They Never Loved Me. Now I Don’t Remember Them. Chapter 04

I immediately reached for the money.

“I earned that myself.”

“Give it back. I need it for college.”

Bianca lifted her hand out of reach.

“Money you stole? You think I’m giving it back?”

I grabbed for it.

We grappled with each other.

Then I heard footsteps outside the room.

“Isabella,” Matteo called. “We need to talk.”

Before I could answer, Bianca suddenly let go.

She stumbled backward and fell straight onto the broken pieces of my coin bank.

Blood appeared almost instantly.

She screamed.

“Isabella! Why did you push me?”

I froze.

I looked at Bianca on the floor.

Then I looked at Matteo standing in the doorway.

For a second, I couldn’t understand what had just happened.

Matteo rushed to Bianca and pressed a hand over the bleeding cuts.

Then he looked at me.

There was hatred in his eyes.

Mom and Dad came running at the sound of Bianca crying.

They barely even asked what happened before turning on me.

Mom slapped me.

Dad kicked me hard enough to knock me down.

“You steal money, and now you’re hurting Bianca too?”

“We should never have brought you back! You should have been killed by your kidnappers and left to die out there!”

They kept hitting me until I could barely move.

Everything hurt.

I was starting to lose consciousness when a pair of shoes stopped in front of me.

Matteo reached down and pulled me up.

“That’s enough,” he told my parents.

His voice was almost gentle.

“Isabella probably didn’t mean for it to go this far.”

“I’ll take her out for a drive. Maybe we can talk and clear things up.”

I looked at him gratefully.

I wanted to thank him for stopping them.

I wanted to tell him I really hadn’t pushed Bianca.

But when I looked into his eyes, I froze.

There was nothing gentle in them.

Only disgust.

He hated me.

Matteo led me downstairs.

As we passed the sitting room, Bianca was lying on the couch while Dr. Mercer, our private family physician, cleaned and bandaged her wounds.

She caught my eye.

Then she smiled.

And she silently mouthed,

“Bye.”

The sky outside was almost black.

A storm was coming.

Matteo drove so fast that I had to hold tightly to the seat belt.

I tried to explain what had happened, but he wouldn’t listen.

He kept driving until we reached the Cinder District.

I didn’t recognize the streets.

Rain had already started to fall.

Finally, Matteo pulled over.

“Isabella, grab something from the trunk.”

I obediently got out.

Cold raindrops struck my skin as I walked toward the back of the car.

Click.

The doors locked.

I turned around.

Matteo lowered the window.

There was a cruel smile on his face.

“Honestly, when you agreed to break off the engagement, I almost felt sorry for you.”

“But the second you got home, you went after Bianca again.”

He looked at me with open disgust.

“You really don’t know when to stop.”

“Stay here and think about what you’ve done.”

Then he hit the gas.

The car disappeared down the street.

A second later, the rain came pouring down.

I stood there alone.

And I suddenly understood what Bianca had meant when she said goodbye.

I think—

I’d been thrown away.