No Longer Your Rose Chapter 04

No Longer Your Rose Chapter 04

I was woken by urgent knocking in the early hours before dawn.

Theo stood outside my door with Santoro bodyguards behind him. His eyes were bloodshot and his voice was hoarse. “Isabella, Sophia’s in serious trouble. She was driving and hit someone. They’re dead.”

I leaned against the doorframe and looked at him in silence.

“The victim’s family has already gone to the police. Sophia can’t go to prison. She’s carrying my child.”

“And what do you want from me?”

He took a deep breath. “Take the rap and plead guilty. Your sentence’ll be short; I’ve got connections to cut your time short.”

I looked at him and laughed.

This was the same man who had sworn to love me forever and promised he would never hurt me.

“What if I refuse?”

Theo dropped his gaze and stayed quiet for a long moment.

“Your foster folks are getting up there in age. Accidents can happen out of nowhere, you know.”

“Theo, you…”

On what was supposed to be my wedding day, I went to prison in Sophia’s place.

On my first day inside, an inmate grabbed my jaw. “Miss Sophia sends her regards. She says to make sure you never play piano again.”

They pried each of my fingers open one by one before crushing them flat.

From that day on, the hands that had once danced across black-and-white keys and won international awards could no longer grip anything tightly.

Time slipped by. Five years had passed.

I huffed out a long sigh and glanced at the three people standing in front of my barbecue shop.

“My shack’s closed for business. I’m gonna ask the three of you to leave.”

Then I turned and walked away.

Sophia dropped to her knees with a heavy thump.

“I owe you everything, Isabella. You can hit me, scream at me—I deserve every bit of it.”

“Valentina’s health has gotten worse since you went away. Won’t you come back and see her, just once?”

I stopped but didn’t turn around.

“I guess what goes around comes around for her.”

I remembered the day I first came back to the Santoro family. Valentina had put her arm around both Sophia and me and smiled, saying we were both her daughters.

But she had never truly loved me. She had always favored Sophia.

Dario roared from behind me. “Isabella, are you completely heartless?”

My heart had died five years ago.

I didn’t look back. I walked home.

The framed portraits of my adoptive parents hung side by side on the wall. I set a fresh bouquet of flowers before them and stood in silence.

I unfolded my adoptive mother’s final personal note for me.

[Isabella, I’m gone now. You have to live well. Don’t be afraid. I’ll watch over you from heaven.]

Tears fell onto the paper and made the ink run.

“I’ll be okay, Mom. I promise.”