He Used Me As Inventory, I Saved My Sister

Chapter 3

I didn’t sleep that night.

I kept the silver locket clenched in my palm until its edges pressed red marks into my skin.

Ferraro.

The name felt like a key sliding into some rusted lock buried deep in my memory.

I vaguely remembered being called that when I was very young.

Not Sera Falcone.

Seraphina.

At dawn, Falcone came to “check on me.”

As if nothing had happened, he brought breakfast himself and drew open my curtains.

“Didn’t sleep well?”

He sat beside my bed and reached out to touch my forehead.

I held my breath.

But I didn’t pull away.

I had learned Lily’s skill.

How to hide hatred behind an obedient face.

“I’m sorry, Papa.”

I made my voice sound raw, like I had been crying.

“Last night... I was scared. I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

Falcone paused.

Then he smiled.

That satisfied smile of a man who believed everything was still under his control.

“I knew my Sera was a smart girl.”

He placed the box of pale blue pills on my nightstand.

“Take it.”

“From today on, everything goes back to normal.”

“Once I’ve handled this current round of clients, I’ll make proper arrangements for you and Lily.”

“You won’t feel pain.”

“I promise.”

He stood and walked to the door.

Then paused and looked back.

“Oh, and Sera?”

My heart lodged in my throat.

“I’m increasing security around the estate.”

“Things outside aren’t very safe lately.”

His gaze lingered on me with meaning.

“Don’t go anywhere.”

Only after the door closed did I realize my back was soaked in cold sweat.

Did he know?

Or was it only another warning?

I spent the entire day counting the seconds.

I flushed the pill.

Poured the breakfast into a flowerpot.

Pretended to be more obedient than ever.

Lily acted even better than I did.

At lunch, she even volunteered to play a piece for Falcone.

That hollow smile of hers became our best disguise.

Fifteen minutes before midnight, Lily and I slipped out through the servants’ corridor.

It had taken me three years to learn every blind spot in the estate’s surveillance system.

I used to think it was just a bored girl’s private game.

Only now did I understand.

Somewhere inside me, I had always been preparing to escape.

Under the third streetlamp by the west gate, a black SUV waited with its headlights off.

The window rolled down.

A young man leaned out.

Around thirty.

His eyes were sharp enough to cut.

He looked at me.

Then at Lily behind me.

His throat moved.

“Seraphina.”

His voice was low.

“And Lilliana.”

“You look exactly like your mother.”

“Who are you?”

I pushed Lily behind me.

“Damiano Russo.”

He opened the door.

“My father was once Falcone’s consigliere.”

“Twelve years ago, he refused to help Falcone manage the donor registry.”

“Falcone beat him to death in front of me.”

His voice remained flat.

Flat as a frozen lake.

“From that day on, I spent twelve years gathering every piece of evidence I could use to destroy him.”

“Get in.”

“I’ll take you to someone.”

I didn’t move.

“Why now?”

I stared at him.

“If you’ve been looking for us for twelve years, why come tonight?”

A flicker of approval passed through Damiano’s eyes.

“Because I just obtained Falcone’s delivery schedule.”

“Your sister’s liver is scheduled for delivery on the fifteenth of next month.”

“And your heart...”

He paused.

“Seven days from now.”

My mind went blank.

Seven days.

I pulled out the locket and held it up.

“Do you recognize this?”

Damiano’s gaze fell on the black hound.

For a long moment, he was silent.

Then he reached beneath his shirt and pulled out a thin chain.

At the end of it hung an identical silver locket.

The same black hound.

The same broken sword.

“This is the token of the Ferraro loyalists.”

His voice dropped.

“Fewer than ten people in the world still wear it.”

“Your father, Don Alessandro Ferraro, was the only man my father ever truly served.”

“The night Falcone slaughtered the Ferraro family, your father pressed the last locket into your mother’s hand.”

Suddenly, alarms erupted from the direction of the estate.

Red warning lights sliced through the night.

Damiano grabbed my wrist.

“They found you.”

“Choose, Seraphina.”

“Come with me.”

“Or go back and wait for him to put your sister on an operating table.”