The moment the screen lit up, her expression softened.
There was even a hint of a smile. That smile, I'd never seen before.
"Not my daughter," she said casually, as if correcting a trivial mistake. "She's my niece."
"She's waiting for me at the manor for dinner."
With that, she turned and left.
Even her footsteps were lighter than before.
Like…impatient.
I stood there.
Suddenly, I felt a chill.
Dominic didn't move.
He took a cigarette from his pocket, slowly twirling it between his fingers, but didn't light it.
He muttered something under his breath.
"Niece…"
"She comes to the manor often."
"But her biological daughter…I've never seen her even once."
He paused.
As if suddenly realizing something.
But he didn't continue thinking about it.
I looked at him.
Suddenly, I found it ridiculous.
This question.
I've asked myself countless times.
Unfortunately.
I died before I could find the answer.
I've been missing for a full week.
In the Ferraro family, this means one thing:
I've been implicitly considered "disposed of."
The irony is:
No one in the entire manor has mentioned me.
It's as if I never existed.
The first person to "discover" my disappearance was Serafina.
She stood in the center of the main hall, her white dress so pristine it seemed otherworldly.
Delicate, harmless, perfect.
"Aunt Gianna..." her voice was soft, as if it would dissipate in a breeze, "Valentina hasn't returned for several days... Do you think something might have happened to her?"
As she spoke, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
The movement was clean, restrained, and perfectly timed.
As if meticulously rehearsed countless times.
My mother looked at her.
At that moment, her expression held a tenderness I had never seen before.
“Ignore her,” she said indifferently. “That heartless person didn’t even come to your initiation ceremony.”
“She’s probably out fooling around again.”
She reached out and straightened Serafina’s collar.
The gesture was painfully intimate.
“I’ll always be with you.”
“Just like your mother entrusted me with this before she died.”
Seraphina’s eyes instantly reddened.
She threw herself into my mother’s arms, her voice trembling.
“I knew…you’re the best person for me.”
My mother hugged her.
For a moment, her movements even carried a kind of… cautious tenderness.
“You are my most beloved child.”
She said.
Word by word.
Without the slightest hesitation.
I stood beside her.