Chapter 4

Stefano locked me in the bedroom. He didn't spare a single glance back at me before he left, no matter how much I screamed. I only stopped shouting when my voice turned hoarse, and my body became sluggish from exhaustion and hunger. I numbly picked up my phone when I heard it chime. I glanced at it and realized that Stefano's madre, Carlotta Galassi, had posted a new update on Instagram. She had posted a picture of herself with Antonia with the caption, "We'll be a family soon." The picture received many congratulatory comments from the members of the Farro family and Stefano's friends. Carlotta clearly did not despise Antonia like she despised me. She was hugging Antonia intimately, looking like an actual mother-daughter pair. The ring on Antonia's finger was dazzling and eye-catching. The Farro family's crest was clearly engraved on the side. I lowered my head in a daze and looked at the ring on my finger—it was identical to the one that Antonia was wearing. Stefano had used the ring to propose to me, claiming that it marked me as the daughter-in-law of the Farros. However, Antonia was currently wearing the exact same ring on her finger too. I raised my hand and slipped the ring off my finger. I only had to twist it gently to separate the diamond from the band. I finally understood then that this ring that was supposed to cement my position in the Farro family was nothing more than a counterfeit that Stefano had hired someone to make. All of my connections with Stefano had been nothing but lies. I threw the ring into the trash can before burying my face in my pillow and letting out a heartwrenching wail. "How could you hurt me this way, Stefano?" I thought to myself. A warm and slender hand brushed across my face before the person pulled me into their embrace and began softly coaxing me. "I was just joking around with you earlier, Gina. Why are you crying?" The man's voice was nearly identical to Stefano's, but the scent of wild lilies wafted from his body—a smell that Stefano never liked. I knew then that the man holding me was Salvatore. I felt repulsed by this knowledge. I was just about to shove him away when I saw him pick up the agreement on the bedside cabinet. "Be good and sign this, Gina," he said softly, perhaps assuming that I was feeling scared. A piece of paper dropped onto the floor when he picked up the agreement. It was the pregnancy report that I had carelessly placed on the bedside cabinet yesterday. If Salvatore picked up the report, he would know I was pregnant with his child. However, Salvatore simply glanced at the report when he stepped on it. "Where did this paper come from? When did you become such a messy person, Gina?" I felt like someone had stepped on my own heart as I looked at the clear footprint on the back of the pregnancy report. Well, whatever. I was leaving soon anyway. There was no point in telling Salvatore about the child. I lowered my gaze as I picked up the report and tossed it into the trash bin, saying, "I've always been a neat freak. I'll never want a man that another woman has laid her hands on." The smile on Salvatore's face stiffened. I could feel his searching gaze on my face. Perhaps he didn't have the guts to confront me because he didn't say anything else. Instead, he insisted on taking me out to get my mind off things. Salvatore drove us to a deserted area. When there was something wrong with the tire, he told me to stay in the car and wait while he headed to a nearby gas station to ask for help. An uneasy feeling began to churn in my heart, and I discreetly tightened my grip on the knife in my bag. A few moments later, a group of men swarmed the car out of the blue and began wrecking it like they had lost their minds. Someone broke the window, causing the broken shards to slice across my face. They reached through the broken window and grabbed me before beginning to drag me out of the car. The shattered pieces of glass sliced across my skin, but I had no time to worry about the pain. I could only focus on struggling as hard as I could. However, I was only one person and couldn't fight back against the combined strength of a group of men. They dragged me through the window and carelessly threw me on the ground. The leader was holding a baseball bat. He was smiling wickedly as he approached me. "So, you're the successor of The Rosas? You sure are pretty. We should enjoy ourselves before we take revenge on her," he hollered to the other men. The men surrounded me, but before they could lay their hands on me, I stabbed their leader with my hidden knife. I was once the successor of a mafia family. I wasn't a helpless woman who could only wait for someone else to save her. They screamed as they assaulted me with their baseball bats. Pain exploded all over my body, but I simply gritted my teeth and fought back against them until someone smashed their bat against the back of my head. The excruciating pain almost made me lose my balance. Before I lost consciousness, I vaguely saw Salvatore running toward me, looking panicked. "Regina!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.