The Fake Heiress Who Tamed the Young Don Chapter 04

The Fake Heiress Who Tamed the Young Don Chapter 04

Costa had great skills and gave me a stylish short cut.

The ends landed just below my ears.

I could easily take care of it myself without Ricardo.

Costa shook loose the hair from the cape and said mysteriously, “This cut didn’t just take off your hair. It cut away your old troubles and unhappiness too.”

I looked at myself in the mirror for a while.

Then I looked at her and grinned.

Afterward, Marino took me out for tiramisu and a little limoncello.

When I got home, I washed up early and went to bed.

Half-awake, I heard my door make a soft sound.

But I had locked it before sleeping, so I turned over and fell asleep again.

In the middle of the night, I woke up thirsty.

Still half-asleep, I went downstairs to the tea room and poured some water.

I had just taken a sip when a voice sounded behind me.

“Talia Moretti, where is your hair?”

“Pfft, cough, cough…”

I spun around in terror.

The nightlight gave off a faint glow, revealing a tall black figure.

Ricardo’s entire face was hidden in shadow.

I couldn’t see his expression.

Listening to his heavy breathing in the air, I swallowed and couldn’t make a sound for a long time.

The figure approached, step by step, foot by foot, until there was no distance between us.

I instinctively backed away until my spine hit the cold wall.

The familiar scent of mint completely invaded my senses.

In panic, I pressed my hands against Ricardo’s body.

“I cut it.”

Ricardo lowered his eyes and picked up the ends of my short hair, his fingers trembling slightly.

“Why?”

He clearly hated me, yet he still had to pretend to care.

He must have been nauseated inside.

I turned my face away from his touch.

“It’s my hair. I cut it because I wanted to. It has nothing to do with you.”

“Nothing to do with me?”

Ricardo repeated the words, then gripped my chin and forced me to face him.

“I took care of it for years, and you’re telling me it has nothing to do with me? Talia Moretti, do you even have a heart?”

This was the first time Ricardo had ever gotten angry at me.

Those eyes, always cold and calm, were now red and furious, as if I had broken his heart.

But I knew it was all fake.

My chin ached, and tears welled up before I could stop them, blurring my vision.

“Ricardo Moretti, I hate you.”

After that night, Ricardo didn’t come home for half a month.

I consciously avoided disturbing him, but I still learned what he was doing through the comments’ mockery.

[Brother took the real princess to the library again. She’s a little clumsy, but he’s so patient with her. He even teaches her punctuation mark by punctuation mark without getting impatient at all.]

[If we’re talking about dumb, a certain fake heiress is the true idiot. She used to cling to him for tutoring every day, and it’s not like her grades got any better.]

Maybe Ricardo was too outstanding.

Maybe it was something else.

Since I was little, I had always been obsessed with following in his footsteps.

Elementary school, middle school, Liceo, and even college.

I had originally wanted to attend the same university as him.

Now, of course, I would never go right under his eyes and annoy him.

On the contrary, the farther away I stayed, the better.

The next day, the teacher said that in our final year at Liceo, we needed to fill out some family information forms, due Friday.

Before, I would have automatically thrown the forms to Ricardo and had him handle them.

This time, I called Mom and Dad first.

I learned that they had gone to Antarctica with an expedition team.

That made sense.

Ricardo had taken over many things in the family now, so they could slowly let go.

“Did your brother make our baby angry?”

Mom’s voice came through the phone in choppy bursts.

At the thought that the baby she talked about might not have been me after all, my eyes stung again.

“No. I just miss you.”

We talked a little longer, but I was afraid my voice would give me away, so I found an excuse to hang up.

I started thinking about how I would explain the situation to the teacher and decided to wait until my parents came back.

Friday arrived quickly.

Marino and I stood at the school gate, waiting while discussing a math problem.

The second we got the correct answer, I got excited and hugged him.

Marino laughed and scolded me, “Let go already. If someone sees us, they’ll think we’re dating.”

I snorted and released him.

“There’s no one here.”

Then I looked up and saw Ricardo standing directly ahead, his face dark as if he were desperately restraining some emotion.