Leaving Him in the Dust

After I left the manor, I couldn't get a cab, when a black Rolls-Royce suddenly screeched to a halt right in front of me, its tires screaming.

The door opened, and Luca alighted, glowering as Lina followed behind her, her eyes tearful as if suffering some sort of terrible injustice.

Well, that was quick—Eliza must have complained to him already.

Still, I was a little relieved he didn't come to stop me from leaving, but to defend Lina's honor instead.

"Are you done?!" Luca hollered as he grabbed my wrist, glaring at me in exasperation. "Apologize to Lina right now, and we can put this behind us!"

"Apologize to her? Why?" I retorted in disbelief.

"You badmouthed her in front of the servants!" Luca snapped. "Slandering her! As a woman, you know how bad it is for her reputation."

My stomach churned just looking at this man who had vowed to love me for all eternity, now vehemently defending Lina's 'dignity'.

I shook his hand off and glared at Lina as I snapped back, "I only ever told the truth! My mother was waiting for surgery, but the doctors put it on hold to wait for payment! So Lina just used the excuse that there was no video of the surgery to reject my application! Did you even know about that?!"

Luca frowned, clearly not aware.

All he heard was Lina saying that I had demanded money and breaking family rules again. Most importantly, she said she saw footage that my mother was perfectly fine.

As he turned to Lina, Lina burst into tears, prudently covering for herself as she always did. "I didn't do anything wrong! I told her all the rules, but she said it was too troublesome and didn't give me anything to work on… And the footage shows that her mother's perfectly fine and doesn't need surgery."

Hearing that, I laughed, dryly and feebly.

My mother was already dead, but Luca still believed Lina's every word.

It was just so laughable.

And to no surprise, Luca glared at me in disappointment, clearly buying what Lina said. "You're really disappointing, Erin—Lina is just doing what's best for the family, and you have to abuse her just because she exposed you? Where are your morals? Aren't you supposed to be a college graduate?!"

I was utterly exasperated with his interrogation, as my morals were a million times better than Lina's.

He just couldn't see it!

"Since you believe in her so much, let's just get a divorce!" I bellowed. "The papers are on your desk—just sign them and get it over with!"

Seeing that I was about to turn and leave, he rushed up to grab me before he knew it, but he wasn't controlling his own strength and ended up tearing open my suitcase.

Everything inside fell out… but it was just a couple of worn clothes, academic certificates, and a black urn.

Luca froze seeing all of that and dropped to a crouch, staring at the black urn. "What's this?"

He barely finished when Lina came up, glaring at me warily. "Even if you're leaving, Donna, you are not to bring any family luxury items or jewelry. Family rules."

Even now, she still wanted the 'greedy' label stuck on my face.

I ignored her, dropping to a crouch and gingerly picked up the black urn and brushed the dirt off it. "This is my mother."