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?"

I denied it immediately. "I didn't do it."

Then, I glanced at the maid beside us. She lowered her head and scurried away.

I reached out to take the medical spray from Bianca, but she deliberately stepped back.

The pain made it impossible for me to breathe. I collapsed onto the ground and began crawling toward her, inch by inch. If I could get the medicine, it wouldn't hurt this much anymore.

But no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't reach Bianca. That short distance stripped away every shred of dignity I'd had over the years.

Bianca sneered down at me and raised the medical spray in her hand. "Sofia, this is proof that you switched the medicine to hurt me. Don't even think about destroying the evidence."

At last, I crawled close enough to grab her ankle. I begged her desperately to let me have it.

However, she twisted the cap open and poured the contents of the entire bottle into the nearby drain.

My blood rushed to my head. I sprang up instinctively, screaming as I grabbed her hand to stop her.

Suddenly, someone yanked me backward. Like a rag doll, I was flung into the muddy flowerbed. My face slammed into the dirt. The pain was so overwhelming that I couldn't make a sound.

All I heard was Bianca's mocking laughter.

When I finally wiped the mud from my eyes, I saw who had dragged me away.

It was Mario. He stood in front of me holding the medical spray.

"Bianca had an allergic reaction. How could you deliberately switch her medicine?" he asked furiously.

"No! That's not true! That's my medicine!" I explained hoarsely.

No one listened.

Bruno and Giuliano had already called for a private doctor as they escorted Bianca away.

They called out to Mario, "Bianca said she won't take the medicine unless all of us are there."

I struggled to my feet in the mud, desperately hoping that someone would reach out a hand to help me. But at my most helpless moment, Mario turned his back on me and ran toward Bianca.

"It wasn't me!" I shouted after him.

Mario didn't even turn his head as he barked, "If anything happens to Bianca, I won't let you get away with it!"

"That's my medical spray! I can't do without it!" I cried.

Giuliano shouted back in annoyance, "Why do you have to make a scene and pester us at a time like this? Are you deliberately trying to stop Bianca from getting better?"

Bruno glanced at me, but the look in his eyes was utterly foreign to me.

I collapsed back onto the ground and picked up the medical spray from the muddy ground. To my dismay, it was empty.

The private doctor and all the maids were fussing over Bianca. No one was around to help get me another bottle of medicine.

If I waited until the private jet arrived, I might die from the pain before it even touched down.

So, I called Matteo. "Can I have the skin graft surgery earlier? Please come get me at dawn tomorrow."

I packed a small carry-on bag and took nothing else with me.

At daybreak the next morning, a helicopter took me away from the castle.

I received countless calls from the three Vipera brothers. They said I had to apologize to Bianca after she recovered. They kept stressing that I owed her my life and that I should know how to behave.

I turned off my phone, removed the SIM card, and threw it into the trash.

On the private jet, my back was drenched with cold sweat because of the intense pain. I clenched my teeth and endured it.

Once I went home, I would begin an entirely new life—one with no ties whatsoever to the Vipera famiglia.

From this moment on, I was the Principessa of the Ferro famiglia—only daughter of Vittorio Ferro, the Don of the most powerful famiglia.