Mohegan's POV

"Mohegan would take your place, Viviane," I heard my parents talking to my twin sister.

What the hell was happening?

Take my place in what? A cold knot tightened in my stomach, spreading icy dread through my veins. I had a bad feeling about this, the kind that makes your skin prickle and your breath catch.

We aren't identical. We have different looks and characters. While she was known as the wild rose because of her bold character, I was known as the delicate flower because of my quietness and simple dressing. The shadow. The afterthought. The one who never quite mattered.

It wasn't that it was my nature to be quiet. When we were younger, Mom always gave Viviane the right to make her own decisions while she molded me to always follow hers. She gives me Viviane's worn dresses or buys me plain ones so I don't overshadow her. Making me always live in her shadow.

And I've always wondered if she was really my birth mother. Some nights, I would stare at my reflection, searching for her features in my face, finding nothing but emptiness staring back.

"Are you sure she would agree?" Viviane asked in a sad voice.

Sad? She sounded sad? My hands trembled against the wall I was leaning on. She had no right to sound sad, not when she was perfectly willing to let me be sacrificed. I don’t know the content of the topic but I was already feeling like the sacrificial lamb.

"She wouldn't dare go against me," Mom said in a sure tone. The cold finality in her voice made my heart splinter.

"The business deal with Benadryl Faccio is really a big deal to the company. All he wants is to marry you, Viviane," Dad said in an exasperated tone.

My heart skipped a beat when I heard that name. Then it plummeted straight into my stomach, taking all the warmth in my body with it.

Who doesn't know Benadryl Faccio? He used to be the number one mafia don in the country. Not until his accident that cost him his legs. He was still known as a very powerful man, having the largest company in the continent. One thing was for sure, he was completely obsessed with Viviane, who has never even seen him. He just sends gifts and cards with black cards she loves using.

I thought she would like a powerful man, as she's a very free-spirited person and a lover of money. But apparently, that wasn't enough.

"I can't marry him, Dad. Matteo already proposed to me. And besides, I've never seen this Benadryl in my life," Viviane said angrily.

My ear literally rang as I heard that. Matteo Lombardo. My fiance. The boy who held my hand when I was twelve and promised me forever. The man who looked into my eyes at seventeen and asked me to be his. He was never interested in Viviane. So what does she mean by he proposed to her?

A sharp pain lanced through my chest, so real I had to press my palm against my sternum. My vision blurred. I felt like I was drowning, the air thick and suffocating.

"We haven't even seen Benadryl Faccio. Not just that, he is also a very dangerous man and an invalid. Too bad for our Viviane," Mom said.

So they knew he's a dangerous person but want to hand me over to him. Funny. Hilarious, actually. I wanted to laugh, but the sound that almost escaped was closer to a sob.

Matteo Lombardo's family are conniving and deadly. He proved to be different from them, but I'm beginning to see otherwise. From the reaction from my parents and sister, he probably was involved with my sister. We've known each other since we were kids. He promised we would be together when I turned twelve. He became my fiance when I was seventeen. I've loved Matteo Lombardo since I was twelve.

It's just hard to think he would dump me. Harder than anything I've ever endured. Harder than all the years of being invisible, of wearing hand-me-downs, of being the forgotten twin. Because Matteo saw me. He actually saw me. Or so I thought.

I was already planning our day today. The picnic by the lake he loved. The book I wanted to read to him under the willow tree. The way his eyes crinkled when he smiled at me. It was all I had, those small moments. And now I'm being told they might have been lies.

"Mom, I need to dress up. Matteo would be coming to pick me up very soon," Viviane said sweetly.

The sweetness in her voice cut through me like broken glass. I could picture her smile. The same smile she gave me when she took the last piece of cake, when she wore the dress that was supposed to be mine, when she stole the spotlight I never asked for.

My hands were shaking now. Tears burned behind my eyes, hot and angry, but I refused to let them fall. Not here. Not where they could see.

I stepped back from the door, my heart pounding so loudly I was afraid they could hear it. The hallway stretched before me, endless and cold. I had two choices: confront them and shatter the fragile illusion of my family, or walk away and let them hand me over to a man I never knew. A dangerous man who would own me like property.

But another thought gnawed at me, poisonous and persistent.

Matteo.

I needed to see him. I needed to see the truth for myself. Was he really engaged to Viviane? Or was she simply stirring her poison again?

Because if Matteo had betrayed me, if the one person who made me feel seen had been lying all along then maybe I had nothing left to lose. Maybe being the sacrificial lamb to Benadryl Faccio wouldn't be so bad. At least I would be far away from this house. From this family.