The Godfather’s Forsaken Rose Chapter 06
After dinner, the four of them sat together in the living room, chatting as if they were a perfect family.
I had no interest in playing my part in that little performance, so I stood and went out to the garden.
The early-summer breeze carried a faint chill, but it did nothing to ease the tightness in my chest.
Not long after, Sophia followed me out. She wore the soft, dazzling smile of a winner.
“Bella,” she said lightly, her tone sweet and openly provocative, “standing out here alone? I know why you’re angry. Everyone in our circle has heard about those three years between you and Dominic.”
I kept my back to her. My body stiffened slightly, but I did not turn around.
“Honestly, when I first found out, I was worried.” Sophia came to stand beside me, studying my pale profile. “After all, my dear sister Bella is so beautiful. What man wouldn’t be tempted?”
“Unfortunately, beauty didn’t save you. Your mother couldn’t beat mine, and you can’t beat me. Those three years were just charity from me. Now that the real woman is back, the substitute should know when to leave.”
I turned slowly.
Under the moonlight, my eyes were bright, but not with the anger or grief Sophia had expected. There was only a cold sneer.
“Charity?”
I lifted my red lips and spoke each word clearly.
“Sophia, did living abroad make you forget who you are?”
“An illegitimate daughter who got into this house because her mother was a mistress. A woman who relies on schemes to catch men. You think you have the right to talk to me about charity?”
“Your mother picked up what my mother threw away. You picked up a man I no longer wanted. You two really are mother and daughter. Same blood. Same talent for collecting other people’s leftovers.”
“You!”
Sophia’s smile froze. Her face shifted between blue and white.
She had not expected me to still have teeth after being trampled into the mud.
“What about me?” I stepped closer, my presence pressing down on her. “Do you think you won? Dominic is just a man I played with and left behind. You picked him up and parade him around like treasure. Sophia, that only proves how low your standards are.”
Sophia shook with fury. The gentle mask she had worked so hard to maintain cracked completely.
I had no interest in wasting more words on her, so I turned to leave.
The moment I turned, Sophia let out a sharp scream behind me.
Her forehead struck the edge of a stone bench in the garden. Blood began to stream down at once.
“Sophia!”
Almost immediately, Dominic, Victor, and Elena rushed out of the living room.
Sophia collapsed to the ground, covering her bleeding forehead with tears in her eyes.
“Dad, Mom, Dominic… it isn’t Bella’s fault. I lost my balance…”
Elena threw herself beside Sophia and hugged her, sobbing dramatically. “My poor daughter. Why are you still defending her after what she did to you?”
Victor’s face turned livid. He pointed at me, furious.
“Isabella! What have you done to your sister now?”
I stood there and watched their carefully staged little drama with cold eyes.
My gaze passed over my furious father, my hypocritical stepmother, and finally landed on Dominic.
He crouched beside Sophia and checked her wound. Then he lifted his head and looked at me.
The usual calm was gone from his dark eyes.
Only sharp suspicion remained.
In that instant, cold spread all the way into my bones.
He did not believe me either.
Of course he didn’t.
Sophia was the one he cared about. Why would he trust me?
I smiled.
The next second, I walked toward Sophia step by step. Under everyone’s shocked stare, I picked up a heavy ceramic flowerpot from beside the path and brought it down hard against the place Sophia had just injured.
Bang.
Sophia screamed even more miserably. Everyone gasped.
“Listen carefully.” I let the broken flowerpot fall from my hand. My voice was terrifyingly calm, and my eyes were as cold as poison. “I did not touch her before.”
“But I did just now.”
Everyone froze.
Including Dominic.
I dropped the remaining shards and turned to leave, but a brutal force closed around my wrist, hard enough to make my bones ache.
Dominic held me in place. His face was so dark it looked ready to storm.
He turned to Victor. His voice was ice.
“Mr. Moretti, if you can’t discipline your daughter, I won’t let this pass.”
Victor pitied Sophia and feared Dominic even more. He nodded at once.
“Don’t worry, Mr. Morello. I’ll teach this rebellious girl a lesson.”
He called for the family guards.
“Take her. Lock her in the side hall.”
“You dare!” I struggled and glared at my father.
Victor looked back at Dominic, eager to please. “Mr. Morello, perhaps we let her kneel and reflect. Would that be enough?”
Dominic held Sophia, whose forehead was still bleeding, and glanced at me coldly.
His thin lips parted.
“Too light.”
“I saw a riding crop hanging in the study. I assume it isn’t just for decoration.”
Then he carried Sophia away without looking back.
I stared at his retreating back in disbelief.
He had just suggested that Victor have me whipped.