I recalled everything Bianca had done so far. She had wanted me gone from the Vipera household for a very long time.

My face was ruined. I was in so much pain that I lost the courage to speak.

Bianca sat on the floor and sobbed miserably, "Sofia, if my nimble fingers make you jealous, then I promise I won't show up in front of you again. I won't trouble our brothers to take care of me anymore. You'll forgive me, won't you?"

Behind her back, she squeezed the nearly healed wound on her fingers until it bled again.

She said weakly, "All I ask is that you let me rest in the castle so that my hand can heal faster. Then, I can play the piano for our dear brothers again."

My brothers helped her up and walked past me irritably.

As Bianca brushed by my shoulder, she forced out a single tear. My brothers looked at her with aching concern. Then, they turned their annoyed gazes on me.

I wanted to explain, but cold sweat broke out across my back. A feeling of despair enveloped me, and the stabbing pain from my burns overwhelmed me again.

I clenched my teeth tightly, unable to say a word. They didn't want to hear anything anyway.

And so, Bianca took over my room. I moved into the maids' storage room, which was damp and freezing. It hadn't been cleaned in years.

The pain from my wounds kept me awake all night.

At dawn, I swallowed a sleeping pill. I had barely fallen asleep when the constant and noisy footsteps outside the door woke me up again.

Giuliano had hired the best medical aesthetic specialists in the country to treat Bianca. They were going to do facial care and hand therapy for her.

Across the corridor, I lay miserably in a room without any heating, wrapped in a moldy old blanket. The skin on my body and face throbbed painfully, as if it were about to split apart.

I noticed some soothing ointment on the doctor's cart.

I put on my mask and walked over to ask the doctor's assistant, "Could I have just a little of that?"

Someone snapped, "What are you doing here, Sofia? Because of your reckless driving, Bianca nearly ended up scarred from the accident. Be grateful that she only scraped her fingers. You're the reason why she's hurt. How can you still have the nerve to cause trouble?"

Giuliano shoved me back into the storage room roughly.

I had no choice but to hide beneath that unfamiliar, cold blanket and escape the painful reality for the time being. I swallowed a few more sleeping pills and forced myself to fall asleep as quickly as possible.

In my dream, I returned to the day I first arrived at the castle.

When I was six years old, I had gone out with my butler and accidentally gotten into a stranger's car. By the time I got out, I was at the Vipera famiglia's castle.

I didn't know how to tell them where my home was. Terrified out of my wits, I fell seriously ill and ran a high fever. Then, I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, Mario, Bruno, and Giuliano decided that they would take me in. That was how I became the Vipera famiglia's adopted daughter.

In the days that followed, we played and stirred up trouble together in the castle.

The Don of the Vipera famiglia and the father of my brothers, Antonio Vipera, lived in another castle. So, this place was a private paradise for my brothers and me.

I thought we were the closest famiglia and that nothing could ever tear us apart.

But my life began to fall apart without warning when Bianca moved into the guard's wooden cabin outside the castle last year.

She claimed she was Antonio's illegitimate daughter and my brothers' half-sister by blood. She often played Antonio's favorite piano pieces in the cabin outside the castle. Whenever my brothers heard those melodies, they thought of Antonio and became convinced that Bianca was truly their sister.

I took the initiative to invite Bianca to move into the castle. I believed that she would be happier living with her real famiglia.

But after that, my brothers stopped paying attention to me. Bianca became the one who was constantly by their side instead of me.

She grew bolder by the day. She would snatch my clothes and take my shoes without asking.

Then, she would tell the brothers, "I'm closer to you than Sofia will ever be. After all, we're bound by blood."

I was barely conscious as I lay on the bed. Shivering beneath the blanket, I could feel a fever coming on.

Bruno pounded hard on the old wooden door. Mario rushed in after him, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

He exclaimed, "I can't believe I didn't realize sooner that you'd deliberately try to harm Bianca!"

His voice thundered in my ears, but I couldn't summon the strength to speak.

Mario's expression became increasingly grim, and his words came out in an incensed roar. "So you're the one who threatened her to deliberately crash into the rocks by the roadside! Bianca is my sister—if anything happens to her, I'll skin you alive!"

Mario and Bruno took turns hurling accusations at me. Their merciless reproach rained on me like a torrent of rocks.

From the room across the corridor, Bianca's voice drifted over. "Mario? Bruno? Where are you? I need you with me."

They hurried back to her side right away, leaving me to suffer alone in the dank, suffocating room.

Mario had left behind the investigation report on the accident. With trembling hands, I picked it up.

It stated clearly that I had argued with Bianca inside the car and that I had deliberately swerved the steering wheel to threaten her. According to it, my reckless act was what caused the accident.

Summoning all my strength, I forced myself out of bed. I wanted to find my brothers and explain everything.

Bianca had just finished her skin treatment. Mario gently tucked a blanket behind her lower back and carefully adjusted it around her waist. Bruno was massaging her wrist, while Giuliano was busy pulling the curtains and fine-tuning the lighting to what he thought was the most comfortable.

My heart shattered in that instant. I turned to leave, but my foot accidentally struck the door as I spun around.

Mario noticed me, and a flash of irritation crossed his eyes.

He barked, "What are you doing here? Was the car accident not enough? Are you trying to hurt Bianca again?"

Bianca clutched Mario's sleeve and glanced at me with a pitiful expression. "Sofia, I promise I won't get on your nerves anymore. Please spare me. I still need to play the piano for our brothers."

Silently, I went up to the attic where we used to play together. There, I found the four small figurines that Mario, Bruno, Giuliano, and I had sculpted together on my birthday.

I threw them into the trash. They shattered into fragments, just like what remained of our relationship now.

…

After resting for a while and regaining some strength, I went to the storage room to pack my belongings.

My bookshelf had been filled with poetry collections Mario had bought for me. He used to say that he would invite poets to write exclusively for me if that was what I wanted.

Giuliano had given me countless bottles of perfume, saying he wanted me to experience the most beautiful scents in the world. As for Bruno, he had brought back limited-edition jewelry from all over the country. They were all souvenirs he picked up during his competitions abroad.

They had once wanted my entire life to revolve around them. But now, all of it felt like a burden.

I asked the maid to take everything out and throw them away.

As I cleared the last poetry book from the shelf, Mario stood at the door and stared at the empty space blankly. He looked like a wounded little boy.

"Why did you throw away the poetry books I gave you? Didn't you say you would treasure them for life?" he asked.

Bruno came to take a look after him.

His nose reddened as he questioned, "Didn't you love the necklace that I bought you from overseas the most?"

Giuliano rushed out and chased after the maid to ask where she had thrown my things. He even said he was willing to pay to buy them back.

I kept my head down and didn't bother explaining anything.

The next moment, I noticed the diamond earrings Bruno was holding.

"Are those for me?" I asked quietly.

Bruno's gaze wavered as he looked at Mario.

Clearly, they were not for me.

Mario cleared his throat and explained, "Bianca almost ended up disfigured. So, we're giving her some jewelry and taking photos with her to cheer her up."

Bruno hurriedly added, "I'll buy you something the next time I go for a competition. Don't be so self-centered now."

I no longer wanted to believe a single word they said. So, all I did was nod calmly in response.

I turned to go back to my room to rest, but Bianca stood in the hallway and blocked my path. She was wearing my pajamas and my velvet slippers.

She said softly, "From now on, I am the only sister the Vipera brothers will spoil and love."

As I walked past her, I heard a sharp, mocking snort escape her nose.

After we brushed shoulders, her giggles and joyful chatter with my brothers rang out behind me.

She deliberately raised her voice and flaunted, saying, "I'm going to wear these diamond earrings for the rest of my life. Bruno, you're the best!"

She went on to lament about her poor, miserable childhood. My brothers instantly promised to compensate her double for every unfortunate thing she had suffered in life.

They had once promised me the same. They had sworn that they would love and protect me as if I were their real famiglia to make up for the famiglia I had lost.

But now, they chose Bianca, their half-sister, over me every single time.

Would they still remember me after I left the castle?

Lost in those thoughts, I eventually fell asleep in my room due to exhaustion and pain. When I woke up, the castle was empty.

Enjoying a moment of rare silence, I packed all of my belongings and erased every trace of myself in this place.

Matteo called to check on me. When he heard that my skin hurt unbearably, he arranged for someone to deliver a medical spray that would soothe the burns.

Not long after I hung up, I saw a video Bianca had posted on social media. She had deliberately tagged me in the comments section.

In the video, she and my brothers were on vacation at Belville Resort. They were throwing a pool party. Wearing the flashy diamond earrings, Bianca stood in the center as everyone surrounded her.

For the post, she had written, "From now on, this will be the vacation home for our famiglia of four. My brothers love me so much. I'm truly the happiest woman in the world."

My fingers trembled. My breathing became shallow and rapid.

My brothers had once promised they would take only me to Belville Resort for vacations.

I knew there was nothing I could do at this point. No matter what happened to me, Bianca would always twist it into something that made them misunderstand me even more.

I unfriended Bianca on my social media. From that moment on, my world would no longer include her.

Soon, my medical spray arrived. A maid agreed to help bring it in from outside.

I waited and waited in my room, but she never returned. The itching and prickling pain from my wounds made it impossible for me to sit still. So, I went out to the garden to distract myself.

When I reached the open area, I bent over to catch my breath. I was struggling to breathe, it hurt so much and my face mask was suffocating me.

A hand with its nails painted red shoved the medical spray into my face.

I looked up and saw that it was Bianca.

She pursed her lips angrily and scolded, "Sofia, you knew I came back early because of an allergy. How dare you purposely have the maid send me the wrong medicine? Were you trying to kill me?"