The Silenced Songbird Sings Again
Seven years ago, my father's adopted daughter, my adopted sister Sophia, caused a hit-and-run while drunk driving.
My parents and even my own biological sister tried to persuade me to be her scapegoat.
"Sophia's health is fragile. She can't survive prison. Could you take the fall for her?"
I refused.
However, one night, in the dead of darkness, they handed me over to the police themselves, personally escorting me into the back of a squad car.
My fiancé, Salvatore Vitale, the most powerful mafia Don in all of Sicelia, had arranged everything.
"Irene," he told me, his voice calm and absolute, "when you get out, I'll marry you. Just endure these seven years."
Just like that, the people who were supposed to love me the most, my family and the man I was meant to marry, joined forces to abandon me.
I became a criminal without ever committing a crime.