Chapter 193 You Think He Forced Me?

Chapter 193 You Think He Forced Me?
SANCIA

“I know you took him from me.” She spat the words angrily. “You were so fucking jealous seeing me happy that you killed him. Does the idea of someone choosing me over you bother you so much that you’ll take him from me?”

I shake my head. “I didn’t do it to hurt you; I was only protecting myself,” I replied. “Orazio was a piece of shit. And what the hell are you talking about? I never liked him. He tried to force himself on me, Isabella. If Antonio hadn’t arrived at the right moment, he would have succeeded.”

Isabella laughed humorlessly. “Did you know I was pregnant when Orazio died?”

“What?” I gasped, shocked.

“We were going to get married, and no one would have found out what we did because the baby was his. But when Orazio died, Mama found out I’d dishonored myself, as she’d call it. Then, with Zia Francesca’s help, I was sent to the US, where I was forced to abort my baby because we were afraid Papa would find out and punish me.”

“I…I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t.” Her voice dripped with bitterness. “Do you know part of the reason I was afraid of getting married to Lorenzo back then was because I was afraid he was going to find out and make my life hell?”

She smiled sadly. “But when I saw him, it was love at first sight. I begged Mama to talk to Papa, that I’ve changed my mind, but even she wouldn’t help me. Instead, she made me promise never to talk about Lorenzo ever again and ruined your marriage, even though she knew you didn’t love him.”

Her expression hardened. “But I did.”

Isabella grew angrier the more she spoke.

“Do you know what it feels like to be a second-class citizen in your own home?” She laughed humorlessly. “Of course you don’t. You’re Sancia, Papa’s beloved daughter, Don Carmello’s favorite child, loved by everyone. You get everything while I strive so hard to be the perfect daughter, and yet no one cares, not Papa or Antonio or even Lorenzo.”

“I don’t know what world you were living in your head. But You’re fucking crazy if you think my life was perfect, because it wasn’t. No one had an easy life in the famiglia, Isabella,” I replied.

I nod my head. “I’ll admit, to an extent, that my life was better than most. But because I was Papa’s favorite, as you said, I had more restrictions. You were allowed to go out, visit relatives, go to school, even make friends. The only friends I had were you, Sergio, and our cousins.”

I paused, swallowing hard. “And don’t forget that you had Mama. If I was Papa’s favorite, then you were Mama’s. By that logic, Sergio should hate us both because he never had Mama’s love or Papa’s care.”

“It’s not fucking the same!” she shouted.

“You get the best of everything. Every. Fucking. Things. Even when it comes to marriage, Papa chose the best for you. First it was Antonio, his most promising soldier, whom he intended to promote to an enforcer, and then later it was Lorenzo. The only time I got a man who chose me over you, a man I love, you took him from me.”

I had never known Isabella’s feelings toward me ran this deep or were this twisted.

“What’s worse is that I genuinely love Lorenzo. And would have left everything to be with him, but he didn’t want me; same with Antonio.”

Her jaw tightened. “So I made a decision. Why should you get everything? Why should you be living happily while I’m miserable? I wanted you to feel what I felt when Orazio died; I wanted you to lose everything.”

“You’re fucking sick. You keep talking about Orazio as though he was a great person. Isabella, he mistreated you. He didn’t love you.”

“That’s a lie. Orazio loved me.”

She shook her head. “Sure, he could be a bit intense sometimes. You think I didn’t know who he was? Of course I knew. But he was the only one who thought I was better than you in every single way.”

Her eyes gleamed with something that looked almost like pride. “He told me I was beautiful. He told me I was the best woman in the world when I gave him my virginity on the night of our engagement. We were happy and in love until you ruined everything.”

“My God, you were seventeen at the time, Isabella.” My voice cracked with disbelief. “That was rape. What Orazio did was wrong. He took advantage of you. You should have told Mama about it at the time.”

“Shut the fuck up. You know nothing. I was almost eighteen, and it was my body to give.”

Her expression twisted with anger. “You think he forced me? No. I wanted everything he did to me. I wanted the feeling I got when he called me smart, and when he told me I was more beautiful than you; I felt powerful.”

She smiled, but there was something broken in it. “I didn’t even mind the pain that first time, because, for once, a man had chosen me over you.”

And in that instant I understood Isabella wasn’t just sick; she was broken. She was like this fine china doll, so perfect but with webs of cracks we never noticed until it shattered.

“Isabella, I can’t tell you how sorry I am for what you’ve gone through, but I am. That, however, doesn’t excuse what you did, and it’s not reason enough for you to ruin my life and yours out of spite.”

I took a shaky breath, forcing myself to keep my voice calm. “What you see as love and favoritism, I’ve always seen as indulgence and a shackle. Because while you were free to live and do whatever you wanted, I was caged and miserable.”

Her expression faltered, but I continued. “Don’t forget, the only freedom I ever tasted was because of you. Papa let me go to the movies, restaurant, and the beach because you were there. He let me study in the States because you were there, so he gave you more trust and freedom than he ever gave me, his beloved daughter.”

I swallowed hard, feeling the weight of all the years I had spent trying to explain this to people who never lived my life or knew what it was to live as Don Carmello’s favorite daughter.

“For you, the freedom he gave you was indifference. But for me, his love was nothing short of a prison.”

For a moment, we just stared at each other. We were products of the same environments, but different upbringings.

We were shaped by our experiences and our parents. While I understood where she was coming from, it doesn't excuse everything she did.

Those were her choices, and now she gets to live with them. I can't forgive her for her part in Papa's death, but her death will never bring him back to me.