Chapter 3

Hearing his words, I stared coldly at the little boy in front of me and said sharply, "I'm not a bitch. Your mother is."

"You're the bad one! You tried to steal my dad and now you're calling my mom a bitch!"

"I'll beat you up!"

He jutted his small chin up in the exact way his father did, then lunged at me, his little fists swinging toward my body.

I looked at the boy without a trace of emotion and pushed him away.

He fell to the marble floor and immediately burst into loud, pitiful cries that echoed off the walls of the compound.

Bianca's expression darkened. Without hesitation, she turned to the two soldiers standing at the door and snapped, "Hold her down."

At her command, the enforcers forced me to the floor, their hands like iron. Bianca crossed the room, her heels striking the stone in the silence, and slapped me twice across the face.

Pain stung my cheek, but I glared at her, unyielding.

"Adriana Falcone, let me tell you the truth. Salvatore and I are the ones truly in love."

"Do you really think he ever loved you?"

"You don't even know that the abduction was all a setup. Salvatore arranged it with the men who took you."

"He knew you would give up everything for him, so he used that. Do you know what he did after you paid to buy your freedom back? He took half of it for himself." She smoothed her dress down over her hip with both palms. "That blood-debt became the foundation of everything he holds today. His territory. His name."

Bianca looked at me with an icy smile and said coldly, "Because, at that time, I was already carrying Salvatore's child."

At those words, my expression darkened even further. I had not expected that all of it had been orchestrated by Salvatore's own hand.

So back then, every sweet word he whispered to me had been a complete lie.

"Adriana, you must've been passed around countless times in a place like that, no? I'd wager you're very good at serving men."

"Women like you are only fit to live like dogs."

As she looked at me and spat out those cruel words, a soldier set a shallow basin on the floor before me. The scrape of metal on stone was the only sound in the room.

I watched as she took out a bowl filled with dog food and poured it into the basin. Her voice was cold as ice. "People like you don't deserve real food. You only deserve this."

Then, without warning, she slapped me across the face again. Before I could react, she grabbed a fistful of the dog food and forced it into my mouth.

I struggled to spit it out, but she clamped her hand over my mouth, holding it shut, forcing me to swallow.

Bianca leaned close, her breath at my ear, and hissed, "Adriana, let me tell you something. Salvatore won't set foot in this house for two days. You'd better behave and stay right where you are."

"And as for food? This is all you're worthy of."

With that, she flung the rest of the dog food across me.

The little boy watched his mother press me to the floor and push handfuls of the stuff into my mouth. He burst out laughing, clapping his small hands with glee.

"Serves you right, bitch! You should eat dog food!"

He jutted his chin up again, that borrowed cruelty sitting badly on so small a face. "You're just a stray and no one loves you! And you still want to steal my dad from my mom?"

Still not satisfied, he ran up and stomped on my face with his little foot, then turned and walked off proudly, chin high.

Bianca looked down at me one last time and said mockingly, "What? Can't handle this?"

"You should be used to it by now, shouldn't you? In a place like that, serving men day in and day out. This is just your ordinary life, isn't it?"

"Hmph. Maybe they threw you out because you were too sick, and even they didn't want you anymore."

I glared at her, the fury burning behind my eyes, but she only smirked with satisfaction before turning on her heel and leaving the room. The lock turned behind her.

I knew then that Bianca would not be paying me any mind for a good while.