No Longer Your Rose Chapter 01
The fake Santoro Principessa, Sophia, had been street racing in the early hours and ran over and killed someone.
Theo, my fiancé just three days away from marrying me, demanded that I take the fall for her.
Clutching my wedding gown, I stared at him in disbelief.
Theo lit a cigarette, his face calm. “Sophia is pregnant. She’s carrying the Moretti family’s future heir.”
“She’d never endure prison confinement, but you’re built to withstand it.”
I raised my hand and slapped him.
Theo and the Santoro family worked together to fabricate evidence.
No matter how much I explained that I wasn’t the one driving, no one believed me.
My birth mother, Valentina, grabbed my hand, crying. “Isabella, just confess. You can’t destroy Sophia’s future…”
Theo stood to the side, his voice flat. “It’s just a single year behind bars. I’ll make it worth your while once you get out”
The day I went to prison was the same day as Theo and Sophia’s wedding.
After I got out, the Santoro family had officially removed me from their records as a Principessa.
I went back to the small barbecue shop left to me by my adoptive parents.
One evening, Theo’s car pulled up right in front of my stall.
He stared at me, his voice accusing. “Why didn’t you contact me all these years? Are you still holding a grudge?”
I shook my head calmly. “I’d long since let go of all resentment.”
Then I lowered my head and focused on grilling the skewers.
He walked over and grabbed my wrist. “Isabella, is this how you’re going to waste your life? Have you forgotten your dreams?”
I looked down at my scarred hands and gave a bitter smile.
“You know exactly who destroyed my dreams, don’t you?”
I pulled my hand free and went back to grilling.
His voice was sharp with anger. “Isabella!”
I frowned slightly, not understanding why he was upset.
After getting out of prison, I hadn’t bothered anyone. I hadn’t sought out the Santoro family or him.
So why was he still unhappy with me?
” Hey, can we get the check?”
“Coming.”
I asked Emma to watch the grill, wiped my hands, and walked over.
“That’ll be two hundred and thirty-eight dollars. I’ll bring the card machine over.”
After that table paid and left, Theo came over again.
“Come back with me. What are you even doing here?”
I ignored him and went straight back to the grill.
” It’s been five years now. Can’t you let it go? Are you still bitter over taking that single year rap for Sophia?”
I paused, my hands hovering over the grill.
One year?
I had actually served five years inside.
Apparently, they hadn’t even bothered to find out how long I’d been locked up.
But I didn’t have the energy to care anymore.
“Don Moretti, are you done? Please stop disrupting my business.”
He lost his temper completely. He turned and shouted into the shop, “I’m paying for everyone’s meal. Everyone out, now!”
A few customers recognized him and murmured among themselves as they left.
He was still as unreasonable as ever. There went my business for the night.
“Emma, you should head home.”
She hesitated. “Isabella, are you sure…”
“I’m fine. Go on.”
I bent down to start packing up my things.
Theo stepped aside and made a phone call. “I’ve found Isabella… Okay, I’ll send you my location.”
I hadn’t even finished packing when a black sedan pulled up to the curb.
Dario Santoro got out and stood in front of me, his face cold and stern, just like every time he had scolded me in the past.
“Do you mean to disgrace our name with this pitiful display? Do you want all of New York to learn a Santoro Principessa sells grilled skewers roadside?”
“Pack your things and come home with me. Now.”
I lifted my head and looked him straight in the eye.
In the past, I would have been afraid. I would have lowered my head and said, “I’m sorry.”
Not anymore.
“Don Santoro, have you forgotten that I was already disowned by the Santoro family?”
Dario hesitated for a moment, then softened his tone. “Your prison sentence was a bad look for the family. If we hadn’t publicly disowned you, the company would have suffered.”
He sighed and lowered his voice. “Sophia has felt terrible about it all these years. She misses you.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
I couldn’t figure out whether he was clueless or playing dumb on purpose.
He believed every word Sophia said.
“I was perfectly content with my present life. Please leave.”
Dario’s face darkened again. “You’re ruining yourself by staying here.”
He cast a sweeping glance across my little grill shack. “Where are your adoptive parents?”
I froze.
They didn’t even know that my adoptive parents had already passed away.
Before I went to prison, I had begged them on my knees to take care of my parents.
They swore to me, “Rest assured; keep your mouth shut, and no harm will come to them.”
I had believed them.
But my adoptive parents died during my second year in prison.
Eyes stinging with tears, I roared, “Get out of my sight!”
The moment the words left my mouth, I heard a clear voice from behind me.
“Isabella!”
My whole body went stiff.
That was a voice I would never forget.
Sophia.