He Broke Every Rule for Her, Except When It Came to Me Chapter 03

He Broke Every Rule for Her, Except When It Came to Me Chapter 03

The Vitale house required every visitor to be cleared in advance.

An hour passed. Nothing moved.

I called Damiano.

“Damiano, my grandparents are here, they—”

He cut me off before I finished.

“File through the proper channel. Don’t ask for special treatment.”

The line went dead.

Right then, the gate on the other side of the property swung wide open.

Bianca strolled in with a crowd of dressed-up friends, and the soldiers actually bowed their heads and waved her straight through.

Whispers rippled through the crowd behind her.

“Where’d those hicks come from?”

“That’s the Don’s wife’s family—dragging her poor relatives here to mooch off the estate, how embarrassing.”

Bianca sailed past me with a victorious little smile.

I clenched my fists and turned to the soldier.

“Why doesn’t she need clearance? Why can she come and go however she likes?”

“Mr. Vitale gave orders that Miss Rossi can bring anyone she likes onto the property, no clearance required.”

I couldn’t even fake a smile for my grandparents after that.

Under the blazing sun, two old people leaning on their canes, backs soaked through with sweat, utterly wrecked.

I swallowed the ache behind my eyes and called Damiano’s assistant instead.

After a maddening back-and-forth, the soldiers finally let them through.

The table was set with homemade jam bread, pot roast, a birthday cake.

Since marrying into this family, the rules had swallowed my life whole—I barely made it home to see them anymore.

And still they’d driven hours just to celebrate my birthday.

Tears dropped straight into my soup bowl. I kept my head down so they wouldn’t see.

After the meal, they didn’t want to overstay. Bags in hand, heading for the door—and then Bianca appeared from the hallway, feigning confusion.

“That’s strange. I just noticed the pendant Lady Sofia gave me is missing.”

“…Your grandparents didn’t accidentally take it, did they?”

My face went stone cold.

“Bianca. Are you accusing my family of theft?”

Damiano walked in from outside.

“What’s all the shouting?”

Bianca immediately teared up and told him her locket had gone missing.

He listened, glanced at me.

“If you have nothing to hide, submit to a search.”

“Damiano! You’d take her word over mine?”

My grandfather stepped in front of me, slamming his bag down on the floor.

“Search us! We’re poor, but we’ve never stolen a thing in our lives!”

Damiano waved a hand. Several of his men swarmed the bags—bread boxes, thermoses, everything dumped across the hallway floor.

They even pulled my grandfather’s jacket off him.

An eighty-something-year-old man, left shivering.

I thought of how gently Damiano had always treated Bianca’s mother, and something in my chest tightened.

“Do you have to humiliate my family like this?”

“It’s just procedure,” he said flatly. “Where’s the humiliation in that?”

Then one of his men shouted, “Found it! Right here!”

He pulled the gold pendant out of my grandfather’s inner coat pocket.

My grandfather’s lips trembled.

“That’s impossible… I never touched it…”

Bianca murmured, almost pleasant, “So it really was your grandfather…”

Damiano glanced at it once.

“Call the police.”

“Damiano, there’s no way my grandfather did this… check the security footage!” I grabbed his sleeve.

“The evidence is right there. Nothing more to discuss!”

He shook me off without a flicker of hesitation.

The police arrived quickly.

I looked at him one last time, some last thread of hope still clinging on.

“Damiano, my grandfather’s old, he can’t handle this kind of shock.”

“There has to be a mistake here. Just give me time to find out the truth…”

He cut me off, unmoved.

“There’s a punishment for wrongdoing. Follow the rules!”

Whatever was left of my feelings for him died right there. I gave a bitter little laugh.

“Following the rules? You’ve broken more rules for Bianca than I can count!”

Something flashed in his eyes, impatient.

“Your grandfather’s the one who did wrong. What does Bianca have to do with it?”

I said nothing else. I just looked at him and felt the last of the light in me go out.

The police took my grandfather away.

My grandmother sobbed, tried to run after the car, and was held back by security as it drove off.

She grabbed my arm so hard it hurt.

“Elena, what do we do? Your grandfather’s never done a dishonest thing in his whole life, he’s being framed!”

“He won’t even take a neighbor’s apple without paying for it. There’s no way he stole anything!”

My voice broke as I took her hand.

“Grandma, I promise you, I’ll find the truth. I’ll clear his name.”