After school, I limped all the way back to the estate.

Earlier that day, Bianca had “accidentally” spilled hot coffee all over me again in the hallway.

When I pushed her away, several of her friends rushed over and pinned me to the floor, stomping on my fingers with their high heels.

From elementary school all the way through high school, I never had a single friend.

Bianca never got tired of turning everyone against me.

I wasn’t afraid of being isolated.

What I was afraid of was that the principal had finally run out of patience and demanded that I bring a parent to school.

That afternoon, the principal called me into the office.

“Alessia Vitale, if no parent comes to school by next Monday, you’ll be expelled.”

I stared at my swollen fingers, which looked like purple radishes, and said nothing.

When I walked out of the school gates, Bianca’s car sped past me and splashed muddy water all over my body.

The people inside the car burst into laughter.

I wiped my face and thought that if Mamma were still alive, she probably would’ve driven her Porsche straight to the school and flipped over the principal’s desk.

Instead of being like Father, who wouldn’t even spare a glance at my broken fingers.

“Alessia Vitale, get over here.”

Father stood at the basement staircase with a dark expression on his face.

Bianca stood behind him, her eyes red as if she had just been crying.

“You hit Bianca at school?” Father’s voice was as cold as the iron chains in the cellar.

“I didn’t.” I raised my head, an expired bandage I had picked out of the nurse’s office trash can still stuck to my forehead.

“She didn’t hit me, Papa,” Bianca said tearfully. “I just fell by accident. Alessia only… pushed me a little.”

Father looked at the red mark on Bianca’s face, then turned and kicked me hard in the chest.

I slammed into the concrete wall behind me, and pain instantly burned across my back.

“Do you even know that the family council meeting is next week? Bianca is representing the Vitale family there. You hit her in the face. Are you trying to embarrass our family in front of the five major Mafia families in Corholt?”

Father’s expression looked twisted.

As I stared at him, he suddenly felt like a stranger.

Eight years ago, he wasn’t like this.

When Mamma was still alive, he used to carry me on his shoulders around the entire estate.

He bought me princess dresses covered in diamonds and hired the best piano teacher in all of Corholt for me.

On my fifth birthday, he gave me a purebred pony as a gift.

Once, when another child pushed me at kindergarten, he showed up at the school with ten bodyguards and forced the other child’s father to apologize to me in public.

Then he crouched down in front of me and said, “Alessia, remember this. You are Enzo Vitale’s daughter. If anyone bullies you, hit them back. If anything happens, Papa will handle it. Baby, no one in this world is allowed to bully you.”

The man who once told me that no one in the world could bully me was now gripping my chin and forcing me to apologize to Bianca.

“Get back to the cellar. Don’t come out without my permission.”

From beginning to end, he never once looked at my swollen, bruised fingers, nor did I tell him that the school would expel me next Monday.

He wouldn’t go, anyway.

I knew that.

For the past eight years, Bianca was the only daughter he acknowledged.

I was locked up for two full days.

The broken finger was never treated, and it had already turned purple.

I wanted to go find the butler and ask for a roll of bandages, but when I pushed open the basement door, I realized there were guests on the first floor.

Father sat on the sofa while Bianca leaned against him.

Across from them sat the Donna of the Moretti family.

With a smile, she asked, “Don Vitale, as the youngest don among the five families, you must be incredibly busy. How did you raise Miss Bianca so well?”

Father wrapped an arm around Bianca’s shoulders, his tone so gentle that it hardly sounded like the man I knew.

“Bianca has always been sensible. She’s my only daughter, so no matter how busy I am, I always make time for her.”

Bianca snuggled into his arms and said sweetly, “And Papa is the best in the world! Next month I want to go travelling. Papa, you have to come with me!”

Father smiled indulgently.

“Alright. Once the council meeting is over, I’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”

I stood hidden in the shadows of the staircase and blinked a few times.

By now, my heart no longer hurt.

Still, I couldn’t help remembering what things were like eight years ago.

Back then, when Mamma was still alive, I used to curl up in her arms like that and make requests, too.

I once told her I wanted the jade pendant around her neck, and without hesitation, she took it off and put it around mine.

“Alessia, your grandmother left this to me before she passed away. I’ve worn it for twenty years now. You have to take good care of it for me.”

When she hung the pendant around my neck, there was a sadness in her eyes that I couldn’t understand at the time.

Even now, I still couldn't forget the way she looked when she said those words.

Just as I was lost in thought, Donna Moretti suddenly brought up Mamma.

“Do you miss your mother, Miss Bianca? I heard the late Donna Vitale was an extraordinary woman. I also heard that you want to take over the family business someday. Was that inspired by Donna Vitale?”

The atmosphere in the living room instantly froze.

Mamma’s name was taboo in the Vitale estate.

Normally, if anyone dared to mention her, Father would lose his temper on the spot.

However, today, when Donna Moretti brought her up, Father only lowered his eyes gloomily.

Bianca lowered her head as well, her voice soft.

“I miss Mamma all the time. The reason I want to do well in the family business is because I want to carry on her legacy too.”

Then she pulled a jade pendant out from her collar.

“This was the keepsake Mamma left me. Whenever I feel sad, I touch it, and it feels like she’s still by my side.”

All the blood in my body rushed straight to my head.

That was mine!

That was the jade pendant Mamma gave me!

The last thing she left behind for me.

I rushed out from the shadows of the staircase and grabbed the pendant.

“Alessia! Who allowed you out?” Father’s expression changed instantly.

“Bianca, when did you steal it?” My voice was shaking.

For the past eight years, I’d touch that pendant every night before sleeping.

This morning, it had still been inside my broken metal box.

The surprise on Bianca’s face quickly turned into innocence. “Steal it? Alessia, what are you talking about? Mamma left this pendant to me.”

“You’re lying!” My voice barely sounded like my own anymore. “That was my grandmother’s keepsake! Mamma personally put it on me herself!”

“Alessia Vitale!”

Father stood up and slapped me across the face.

“Have you caused enough trouble yet? This is an interview! The magazine editor-in-chief is sitting right here!”

“I don’t care!” I could feel the corner of my mouth split open as blood ran down my chin. “Mamma left this to me! What gives her the right to take it away?”

“Also!” I stared at Bianca. “My Mamma isn’t dead! You have no right to say that she is!”

The living room fell silent for a moment.

Donna Moretti hesitated before looking at Father.

“Don Vitale… this is…?”

Father’s face looked as cold and hard as iron, his voice completely emotionless as he said, “A servant’s child.”

My entire body froze.

It was true that he had already announced to the outside world that Bianca was his only daughter.

At school, Bianca had always told everyone that I was the daughter of a servant, too.

However, this was the first time Father had said it himself, and that I didn’t deserve to be his child.

A trace of satisfaction flashed across Bianca’s face.

While I was frozen in shock, she snatched the pendant back from my hand. The movement was too rough, and the pendant flew out and crashed against the marble floor.

The jade shattered into five pieces.

I stared at the broken fragments on the floor, my mind completely blank.

The last thing Mamma left me was gone, too.

“Are you satisfied now?” Father’s voice sounded distant. “Get back to your cellar.”

I crouched down and picked up the broken pieces.

My fingernails split open, blood covered my hands, and my tears fell onto the shattered jade, burning hot.

The entire family turned against me.

What happened that day quickly spread through all five Mafia families in Corholt.

Everyone was talking about it.

They said Father and Bianca were kind, while I was ungrateful.

In the end, I became a laughingstock throughout Corholt.

[Don Vitale is so generous, even to a servant’s child.]

[That girl is completely ungrateful. She eats the Vitale family’s food, lives in the Vitale estate, and still bullies Miss Bianca.]

[I heard she even stole things before. Someone like that shouldn’t be allowed to stay.]

[Bianca really looks like late Donna Vitale. If she were still here, she would definitely feel sorry for her.]

When I saw that last comment, it felt like a knife stabbed straight into my chest.

If Mamma were still here, would she feel sorry for me? Would she even recognize me?

Or would she stand on Bianca’s side, just like Father did?

After all, I was the reason she disappeared.

And there wasn’t a single trace of her on my face.

Bianca’s birthday party was incredibly lively.

The entire estate was brilliantly lit. There was a twelve-tier champagne tower, the band had been brought in from New Haven, and the fireworks lasted for a full ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I was locked in the cellar.

Father had personally given the order.

He stood outside the cellar door without coming down, speaking to me through the iron bars.

“Alessia Vitale, how could you face your mother after what you did? That pendant was the thing she treasured most. It was your grandmother’s keepsake.

“You hated her that much? So much that you destroyed the last thing she left behind for you?

“If your mother were still alive and saw what you’ve become today, she would regret ever giving birth to you.”

I looked at him through the iron door, my voice so hoarse that it sounded like sandpaper scraping against stone.

“Mamma gave it to me. It was mine.”

He seemed startled by how rough my voice sounded and paused briefly before saying, “Forget it. Today is Bianca’s birthday. Stay quietly in your cellar and don’t come out embarrassing yourself.”

The iron door locked with a sharp click, and his footsteps gradually faded away.

Soon, the sound of music drifted down from upstairs.

The crisp clinking of champagne glasses carried through the thick stone ceiling, mixed with the laughter and chatter of guests. It was so lively, like another world entirely.

Not long afterward, the iron door opened again.

Bianca stood at the entrance holding a glass of champagne, wearing the custom green strapless gown that should have belonged to me.

“Look. Papa is mine, the estate is mine, and even everything Mamma left behind is mine. What about you? Other than this dark, damp cellar, what do you even have left?”

I suddenly looked up at her.

She flinched at the look in my eyes and instinctively stepped back half a pace, but she quickly regained her composure and sneered.

“What? You still want to hit me? Do you dare? Papa is upstairs. The moment you touch me, you’ll sink into the lake tomorrow, and not even your bones will be left behind.”

She walked over and brushed her champagne-covered fingertips across my face.

The cold alcohol against my skin made my stomach turn.

“Alessia, how did it feel hearing Papa personally say you’re a servant’s child?

“You really are shameless. It’s been eight years, and you still refuse to leave. You got Mamma killed. Papa hates you to the bone. Can’t you tell?”

I ignored her and stared at the tiny cellar window instead.

Outside, it was lively.

Balloons, flowers, fireworks. The twelve-tier birthday cake wheeled into the main hall.

Every single year, it was always like this.

I could only stand by and watch someone else celebrate my birthday.

Her expression darkened, embarrassed and furious from being ignored.

“Alessia Vitale! I’m talking to you!”

When I still didn’t respond, she grabbed the broken jade fragments.

“Why don’t you go join your dead mother and—”

She never finished the sentence.

Because I lunged at her and toward the jade fragments.

Her hand loosened, and the pieces flew out through the cellar window, falling into the branch of the Corholt River behind the estate.

I didn’t think about anything.

I shoved Bianca aside, climbed through the window, and jumped into the freezing river in the middle of February.

Water rushed into my ears and my lungs.

Just before I lost consciousness, I heard a voice.

It was soft, overlapping perfectly with the voice in my memories, cutting through eight years of darkness and reaching my ears with absolute clarity.

“Alessia, Mamma is here—”

“Alessia, my baby.”

“Alessia, Mamma’s back.”