Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Annalisa 

Surely, they must've noticed my presence but their lips remained locked in a passionate kiss for like forever as if I didn't even exist. My heart clenched in my chest painfully, and for a brief moment, I couldn't move. But then the anger in me bubbled over, forcing me forward.

“Bianca!” I yelled when I couldn't endure the sickening sound of their kiss anymore. They ignored my confrontation, Giovanni’s hands on her waist tightened instead as if claiming her right in front of me. “Bianca!” I yelled again, feeling so furious as I lunged forward and tried to separate them. But my hands barely made an impact against their entangled body.

Finally, Bianca peeled herself away from Giovanni with a smirk at a corner of her lips. “Oh, Annalisa,” her voice had this fake sweetness that infuriated me even more. All I wanted to do was hit her at that moment, but I controlled myself.

“What are you doing here?” She asked.

“You set me up with someone in that room, didn’t you?” My voice came out shaky, but I kept my eyes locked on hers. “You were behind all of it—the scandal, everything. You did this to ruin me.” It was really difficult to finally come to accept the fact.

Bianca’s smirk widened and her hazel eyes sparkled with cold amusement. “And if I did?” she replied, stepping down from Giovanni and walking toward me. “What are you going to do about it?”

I could feel the tears behind my eyes, burning to be released, but I swallowed them back. I wasn’t going to cry in front of her. No, not this time. “How could you?” I whispered. “I trusted you. You were supposed to be my friend, my only friend.”

Her expression didn’t change. She simply shrugged, as though her betrayal meant nothing. “You were never important, Annalisa. And now? Now you’re still nothing to me.” Her words stung more than I had expected.

“You should burn in hell, Bianca!” I raised my voice in pain but she didn't reply. She raised her hand and slapped me hard across the face instead.

The sharp sting from the slap made me even want to burst into tears, but I bit my lip to keep myself from crying out. Giovanni was standing by, his black eyes looking down on me with an indifferent expression. He didn’t care. None of them cared. Bianca turned away from me as if I no longer existed and went ahead to lean on Giovanni’s chest again. My heart broke a little more.

“Get out,” Giovanni finally said in a very cold voice. “I don't want to see you anymore.”

I didn't bother fighting back again. There was no use. Without another word, I turned around and left.

******

“...because of this, I am announcing to everyone that Annalisa is no longer my child.” My father stood tall in front of the podium, answering questions from the eager press. His face was emotionless as he announced to the world that he would no longer be associated with me.

I didn't want to come to the press conference, but there was this foolish part of me that had hoped that, if I begged him one last time, he might change his mind. Maybe if our eyes met, if he saw me, if I spoke to him, he would reconsider letting go of me. But standing there now, watching him dismiss me so easily, I knew there was no point. He was already too far gone.

My heart felt heavy, but I was too tired to cry anymore. I had been doing that for the past two days yet the tears never solved anything. This was it. My life was over. My father had disowned me, my career was in ruins, and there was nothing left for me. I had lost everything.

I didn't quickly notice when the crowd of reporters fell silent as their attention shifted toward something—no, someone else. “If anyone should be blamed, then it should be me,” It wasn’t until a deep, deadly familiar voice cut through the noise that I turned to see who it was.

I blinked in surprise as my heart skipped a beat. W-who…?

Reporters scrambled around to get the picture angle of the man walking through the crowd. But despite their desperation, none of the reporters dared to move closer to him. His tall and commanding figure was imposing as he walked down the pathway until he stopped at the middle. His black hair gleamed under the bright lights, and his sharp, gray eyes scanned the room with calm confidence until he finally stopped at me. 

I found it really difficult to breathe as I recognized the man a few feets away. It was… it was Cristiano Morano.

That name alone was enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine. Cristiano was well known as the ruthless man who controlled more than half of Milan’s underworld. He was feared by most and respected by all. But why… Why was he here?

The reporters swarmed around him, firing questions from left and right. “What do you mean?” One of them asked. “What are you saying?” Another fired.

Cristiano smirked, slipping his hands into his pockets. “I was the one with her that night. So what?”

The crowd gasped, whispers filled the hall and I felt the world around me shake. My eyes widened so much that I feared they might fall out of the sockets. I couldn’t breathe. He was the one? The man I had spent the night with was Cristiano Morano?

“So if there's anyone to blame, it should be me,” he repeated in a very calm and unapologetic voice.

I was still in shock and I was really struggling within myself to make sense of what he had just said. Why would someone like Cristiano—someone as powerful and dangerous as him—come to defend me? And how did I not realize it was him that night?

There were a lot of questions playing in my mind, but as Cristiano walked over to me, they all flew out of my head. His piercing gray eyes were locked with mine the entire time until he stopped in front of me. 

“Mr. Morano, I think you have the wrong person. This is my daughter—” My father wanted to step down from the podium but Cristiano raised his hands to stop not only my father from moving, but his sentence from completing also.

“No, you're wrong” Cristiano cut him off, his gaze still on me. “You disowned her, did you not? Any other affairs about her aren't your concern anymore.” His deep voice was cool and very commanding. “I’ll take responsibility for her now.”

I blinked multiple times, my heart pounding in my chest as his words sank in to give a deep meaning. I questioned him through my eyes but his response was a smirk. The corners of his lips turned up as he leaned closer to me, his voice dropping to a whisper that only I could hear. “She’s mine now.”

The world seemed to be spinning around me as Cristiano Morano, my ex-fiancé rival, rumors even had it that they used to be best friends until Giovanni betrayed, but that wasn't what mattered at that moment. What mattered was that he claimed me in front of everyone. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. All I could do was stare up at him with my mouth widely open, completely and utterly stunned.

Cristiano led me out of the hall as if I had no say in the matter. No one stopped him. No one could even dare. I should’ve been furious, screaming at him for ruining my life in the first place, but my voice betrayed me. The way he had saved me from humiliation moments ago left me speechless.

We reached a sleek black car parked outside. He opened the door, and I slid in without argument. I had no idea why I was doing things so willingly, maybe it was because I was that desperate. He followed in, handing me a thick document that he had kept aside. “If you want my help,” he said, his tone unnervingly calm, “then marry me.”

I glanced over the contract, my heart sinking as I read the conditions that were highlighted. No love, no other men, he would control everything—my life and my career. “I’ll agree,” I whispered in a shaky voice, “but I want control over my career.”

Cristiano’s lips curled up into a dark smile. “You’re mine now, Annalisa. And I always get what’s mine.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“I mean I'll break you,” he said, a

dangerous glint in his eyes. “And then, I’ll put you back together, my way.”