Black Rose in the Abyss Chapter 7

When Dante arrived, he saw Mia leaning against the door frame with red eyes, while Bianca just stood there quietly.

"Bianca," he quickened his pace, speaking helplessly. "What's wrong?"

Before Bianca could speak, Mia cried out, "Dante, Bianca said this building is hers and told me to leave. But I've long treated this place as my home..."

Bianca didn't even lift an eyelid. Dante rubbed his temples. "Let's go inside first."

He stepped aside to let them in, his gaze falling on Bianca. "What are you looking for?"

She stepped inside. The moment she entered the living room, her feet were nailed to the floor.

Everything she saw was strange.

The wall that recorded their heights from youth to adulthood had been repainted snow white.

The second-hand dining table they used to joke was ugly but couldn't bear to throw away had been replaced by an expensive marble table.

On the windowsill, the cactus they planted together—promising to live as tenaciously as each other—was gone.

Every trace of her and Dante was wiped clean.

This was no longer the anchor holding their memories of poverty. It was a new home meticulously created for Mia.

The pain in her chest was dense and suffocating.

Dante's Adam's apple bobbed. He explained, "It's an old house. A lot of things were broken, so I just renovated it."

Bianca snapped back to reality, hiding her loss of composure. "Where is the metal tin box?"

That was the savings box they used when they first started out. It was rusty and held the coins they saved one by one, along with the rosary she wore when she was lost.

Dante's eyes flickered. Mia, however, spoke up. "That dirty, broken tin box? I threw it away the first day I moved in. Who knows what germs were on something picked out of a dumpster."

"Say that again?"

Bianca's voice wasn't loud, but it was icy, scaring Mia into shrinking back.

Dante instinctively protected her. "Mia is young and was spoiled by her family. Don't hold it against her. I remember that rosary. I think I put it away."

In the past, Dante remembered her things the clearest. Now, he only "thought" he remembered.

Dante turned and went into the bedroom.

Only the two women were left in the living room. Mia's gaze landed on Bianca's wrist—she was wearing a wooden beaded bracelet.

"Why is that with you?! That's the bracelet my mom got from the Vatican! Why is it on your hand?"

Bianca frowned. This was a peace bracelet Roxy had got for her from a church a few days ago because she seemed restless.

She didn't bother to explain. Mia lunged at her like a crazy person, reaching out to snatch it.

"Give it back! That's my mom's! You thief!"

Bianca's annoyance reached a critical point. She shook off Mia's pulling.

Just then, Dante came out holding a small velvet box.

Mia fell onto the carpet. "Dante, I just wanted to get Mom's bracelet back. That's my only memento..."

Dante stepped forward to help Mia up, then looked at Bianca.

"Bianca, the Sterlings are already your biological parents. Mia has nothing left. It's just a bracelet. Can't you let her have it?" He even held up the velvet box. "Otherwise, this rosary..."

The threat in his words was self-evident.

Bianca looked at him, her eyes cold. "Dante, if your brain is sick, go get it treated. The bracelet is mine. Why should I give it to her?"

"Just because she cries better than me?"

Dante was stung by the harshness in her words, feeling she was being unreasonable. "You have everything now. Why do you have to fight her for this little thing!"

You have everything now...

He never mentioned what she had sacrificed, what she had lost. He just assumed she had everything.

Mia had enjoyed twenty-some years of wealth and glory in her place. Just because the Sterlings found their biological daughter, Mia suddenly became a poor soul with nothing.

The bitterness filled her chest with nowhere to vent. She forced her voice not to tremble. "Give me the box, and I'll leave immediately."

Dante pulled the box back, but an emotional Mia snatched it and raised her hand to throw it out the window.

"In your dreams!"

But Bianca was faster. She grabbed Mia's wrist and snatched the box.

"Ah!"

Mia screamed. Bianca didn't look at her. She walked out of the apartment without hesitation.

Rain began to fall, pitter-patter.

She walked numbly, seemingly unaware of it.

Across the street, a young couple ran past laughing. The boy took off his leather jacket and held it over both their heads. The girl leaned into him, her laughter crisp.

Just like years ago, when Dante protected her from the rain on this street.

Her footsteps unknowingly stopped at a familiar corner.

There used to be a hot dog cart here. After every fight, Dante would carry her here on his back and buy the cheapest hot dog. He'd take a bite, then she'd take a bite. The taste of cheap ketchup would temporarily cover the bitterness on their tongues.

All her defenses were shattered in this moment by memories and reality combined.

She couldn't hold on any longer. Slowly, she squatted down, curled up in the cold corner, and buried her face deep in her knees.

Her shoulders shook violently. The sound of crying she had suppressed for too long echoed in the empty street.

Fifteen years of standing side by side were finally washed away in this rainy night, leaving only desolation.