The Day I Chose Power

I hit the ground hard, my leg scraping against the rough surface. My so-called fiances shoved me aside to scoop up Amelia, tripping over themselves to play her knights in shining armor. "It's not on you, Amelia," they said.

"She's just a principessa from a declining mafia family, yet she always looks down on you and criticizes you!"

"Don't think your money gives you the right to toy with us, Shirley. Amelia is a thousand times better than you. Your family's attempt to go legitimate depends entirely on Amelia's future connections!"

"Don't even dream of forcing us to marry you and continue slaving for your crumbling family. We will never yield. You can't possibly make us your lapdogs!"

Hidden from their view, Amelia shot me a smug grin.

In my previous life, she had always played the 'poor me' card to drive a wedge between us. I used to wonder if I was the one at fault.

No more, though. I saw who had truly been played. I was just too trusting.

I tried to pick myself up, but Ethan's boot pinned me down.

Yoel's voice dripped with contempt. "Still acting all high and mighty. If you hadn't been caught up in wedding fantasies, I might've bought your act!

"The thought of marrying you makes my skin crawl," he added.

"Save your breath. You could be draped in the finest silk, but next to Amelia, you're nothing." Nelson's foot came crashing down on the wedding dress, his disdain clear as day.

Nelson was holding me with an iron grip, and no matter how hard I fought, I could not shake him off. I glared at Yoel, my voice thick with anger, "My wedding is none of your business!"

However, the three of them just laughed at me.

"Mr. Chapman himself has invited us to your wedding, and here you are, still playing tough," they jeered.

"We're looking out for you. Becoming a nanny will make both your and Amelia's dreams come true, and you can't even appreciate that."

Amelia's eyes were wet with tears as she looked at me, her lip quivering. "Shirley, I was wrong. Let me be your nanny. Just go ahead with the wedding and become a Donna, okay?"

Her pathetic act was like a magnet to them. They called over their goons to pin me down.

"Get her out of those clothes and off to the re-education camp to learn some manners!" they ordered.

I could not believe what I was hearing. "I am a principessa! How dare you treat me like this!"

No one responded to me.

Those three, relying on their status as my fiancés, had gathered many of their own followers. Now, taking advantage of my father's absence, they finally revealed their true malicious intentions.

I gritted my teeth and glared at the three of them. "Yoel, they'll kill me there! My dad will never forgive you for this!"

The re-education camp was notorious for breaking people down, a place where anyone would have been lucky to come out with their spirit intact, if at all. I had been sent there once by mistake, and it haunted me ever since. They all knew that.

"Shirley, just wait two weeks. Once we're married to Amelia, we'll get you out, and everything will be back to normal," they promised.

I lasted five days in that hellhole.

They used tools on me that I had never even seen before, and I fought like a wildcat. I slept with one eye open, scared I would not wake up.

None of them showed their faces the whole time, except for Amelia, who came just to gloat over my misery.

"You're one lucky girl, not dying in there," she sneered.

"However, it's better this way. How else would you take care of me later? You're going to be my personal nanny, after all."

Amelia leaned in close, her breath tickling my ear. "You know, you've been pining for Yoel all this time, right? Too bad you've never been the one in their hearts. Yoel, the other two, and I crossed that line a year ago." She pressed a pregnancy test report into my hand. "Take a wild guess, who's the daddy?"

Before I could even process the bombshell, Amelia grabbed a vase and cracked it over her own head.