It wasn't me . Chapter 6 My cheeks were sunken . My skin - gray , waxy . A long , angry scar slashed across my abdomen , faint but cruel . And my hair ... it was gone . Buzzed down to the scalp , patches still uneven . I looked like a ghost someone forgot to bury . I didn't cry . I wanted to . My throat stung . My eyes burned . But no tears came . Just this cold , bitter silence inside me . The next few months were the ugliest kind of healing . I had to learn how to speak again . My voice was hoarse for weeks . Every sentence came out as a rasp at first , like sandpaper across bone . " Water , " I'd croak . Lothario would jump up , bring the cup before I finished the word . " I got you , " he'd say every time . They tried to teach me how to sit up on my own . Then how to crawl . Then how to stand . Sam made a joke once that I was like a baby deer , all wobbly limbs and big eyes . I told him if I ever walked again , I'd kick his teeth in . " Spunky , " he smirked . " That's good . Keep that fire . " Three years . That's how long it took before I looked in the mirror and didn't flinch . My face now was new . Three long years of hell . Lothario and Sam kept me off the grid . No social . No phones . No windows . Every day , I got a little stronger . By the second year , I could walk with a cane . By the third , I didn't need it anymore . I wasn't the girl they left in that hospital bed anymore . Darling I Remember 1/4 11.2 % 7:01 Mon , Sep 15 71 I was steel . Sharp edges and quieter rage . Lothario trained me himself . Taught me how to shoot , how to break bones , how to disappear in a crowd . I shaved my head clean on purpose this time . " I'm not hiding what they did to me , " I said , staring at my reflection . " Let them see . " We trained in the dead of night . Fists , knives , guns , shadows . Lothario never held back . Neither did I. He taught me how to modulate my voice . Change it . Fake accents . Walk like someone else . Talk like someone else . " You don't get to be Ivanna anymore , " he said . " Not until it's safe ." " And when will it be safe ? " I asked . Sam answered from the corner of the room . He was loading supplies into a go - bag , voice tired but serious . " It won't be . Not for a while . Maybe not ever . They still think you're dead , Ivanna . If you resurface now , you won't last a day ." I smiled at him . Cold . Crooked . Familiar . " I don't want to resurface ." I leaned forward , tied my boots tight , and slipped a blade into the side of my boot . " I want to haunt them . " Some people build houses . Some build careers . I built ghosts . I had six new identities by the end of that summer . Seven , if you count the one I used just to watch the world burn from the sidelines . Different names . Different looks . Different lives . One of them was a redhead with freckles and a Russian passport . Another was a French fashion buyer who spoke five languages and didn't exist . I even created an old woman - limp , gray hair , glasses - and slipped into that skin Chapter 6 2/4 11.7 % 7:02 Mon , Sep 15 like it belonged to me . Lothario called it overkill . I called it insurance . 71 " You're building a whole army of yourself , " he muttered once , watching me digitally erase one more version of Ivanna Rossi from a police archive . I didn't look up . " No. I'm building options . " He exhaled slow . " You always were smarter than all of them . " Lothario kept me updated . We'd sit in the backroom of that crumbling underground chapel , the light flickering overhead , while he went through everything I missed . It was like reading the obituary of a life I didn't remember dying in . " Marian and Rupert took over the east docks , " he said one night , sliding a map across the table . " Shipping lanes , storage warehouses , bribed half the harbor guards . That's how they launder now . " I traced the red circles he'd marked . " That used to be ours . " He nodded . " Not anymore ." He was gentler when he told me the next part . " Matteo's not just a capo anymore . He made regional Don . Controls everything from Jersey to northern Virginia . " I didn't flinch . I just filed it away . " And Chris ? " I asked . Lothario hesitated . " Engaged , " he finally said . " To the De Luca girl . Old money . They're merging the families . " I closed my eyes for a moment . Not to cry . I didn't have that in me anymore . I was just memorizing it . The betrayal . The chessboard . Then he said , " You should see this . " And dropped a file folder in my lap . Clippings . Dozens of them . Articles from every major outlet . Chapter 6 3/4 12.2 % 7:02 Mon , Sep 15 Rossi Heiress Dies In Tragic Accident Closed - Casket Funeral Held For Ivanna Rossi Father Breaks Down In Tears At Daughter's Wake 71 One photo showed my father clutching Marian's hand like she was the one buried in the ground . Another showed Chris looking solemn and heroic beside a coffin that didn't hold a single piece of me . But the one that broke something permanent in me ? The one where Marian wore black lace and pearls , dabbing fake tears with a silk handkerchief - wearing my mother's brooch like she'd earned it . The caption read : " Grief - stricken sister speaks : ' She'll always be with us . " Lothario watched me read every page , his jaw tight . I didn't say a word . I didn't scream . I didn't throw anything . I just sat there , absorbing it all like poison through skin . He said , " You okay ? " I answered quietly , " I'm done crying." Later that night , I sat in front of the mirror again . My latest disguise was peeled off - no contacts , no wig , no layers . Just me . Raw . Scarred . Buzzed hair growing back in uneven patches . But my eyes ? My eyes were the only thing Marian couldn't steal , I stared at myself , jaw set . They thought they buried me . They thought I'd stay gone . But I didn't die . I shed . I leaned closer to the mirror . My voice was low , but every word landed like a bullet . " Ivanna Rossi is dead . But I'm not . " Chapter 6 4/4 12.8 % 7:02 Mon , Sep 15 Discover our latest featured short drama reel. Watch now and enjoy the story!