His to Lose

Dante rushed over like a hurricane.

He quickly shielded Elena, who was on the ground, in his arms. Those deep, brooding blue eyes locked onto me, looking as if he wanted to tear me apart right there.

"Sophia Moretti! You've only been back from Europe for a few days, and you're already throwing your weight around as the heir?"

He growled through gritted teeth, his voice trembling with rage.

"Do you think everything in this world can be bought with money? Apart from being born lucky, what do you have?"

He looked down at Elena, who was crying her heart out in his arms, his movements as gentle as if he were protecting a rare treasure.

"Elena is a woman with a soul, a noble woman. She's different from a Mafia viper like you, who reeks of old money!"

Mafia viper?

Hearing that term, I actually wanted to laugh.

In my past life, to help him gain legitimacy, to turn him from a killer in the shadows into a legal business elite, how much blood did I get on my hands? How many bullets did I take for him?

But in his heart, I was always just a "stinking rich" burden.

"If you kneel down and apologize to Elena right now, I might consider saving you some face at the engagement party," Dante added coldly, his tone sounding like charity to a beggar.

"Apologize?"

I chuckled, the sound echoing bleakly in the empty hallway.

"Dante, did you forget who gave you that handmade custom suit you're wearing? Or who gave you the dock businesses you control?"

I took a step forward, forcing him to look me in the eye.

"You are just a dog raised by the Moretti family. A dog actually wants its owner to apologize to a stray cat by the roadside?"

Dante's face instantly turned iron-gray, the scar on his forehead twisting with rage.

That scar was from when he was fourteen, protecting me from a rival gang's knife.

I used to think it was proof of his love. Now, it looks like nothing more than a bodyguard's badge of honor.

"Sophia, you have a death wish!" He took a sharp step forward, his large hand gripping my wrist tightly, the force almost breaking my bone.

"Don't blame Sophia! It's my fault for being here!"

Elena suddenly screamed and lunged forward, trying to pull us apart.

She shouted about stopping the fight, but her high heel stomped precisely on the pendant I had dropped during the shove.

Snap.

It was a very faint cracking sound.

My blood froze instantly.

That pendant, inlaid with an emerald, was the only thing my mother left me before she died.

She died in a car bomb attack meant for my father. When she died, she was still holding me tight.

I pushed Dante away and squatted down, trembling.

The gold chain was broken. The expensive gem had shattered into several pieces under Elena's heel, scattered miserably on the carpet.

"Oh! My God! I'm sorry, Sophia! I didn't mean to. I was just too panicked..."

Elena covered her mouth, backing away in fear, but the fleeting look of pleasure in her eyes didn't escape me.

Dante glanced at the fragments on the floor, then at my pale face. A flash of something strange crossed his eyes.

But he quickly reverted to that look of disgust, turning his head away stiffly:

"It's just a piece of jewelry, isn't it? The Moretti family isn't short on jewelry. Don't act like a victim here; it makes me sick."

I picked up the cold fragments. My fingertips were cut, oozing red blood.

I didn't cry, and I didn't make a scene.

I just looked up and stared at Dante like I was looking at a dead man.

"You're right, Dante."

I stood up, clutching the fragments in my palm, blood dripping through my fingers.

"This trash really doesn't deserve to stay in the Moretti Manor anymore."

"From now on, you are free."

I turned around, my back resolute.

"Take your angel and get the hell out of my sight."