Chapter 2

The moment the words left my mouth, Salvatore's expression froze. Bianca pointed at me, tears pouring down her face all at once.

"Dinah, Lorenzo died because he was going to find you. You won't even agree to this one request?"

Salvatore's eyes reddened. "When Lorenzo was alive, aside from handling family affairs, he gave you all his time and every asset he had. He even hired a nanny because he was afraid you would work too hard. He personally cooked the food you liked. In what way did he ever wrong you?"

"You've been married for five years and your belly has shown no sign of life. Now you won't even adopt a child?"

"We've already lost our son. Are we not even allowed to keep one last reminder of him?"

Tears shimmered in his eyes as his gaze swept over Rosalie almost imperceptibly.

Rosalie gritted her teeth and viciously pinched the child in her arms. The baby instantly threw back his head and cried until his face turned bluish-purple.

"Dinah! This child became an orphan at such a young age. If you refuse to raise him, you're sending him to his death!"

Her tears fell in streams.

"Before Lorenzo died, he specifically told you to take good care of this child. Do you want him to die unable to rest?"

"This is all your fault!" Bianca lost her mind, lunging at me and beating me with both fists.

"If you hadn't been lazy and slept until noon, why would he have rushed home to cook for you? Why would he have fallen into an ambush? Why would he have lost his life?"

"You killed my son, and now you want to throw away the Moretti family's only heir. You might as well kill me!"

She collapsed on the floor sobbing. Even the family members around us could no longer watch in silence.

"Godmother, the Don left so suddenly, but since he asked you to take care of this child, please accept him. It is not as though the Moretti family cannot afford one child."

"That's right. The Don treated you so well. Don't break his heart."

"And with the old Don and old Godmother helping, the child will survive somehow."

Everyone envied me for having such a husband, but they had no idea what the truth was.

On the surface, Lorenzo was the strategist Don outside and the attentive, capable husband at home.

In reality, I handled the Moretti family's affairs behind the scenes while he merely announced the results to everyone at meetings. Otherwise, after he "died" in my previous life, I could never have held the entire family together.

His so-called tenderness was an illusion too.

He could not cook at all. He did not even know I was allergic to milk. Every time he brought me a glass of it, all I could do was stare at it in silence.

Thinking of all the grievances from the past, I was so furious I blurted out, "That child is a bastard to begin with. He is Lorenzo and--"

Before I could finish, Bianca slapped me across the face.

Then she pulled out an adoption agreement and smacked it onto the table.

"Lorenzo is dead. Whether you want to or not, this child must stay, and you must take good care of him!"

"This was Lorenzo's dying wish, and it is what you owe the Moretti family!"

One glance showed me that my name had already been signed on the adoption agreement. All that remained was for me to press down my fingerprint.

My mind exploded with a buzz.

"What gives you the right to sign for me?"

I screamed and lunged forward, trying to tear the agreement to pieces, but Salvatore yanked me away. My forehead slammed hard against the coffin.

"You will sign this agreement whether you want to or not!" he shouted, pointing at me.

"For all these years, Lorenzo loved you more than he loved himself. He spoiled you rotten. What right do you have to kill Lorenzo and then leave the Moretti family without an heir?"

"Ungrateful wretch! You have no conscience at all! If I had known, I never would have let Lorenzo marry you back then!"

The pain in my forehead and the noise around me made my nerves ring.

Then I heard a soft laugh from inside the coffin.

It was Lorenzo.

He was laughing at me because I could not break free of this damned fate. I could only follow his script toward death.

My chest felt so tight it might burst.

Then I caught sight of Bianca taking the child from Rosalie. She rubbed her cheek tenderly against the child's face and murmured.

"...Don't be afraid. I'll find you good bone marrow..."

Those words struck the crown of my head like a thunderbolt.

Blood dripped from my forehead as I stared hard at Bianca.

Lorenzo had supposedly found the child only the day before yesterday. This should have been their first meeting.

How did she know the child was ill? How did she know he needed a bone marrow transplant?

So Lorenzo's fake death had been known to them from the beginning.

The Moretti family and Rosalie wanted to use this funeral to turn me into that bastard's blood bank.