Scorned In Vernice

Chapter one : The Girl who was left behind

(Bianca pov)

I have always wondered who left me at the orphanage that cold winter night.

I don’t really remember it, but the nuns always told the same story. They said they found me by the front gate, wrapped in a thin white blanket, a little gold locket around my neck with the name “Veronica” on it. No note. No letter. Nothing. Just me a crying baby with no one.

Other kids had stories. Some knew their parents. Some at least remembered faces or names. I had nothing.

My life started in that orphanage small, lonely, and forgotten. I watched kids leave all the time, smiling with their new parents. Every night I had pray that someone would pick me too.

And one day, someone did.

When I was five, this fancy car pulled into the orphanage. I remember it looked huge, like something from a movie. Out came a man and a woman, both dressed nice, like they belonged somewhere important. I didn’t know who they were, but later I learned that Charles and Amelia Donald, are billionaires, owners of Donald Enterprises. They had no kids and wanted to adopt.

Mrs. Amelia bent down and smiled at me. I remember her perfume soft, warm. “She’s perfect,” she whispered to her husband. “So beautiful, like a little porcelain doll.”

From that day, I became Veronica Donald.

They gave me a real home. My own room, my own toys, hugs, birthday parties and everything I had dreamed of. For seven years, life was good. I was happy. I was loved.

Then everything changed.

When I turned twelve, their plane crashed. Both of them. Gone. Just like that.

I stood at their funeral, rain pouring, people in black all around me. I couldn’t even cry at first. I just stared as they lowered the caskets into the ground. My parents are gone again.

But they didn’t leave me with nothing. In their will, they left me everything. The company, the properties, the money. I was the only heir. But what does any of that mean when you are just a twelve-year-old kid who lost her parents?

After that, Nanny Rose who had always been with the family became my guardian. She raised me like her own. She taught me how to be strong, how to fight for myself, how to never let anyone walk over me.

And I didn’t.

By twenty-five, I was running Donald Enterprises. I grew it, expanded it, made it bigger than ever. Every morning, I told myself I was doing it for them for the people who believed in me.

The hum of the air conditioner pulled me back to the present.

Venice. My city. The place that made me who I am.

From my office window, I could see the Grand Canal gondolas moving slowly under the bridges, sunlight bouncing off the water. It was beautiful. Almost too beautiful. I took a sip of my coffee. Bitter, but sweet my kind of like my life.

Everything was perfect. Or so I thought.

The door burst open.

“Veronica!”

I looked up and saw Clara running in, waving a magazine like she had just won the lottery.

“My best friend is getting married!” she yelled.

I blinked. “Clara, you almost made me spill my coffee.”

“Oh, come on! Don’t act calm now. You’re engaged! To Matteo freakin’ DeLuca!”

I couldn’t help but smile. Just hearing his name made my heart skip a little. I looked down at the ring, the diamond catching the light. “It still doesn’t feel real,” I said quietly.

Clara flopped onto the couch. “Unreal? Girl, you’re marrying the most gorgeous man in Venice. If it were me, I had still be screaming.”

I laughed. “That’s why you are you and I’m me.”

She gasped. “Oh, the attitude!”

Her laughter filled the room. She had been my best friend since college, one of the few people who never treated me like ‘the heiress.’ She just treated me like Veronica.

“Let me see it again,” she said.

I held out my hand. The diamond sparkled, surrounded by tiny blue sapphires Matteo’s favorite color.

“It’s perfect,” she said softly. “You are lucky girl . I hope I find someone like him.”

“You will,” I said. “You always do.”

Then the door opened again.

“Am I interrupting something?”

Matteo.

Even now, just hearing his voice made my heart beat faster. He walked in wearing his usual gray suit, tie a little loose, his blue eyes finding mine right away.

“Speak of the devil,” Clara teased. “Look who it is.”

He smiled, came over, and kissed me lightly. “Miss me?”

Clara groaned. “Ugh, seriously? Can’t you two save it for the honeymoon?”

Matteo laughed. “You’re just jealous.”

“Maybe,” she said, grinning. “But I we forgive you when I catch your bouquet.”

The room filled with laughter again. For a moment, it all felt easy. Simple. Like nothing could ever go wrong.

He looked at me and said, “You have been working too much. You promised no work talk this week.”

“I’m just making sure the company doesn’t fall apart before the wedding,” I teased.

He smiled. “It won’t. You’ve already done enough.”

Clara nodded. “Yeah, boss lady, take a break. This is Venice not a boardroom.”

Venice.

The city of love. The place where Matteo wanted us to celebrate our engagement, where the canals would “witness our story,” as he said.

I looked at him, brushed my thumb over his hand. “You didn’t have to plan all that, you know.”

“For you,” he said softly, “I had go farther.”

Something in his eyes flickered then something I couldn’t explain. But I pushed the thought away.

This was Matteo. My Matteo. The man I loved.

Clara sighed, looking at her phone. “Venice is gonna lose its mind when they see you two. The perfect couple.”

Matteo stood, kissed my forehead. “Dinner tonight?”

“Always.”

He smiled and left.

Clara looked at me. “You’re glowing, you know that?”

“Am I?”

“Like a woman in love. It’s annoying.”

I laughed. “You’re impossible.”

But as she kept talking about the party and my dress, my eyes went to the door where Matteo had just walked out. My heart was full, too full.

I didn’t know then that everything I loved was about to fall apart.

Because life’s cruel like that. It gives you everything… just to see how you handle losing it.

And I had no idea that my perfect world was about to burn.