Chapter 2

She grabbed weakly at his sleeve, tears spilling down her face. “Please don't let them hurt me anymore. I know I made a mistake. I know... Just please make it stop.”

He looked at the blood covering her clothes and the bruises spreading across her face.

“Get a doctor!” he ordered.

I stared at him.

He hadn't looked at Angelica like that when she was dying. He hadn't looked at me like that when I woke up without a kidney. But one cry from Isabella, and suddenly he couldn't stand to see her suffer.

Favio's face was cold when he looked at me.

There wasn't even a trace of the man I'd known for seven years.

“Guards, take Donna Adeline to the underground holding room. Lock her there until she calms down. I don't want to see her until she can think properly.”

I stared at him, my side throbbing from the surgery. “You're locking me up?”

“You fucking attacked Isabella!”

A bodyguard reached for me, but I shoved his hand away. “Don't touch me!”

“Take her.”

“Favio!” Rage exploded through me. “She killed our daughter, and you're punishing me for retaliating?!”

His expression didn't change. “Isabella made a mistake. You chose to hurt her.”

Then Isabella spoke.

“Favio, wait.”

He turned toward her immediately.

“I don't think locking her away is enough,” she whispered.

My eyes narrowed.

Favio frowned. “What do you want?”

Isabella lowered her gaze. “I don't want her dead. I just want her to understand what it feels like to be helpless.” Then she looked at him. “Take her to the Blood Road.”

My blood ran cold.

The Blood Road was where the Guerrero Syndicate punished traitors. Anyone sent there was chained to the back of a convoy and dragged along the private road until Favio's men decided the punishment was enough.

I stared at Isabella. “You're insane.”

She gave me a faint smile.

“Maybe. But I'm not the one who ordered someone to break my bones.”

Favio was silent for several seconds.

Then he said, “Prepare the convoy.”

My heart dropped.

“You're actually doing this?”

He didn't answer.

The guards seized me before I could react.

I fought them hard, but my body was still weak from surgery. One of them twisted my arms behind my back while another locked a chain around my wrists.

“Let go of me!”

They dragged me outside.

Several black Guerrero vehicles were already waiting.

My hands were chained behind me, and a heavy chain was secured around my neck and connected to the back of the last vehicle.

I turned toward Favio one last time.

He stood beside Isabella.

She had been helped to her feet, and she was leaning against him.

My husband was holding the woman who killed our daughter while his own wife was being chained to a vehicle.

Something inside me went completely cold.

I stopped struggling.

I looked directly at Favio.

“I won't forget this.”

For the first time, his eyes flickered then he looked away.

The convoy started moving.

The chain snapped tight.

I stumbled forward, barely able to keep my feet beneath me. The vehicles accelerated, dragging me along the private road.

Pain tore through my body.

I fell.

The convoy didn't stop.

My shoulder struck the ground, and I was dragged across the gravel, my clothes tearing against the road. Every movement reopened the pain in my side, but I gritted my teeth and refused to scream.

I wouldn't give Favio that satisfaction.

Through the blur of tears, I looked back.

He was still standing there.

I closed my eyes.

Angelica's face appeared in my mind.

My little girl. A bitter laugh escaped my throat.

The pain was unbearable, and the humiliation was worse. My consciousness slowly started fading as the convoy dragged me down the dark road.

Then, for some reason, I remembered the past.

Favio and I had been childhood sweethearts. He'd followed me around since we were kids, always grabbing my hand whenever another boy came near.

“Addy is mine!”

He'd say it so proudly that everyone laughed and teased him, saying Favio Guerrero wouldn't survive a day without me.

When I turned twenty, he proposed at an amusement park. We'd just gotten off a ride when he suddenly took my hand and pulled out a ring.

“Addy, I've waited long enough. I want to marry you. I want you beside me for the rest of my life.”

I cried and said yes.

After we married, he treated me even better. He'd cross half of Italy at midnight just because I'd mentioned wanting pastries from a certain bakery. He'd cancel meetings when I wasn't feeling well, and every anniversary, he'd still find a way to surprise me.

Then Angelica came into our lives.

Favio completely lost his mind over our daughter. The day she was born, he raised the salaries of all his employees and came home carrying boxes of expensive jewelry for me.

“For you,” he'd said.

“Why are you giving me all this?”

“Because you gave me my daughter.”

He'd been the happiest I'd ever seen him.

At night, he'd wake up whenever Angelica cried and take the bottle from me.

“Sleep, Addy. I'll feed her.”

I'd wake up hours later and find him asleep in the nursery chair with our baby in his arms.

I thought that was the life we'd have forever.

Then Isabella appeared.

People often mistook us for sisters.

At first, I didn't think much of it but then Favio started changing.

He carried tamarin candies I hated in his pockets. He wore simple hair bands around his wrist. And one night, while we were having sex, he accidentally whispered her name.

“Isabella.”

I froze.

After that, I secretly investigated.

Everything led back to her.

When I finally decided to confront Isabella, I was hit by a car on my way out. When I woke up in the hospital, Favio was standing beside my bed.

I thought he'd come because he was worried about me.

Instead, the first thing he said was, “Addy, I didn't mean for you to get hurt, but I hope you won't cause trouble for Isabella.”

I stared at him. “You knew?”

He didn't answer.

“Did you arrange the accident?”

“Don't make this harder than it needs to be.”

My whole body went cold.

I could barely believe the man standing in front of me was the same man who'd once followed me everywhere.

I swallowed and asked, “What exactly is your relationship with Isabella?”

Favio rubbed his forehead, looking irritated.

“I wanted to hide this from you, but you already found out. I fell in love with her.”

My heart sank. “You love her?”

“Yes.”

He didn't hesitate.

“I don't know how it happened, Addy, but I really like her. I haven't felt this way before.”

I stared at him through my tears.

“What about me? What about everything we've had since we were children?”

He was silent for a moment before saying, “Maybe I confused wanting you with loving you. You were always the girl everyone admired, and I wanted you to be mine. I thought that was love. But Isabella, she made me realize what love actually feels like.”

I laughed bitterly.

“So after all these years, you're telling me you never loved me?”

“I'm saying I didn't understand my feelings.” He looked at me calmly. “But I won't abandon you. You can still be my wife, and you'll still have everything you've always had. Just don't hurt Isabella.”

I stared at him as if he'd lost his mind.

He was asking me to stay his wife while loving another woman.

Then he walked out.

...

I spent the next few days convincing myself he'd come back.

He didn't.

Instead, Isabella became more involved in our home and in Favio's life. She was always beside him, and because of her medical training, he trusted her more and more.

The woman who'd once been the center of Favio's world slowly became someone he barely noticed.

And now, as the convoy dragged me down the road, I finally understood that the Favio I loved was gone.

Maybe he'd been gone for a long time.

I closed my eyes as the pain became too much to bear.

“Favio,” I whispered.

“I don't love you anymore.”