The Godfather Was Too Proud to Love Me, So I Walked Away Chapter 04

The Godfather Was Too Proud to Love Me, So I Walked Away Chapter 04

Both women went stiff with embarrassment.

“Mr. Ferraro, we were just–”

Renzo cut them off. “And since when does anyone get to comment on who the Ferraro family marries?”

I looked at him. Every ounce of hurt I had been holding down all night suddenly rushed upward at once.

For one second, I wanted so badly to walk over and grab his arm like I always used to.

To tell him.

They were talking about me.

They were being mean to me.

But across the room, Serena called out. “Renzo.”

He turned.

That tiny thing that had just surfaced in my chest slowly sank back down.

A few days later, I was sorting through paperwork for my move overseas when the Richard Mille boutique called.

“Miss Vitale, the custom watch you ordered is finished. Would today work for pickup?”

I had been so busy I almost forgot.

Renzo’s birthday was coming up.

When I picked up the watch, the engraving on the caseback practically burned my eyes.

“Renzo Ferraro belongs to Odette Vitale. Valid for life.”

I had designed this watch myself. The plan was to give it to him on his birthday and finally confess.

We had been dancing around each other for years, both knowing and neither saying.

Back then, it had felt unbearably sweet.

Now it just felt unbearably stupid.

[Here we go, the fake heiress is going to use the birthday gift to suck up to the male lead]

[She spent all that time on this watch for nothing. The male lead doesn’t even like her.]

[Later she tries to use this gift to win him back. Dead.]

I closed the lid.

“Destroy it, please.”

The sales associate blinked. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.”

[WHAT. Did she just say destroy it?!]

[That thing cost almost a million dollars!]

[She’s bluffing. I’ll count to three. She’ll come back.]

Three.

Two.

One.

Nobody came back.

On Renzo’s birthday, the private club was packed.

Serena gave him a set of limited-edition cufflinks.

Cufflinks. A little intimate.

People around them started teasing. The way Serena looked at Renzo was shy and hopeful.

Renzo didn’t react.

He kept glancing at me, awkward, like he was waiting for something.

I handed over my gift. “Happy birthday, idiot. You’re officially one year older.”

Renzo unwrapped it. When he saw it was a pen, his face went dark.

“Where’s the watch?”

I squirmed under his gaze. He had seen my design sketches.

“What’s wrong with a pen? Not good enough for you?”

Renzo dropped the pen back in its box.

He didn’t speak to me for the rest of the party.

Near the end, his house manager reminded him to head home early. There was a family dinner waiting for him.

I instinctively picked up my bag.

It was habit.

Every year on Renzo’s birthday, the Ferraro family held a private dinner in his honor. Strictly family only.

But I had always been there. Nineteen years running.

Then Renzo spoke. “Serena, why don’t you come with me tonight?”

The entire room went quiet for a beat.

Serena was clearly surprised.

“Me? But your family dinner—hasn’t it always been just Odette?”

“Let’s go.” Renzo said this while looking directly at me.

[The fake heiress is going to EXPLODE. That dinner is basically a symbol of being Ferraro family. Swapping her out is a public humiliation.]

[The male lead is stripping away all her privileges. She’s going to panic.]

My hand did tighten around the strap of my bag.

For a long moment.

Then I let go.

If before I had been pushed out of his world, this was the moment I chose to walk away from it.

He didn’t choose me.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and smiled, easy and light. “Then I’ll head out first.”

Renzo’s face went completely rigid. Something close to panic flickered through his usually composed eyes.

“Wait–”

He opened his mouth to say something, but I was already out the door.

Outside the club, a friend caught up to me.

“Odette.”

His expression was complicated.

“This might sound harsh, but everyone knows now that you’re not really a Vitale. You should probably hold on tight to Renzo while you still can.”

“Thanks, but I already have legs. I can stand by myself.”

My driver was waiting. As I slid into the backseat, my phone lit up with a text.

[Visa approved.]

I stared at those two words for a long time.

The tightness in my chest slowly loosened, just a little.

At least I had somewhere else to go.

Back at the Vitale estate, I started packing.

At eleven that night, Serena knocked on my door, arms full of gifts.

“Odette, the Ferraro family gave me so many things tonight. I wanted to say—these were supposed to be yours…”

She was showing off.

And this time, she wasn’t even subtle about it.

I expected to feel bitter. Instead, I felt strangely calm.

“They gave them to you, so they’re yours.”

“Good night.”

I couldn’t close that door fast enough.

After everyone was asleep, I quietly dragged my luggage downstairs.

At the edge of the Vitale estate, I turned around one last time and looked at the house I had lived in for over twenty years.

Then I walked away without looking back.