Hate Me Then. Beg Me Now.

Luca left.

I kept walking toward the edge of the estate district. This area belonged to the old families of the East Coast, and at this hour, it was almost impossible to find a car.

Before I lost all feeling from the cold, a taxi finally accepted my request.

I was soaked through. The driver only agreed to let me in after I offered him a generous tip.

The moment I got into the car, a black sedan came from the opposite direction. I recognized the Colobo plate at once.

It was my brother’s car.

He had probably come to see for himself how pathetic I looked.

His car stopped beside us and flashed its headlights again and again. In the family, that was the signal to stop.

The driver glanced at me.

“Someone you know?”

I shook my head.

“No. Please go.”

The taxi pulled away.

Through the rain and the blurred window, I thought I saw my brother’s face. It was not mocking or disgusted. For a brief second, it looked worried, even panicked, as if he had lost something in the storm that he should never have let go.

I must have seen it wrong.

Why would he worry about me? The Colobo family’s eldest daughter was Sophia now.

What was I?

After the rain, I fell ill after all.

I spent two full days drifting in and out of fever at the hotel. I had to ask the front desk to buy medicine for me, and even then, I could barely stand on the day I left for the airport.

Before boarding, I received a message from Sophia.

It was a video.

In it, she was sitting in my old bedroom, the one with the large fireplace. The room faced the main house of the Colobo estate and had always belonged to the eldest daughter of the family.

Now it was hers.

A fire burned brightly in the fireplace. She posed in front of it, while behind her stood the luggage and jewelry boxes my father, my brother, and Luca had moved in for her. All three of them were smiling, as if they were preparing the room for an honored guest.

Sophia stood there watching, like the true mistress of the room.

Her caption read:

Isabella, your room is mine now. Aren’t you jealous? They didn’t just give me the room. They’re taking me to Switzerland to ski, too.

I smiled.

Then I replied:

Congratulations. You got what you wanted. Not just the room. The entire Colobo family will be yours from now on.

After sending it, I removed my SIM card, snapped it in half, and threw it into the airport trash can.

From that moment on, Isabella Colobo no longer existed.

I did not look back.

I boarded the flight to Australia.