Black Opal’s Three Tests of True Love Chapter 02

Dawn had broken by the time I made it back to the Upper East Side penthouse.

Leandro was heading down the stairs. The moment he spotted me, he closed the distance and tilted his head to study my face.

“Why are your eyes so swollen?”

He reached out to touch my eyelids with his warm palm, but I flinched away.

“It’s nothing. Stayed up all night talking with my friend.”

His hand hung suspended in the air. He gently guided me toward the dining table, then turned toward the stove.

“Give me a few minutes, breakfast is almost ready. What happened with her?”

I stared blankly at his back as he fried the eggs.

“Her boyfriend found out she’d been lying to him the whole time, so they broke up.”

His hands paused slightly.

“Not all lies are malicious. You can’t lump everything together the same way.”

“Is that so?”

I let out a faint smile, glancing down at his phone resting on the counter.

A preview popped up on the screen.

[Leandro, it’s been three years. Look at all the gifts she’s taken from you. It proves Odessa only ever cared about the Voss family’s money.]

[Meet me. I miss you.]

I stared at those two lines for what felt like an eternity.

Then I looked away, completely unfazed, as if I hadn’t seen a thing.

A moment later, Leandro walked over holding a plate of fried eggs. His eyes caught the notification.

“Odessa, something urgent came up at the firm. I need to head out.”

“If you want anything, just put it on my black card.”

I nodded quietly.

The front door clicked shut, plunging the penthouse back into dead silence.

Three years ago, I met Leandro while waitressing at a bar. A brawl broke out that night, and he stepped in with his security detail to pull me out of harm’s way. He pursued me aggressively after that, and I fell hard and fast.

He often gave me money, and I used most of it to buy Mom nutritional drinks and help cover Alaric’s expenses.

Looking back now, it was nothing short of a grotesque joke.

I scraped the eggs into the trash can, then walked straight into the walk-in closet.

Inside, luxury items Leandro had gifted me over the years were meticulously organized: Hermès Birkins, diamond necklaces, couture gowns, and cases of high jewelry.

I used to marvel at how stunning they were, snapping photos to share on social media. In those pictures, draped in designer clothes and dripping in diamonds, I looked like an authentic, pampered heiress.

Every time Leandro saw those posts, he’d smile and buy me more.

I never told him that curating that persona was just an attempt to court venture capital for my family. I genuinely thought we were drowning in debt, and that presenting a polished front was my only ticket to networking with Wall Street investors.

The other reason was that I couldn’t bear to sell his gifts. I kept telling myself that once I earned enough, I’d return every single one, so I could stand beside him as an equal rather than a charity case.

Turns out, every luxury was just another test to see if I was a gold-digger.

And discovering that he and Alaric had known each other all along—that they had plotted the whole thing—demolished whatever love I had left for him.

It felt like the foundation of everything I’d believed had crumbled right out from under me.

I couldn’t tell which of his tender moments had ever been real.

Returning every gift was the only way to pass his test?

I let out a dry laugh.

I didn’t want to marry him anymore.

And I didn’t give a damn about these trinkets.

All those nights breaking my back, driving late-night rideshares just to give my family a decent life.

All of it had been built on a lie.

Why keep saving? Who was I even breaking myself for?

I boxed up everything in the closet, then called a local junk removal service.

The junk collector eyed the designer handbags and velvet jewelry cases, hesitating.

“Miss, these look wildly expensive. You sure you don’t want to take them to a luxury consignment shop on Madison Avenue?”

I nodded without blinking.

“Just haul it away as scrap.”

To me, they were nothing more than worthless trash.

Pocketing the two hundred dollars in cash he handed me, I watched him happily load the boxes into his van.

Then I turned around and locked the empty closet.

Right on cue, my phone rang. It was my mother.

Her voice sounded as weak and frail as ever, mimicking an invalid clinging to life.

“Odessa, why haven’t you come by today? Mom really misses those imported nutritional boosters you brought last time.”

Back then, whenever Leandro gifted me expensive supplements, I didn’t touch a drop myself, saving every bottle for her.

Did they sit around mocking me as a pathetic gold-digger who couldn’t even afford her own vitamins, while patting themselves on the back for raising an obedient, gullible fool?

“I’m on my way.”

The Moretti matriarch had spent years pretending to be bedridden. She deserved an Oscar.

I drove over to the hospital and stopped right outside her private suite.

Her voice drifted out from the crack in the door.

“Alaric, I’m sick of lying in this hospital bed. Shouldn’t this test be over by now? Your sister has been devoted enough.”

Alaric looked down and nodded.

“She’s been remarkably sensible. Odessa’s birthday is the day after tomorrow. I plan to break the news then and let her know she’s a daughter of the Moretti bloodline.”

Mom frowned slightly.

“How are you going to explain your father coming back from the dead?”

Right then, a voice that was supposed to have been buried underground for a full year chimed in.

“Exactly. If I suddenly show up on her birthday, won’t the girl be scared out of her mind?”

Hearing that familiar voice, my heart didn’t even skip a beat. There was only a vast, hollow numbness.

Alaric paused, considering it.

“We’ll tell her the truth. Odessa has endured plenty of hardship over the years.”

“She’s a reasonable girl. She’ll understand.”

A warm smile returned to Mom’s face.

“Good. That way, she won’t have to keep taking money from Leandro either.”

Reasonable?

Yeah, I suppose I was very reasonable.

I endured their games for five miserable years, and I was finally done.

The corner of my mouth twitched as I tossed the imported supplements into the hallway trash bin.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

A friend had sent an image.

[Odessa, isn’t that Leandro? Who the hell is the girl kissing his cheek?]