The Princess Lives in a Truman World Chapter 06

The Princess Lives in a Truman World Chapter 06

I spent that time handling all the paperwork for Germany.

Once I knew the apartment was filled with hidden cameras, I avoided staying there whenever possible.

After everything was ready, I called Mom and asked her to come home and spend a few days with me before the scholarship finals.

The moment she returned, I apologized.

“Mom, I’m sorry. I only refused because I couldn’t bear to part with the last thing Grandma left me.”

“But I’ve thought it over. It’s a good thing you stole the bracelet to pay for your treatment. Otherwise, I might lose another person I love.”

I spoke with such apparent sincerity that her eyes reddened with emotion.

“Jewelry and diamonds could never matter as much as family,” I said.

Then I deliberately asked, “Mom, after the finals, can I see Aria? Since you’re sick, I’m sure you must want to see her too.”

Mom agreed without hesitation and patted my shoulder.

“Of course. Once the finals are over, I’ll take you to see your father and Aria.”

I forced a smile and pretended to be excited.

Then I brought out the soup I had prepared in the kitchen.

“You need to keep your strength up while you’re sick. I made this especially for you.”

Mom was deeply touched.

That evening, I served dinner and kept refilling her wineglass.

It did not take long for her to become drunk.

I placed a stack of documents in front of her.

“Mom, you’re sick. Those debt collectors can’t keep showing up and disrupting your recovery.”

“I don’t want you to suffer, so I’ve arranged to take responsibility for everything you owe. I’ll work and pay it back for you.”

“But first, we need to sign an agreement separating our finances and ending any obligations between us. Once you sign it, your creditors will come to me instead.”

The moment she heard that, Mom signed her name.

“Sofia, you’re such a wonderful daughter. Once I start making money again, I promise I’ll make all of this up to you.”

I smiled, nodded, and told her to rest and focus on getting better.

What Mom had signed was not merely a private agreement severing our financial ties.

Hidden among the pages were a promissory note and a personal guarantee for a two-million-dollar high-interest loan I had arranged in her name.

Her status as the Donna of the Corleone crime family carried enough weight for the loan sharks to approve it.

Early on the morning of the state merit-scholarship finals, I left the apartment with my backpack as usual. Nothing about my routine looked out of the ordinary on the livestream.

But I was not heading to the testing center.

I was going to the airport.

There was nothing in that apartment I wanted to take with me.

I snapped my SIM card in half and dropped it into a trash can.

My new life was about to begin.

Between the money I had earned at the restaurant, the scholarship funds my school had awarded me, and the two-million-dollar loan taken out in Mom’s name, I had enough to support myself in Germany for the rest of my life.

Two days earlier, Mom had asked which testing center I had been assigned to. I had casually given her the name of a random school.

I knew they planned to wait outside until the final testing session ended, then livestream the moment they picked me up to take me home.

Mom, Dad, and every viewer tuned in to the broadcast had been waiting for that day.

They wanted to see surprise, disbelief, and tears on my face.

Unfortunately for them, they would never get that moment.

By the time my plane landed in Germany, the final testing session was almost over.

I opened the livestream and found Mom, Dad, and Aria broadcasting from outside the school, exactly as I had expected.

Once again, the broadcast used a split screen.

One camera was trained on the school’s front entrance. The other showed the three of them surrounded by ten members of the Family assigned to protect them.

[Sofia will be out any minute! Start sending those gifts!]