The Heiress You Threw Away Chapter 04

The Heiress You Threw Away Chapter 04

I went back to the D’Amato estate and started packing.

There wasn’t much to take. I only wanted the things my mother left behind.

Her diary. Her photos. And that silver pendant shaped like a tiny magnolia flower.

She’d been clutching it when she died. She told me it was from my grandmother. It was the only thing she had to give me.

But when I opened the drawer, it was empty.

I fought down the panic. I tore my room apart. Nothing.

I ran and asked the maid. She stammered. “Luca went into your room this afternoon.”

I stormed downstairs. There was a small reception happening in the living room. The D’Amato Family’s foster daughter, Sophia, had just come back from abroad.

She was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded by people. Around her neck—my mother’s pendant.

A roaring sound filled my head. I charged straight at her. “That necklace is mine. Give it back.”

Sophia touched her neck. She put on an innocent expression. “But Luca gave this to me. A welcome-home gift.”

I turned to Luca. “That was my mother’s. What gives you the right to take it?”

Luca’s face was cold. “You live in the D’Amato house. You eat the D’Amato Family’s food. You wear the D’Amato Family’s clothes. Doesn’t everything you have belong to the D’Amato Family?”

My hands clenched into fists. “Anything else. But not this.”

Sophia gently tugged on Luca’s sleeve. “Don’t fight because of me. I’ll give it back to her.”

She walked up to me. Then she lowered her voice so only I could hear. “Elena, you’re so pathetic. Your mother’s dead. Your father hates you. Luca despises you. And now even Dante’s tossed you aside like a used rag.”

She flashed me a brilliant smile. “You want it? Kneel. Beg me properly.”

The silver blossom swayed at her collarbone. The only thing my mother had ever left me.

I closed my eyes. With everyone watching, I slowly bent my knees. “Please. Give it back.”

Low murmurs rippled through the room. Luca’s expression flickered.

Dante had shown up at some point too. He stood in the doorway, watching me with an unreadable look.

Sophia smiled. She took off the pendant and held it out to me.

I reached for it. She let it drop.

The pendant hit the floor. The thin silver chain snapped. The magnolia flower charm rolled to Luca’s feet.

Sophia gasped. “Oh no. I didn’t mean to.”

Smack.

The last thread of my sanity snapped. I lunged at her and slapped her across the face with everything I had. “I’ll kill you!”

Sophia clutched her cheek. Tears streamed down instantly. “Elena, why would you—I just slipped.”

“You’ve lost your mind!” Luca’s face twisted. He shoved me back hard.

I crashed into the corner of a table. My vision blurred. Through the haze, I saw everyone rush toward Sophia. Dante too.

I crawled across the floor. I tried to pick up the necklace. A second later, Luca’s shoe came down on my hand. Pain tore through me. I gasped.

His voice was ice. “A dead woman’s trinket is worth all this drama? Let’s see what happens when I break it.”

Then he stomped down on the already shattered pendant. It was destroyed. Completely.

“No!” I lunged for it. Two guards held me back.

“Let her kneel,” Luca ordered. “She doesn’t get up until she apologizes.”

My knees slammed against the marble floor. The fragments bit into my palms. Blood smeared across the stone.

Dante’s gaze flickered. He said quietly, “That’s enough, Luca.”

Luca raised an eyebrow. “Now you’re feeling sorry for her? I thought you said she was a filthy slut.”

Sophia swayed suddenly. She collapsed against Luca. “I feel dizzy.”

Luca caught her immediately. Dante moved in to help.

As they left, Luca looked back over his shoulder. “If anything happens to Sophia, you’re finished.”

I watched them go. My heart turned to ash.

At two in the morning, I got up off the floor. I dragged my suitcase out of the silent hall.

Elias’s car was waiting at the entrance. He helped me load my luggage without a single word.

Before the car pulled away, I looked back at the brightly lit mansion one last time.

Goodbye, Luca.

Goodbye, Dante.

At that same moment, in a private hospital room, Sophia leaned back against her pillows.

She scrolled through her phone. Then she laughed out loud. “Luca, Don Dante, you’re both so good to me. You actually chased Elena away.”

As soon as she said it, both men’s faces drained of color.