo?"

His face sank lower with my accusation.

As I dragged my suitcase toward the door, Lorenzo couldn't hold back, his voice rising in anger:

"Are you dead set on going crazy on me today? I'll go to the hospital and apologize to your mother, isn't that enough? If that won't do, I'll drag Bianca along and we'll both apologize to your mother to her face, is that enough? Want me to lay her IV records out in front of your mother too?"

His tirade set a fire raging in my chest, and it heaved violently.

So in his eyes, my mother and I were people that unreasonable.

Seeing something was wrong, a flicker of confusion crossed Lorenzo's face, and he made to rush over and grab me.

But Bianca cut in to stop him, her hand drifting to her throat again.

"Auntie's bus tickets were probably forged, so she likely hasn't even arrived yet. It's probably not that Auntie's upset. It's probably just that you missed the ceremony yesterday and Adriana got angry. It's okay, I can show her the hospital paperwork and explain it to her."

The fire detonated all at once in my chest, burning away every shred of reason.

The next second I snatched the black bag off the shoe cabinet and hurled it at her head.