On the night we came of age, George Costa and I finally took things further in our relationship.

Despite the physical discomfort that night, I was happy for a very long time. I genuinely believed that by taking this monumental step together, George and I were locking in our future. We would get engaged, get married, and seal our destinies. After all, the Alfonso and Costa families were the two most powerful mafia families in Solaria. After our union, my father could finally rest easy, knowing he could slowly pass the family empire down to us.

However, the very next day, I overheard George talking to one of his friends on the phone.

“Wow, that's insane. You actually got the daughter of the Alfonso family to be your first?”

Hearing those words made me embarrassed, so I decided to walk away.

But then, George said dismissively. “Please, she’s just an Alfonso. Honestly, I wanted Julie first, but I was worried that my lack of experience wouldn't give her a good time. So, I just settled for the next best option and used Annie for practice.”

When those words hit me, I didn’t cry or throw a tantrum. The moment I got back, I refused to take my place within the family empire. Instead, I immediately put in a transfer request for our branch in Londres.

George Costa’s words hit me suddenly. A sharp pain pierced my heart, making it hard for me to breathe.

He was still on the phone. On the other end of the line, the person paused for a brief second before speaking up again. “Well, you’re the true heir to the Costa mafia family for a reason. A woman with Annie’s incredible background, and she’s nothing more than practice to you. You know exactly what kind of power the Alfonso mafia family wields here in Solaria. The empire her father commands is basically going to be hers one day.”

George let out a casual, indifferent chuckle. “Being with me is a privilege for Annie, too.”

The person on the line quickly chimed in. “But even though Annie has those gorgeous features, her figure isn’t nearly as voluptuous as Julie’s. Honestly, you’re the one getting shortchanged here.”

George’s voice turned a fraction colder. “I must have lost my mind for a second back then. She looked so incredibly pathetic and helpless that it caught my attention. At the family council meeting that day, she was sitting right across from me. Her hand was shaking so badly she could barely hold her wine glass, yet she was desperately trying to play it cool in front of all those senior members. It was actually a little endearing.”

The man laughed out loud. “I never would have guessed Annie had a side like that. But seriously, you’ve got some charm. Even a girl like Annie is throwing herself at you. She’s been obsessed with you for years, so I guess she finally got her wish.”

At that, they both burst out laughing.

Meanwhile, I stood there, biting my lip, trembling all over. It took every ounce of strength I possessed just to keep my legs from buckling as I listened to the rest of their conversation.

So, that was the truth. The way he had waited for me in the parking garage last night, whispering all those sweet nothings, was all a cold, calculated setup. He knew exactly how much I loved him and that I was most easily swayed.

Suddenly, George started to turn around. Terrified of being caught, I sprinted toward the nearest stairwell, ducking in there to hide. Before I even realized it, tears were streaming down my face.

Their conversation kept looping in my mind like a twisted curse, destroying me from the inside out. I had trusted George with everything. It was because of that absolute trust that I had given myself to him, holding nothing back.

My father had warned me that the Costa family boy operated in the shadows and had a mind far too deep, telling me never to lay all my cards on the table. He said that for people born into our world, talking out of both sides of your mouth was pure survival instinct. To give our hearts to someone like that was the equivalent of handing them a loaded gun pointed directly at our heads.

However, I hadn’t listened. I foolishly believed that because we grew up in the same environment, surrounded by gunfire, blood, and lies since childhood, we would at least be fiercely honest with each other. Yet in the end, I was nothing more than a stepping stone to him.

I lost track of how long I cried in that dim stairwell. When I finally checked my phone, I saw a text from George.

[I’m heading out. I need to go down to the docks tonight to oversee a major shipment.]

Looking at the message on the screen, I chuckled bitterly.

A moment later, another text popped up.

[By the way, don’t forget to get the morning-after pill. Once this crazy week is over, I promise I’ll spend some quality time together. Be good.]

There it was again. “Be good.”

Whenever he looked at me, those were the words he used the most. He told me to be good and not ask about his business dealings. He told me to be good and not pry into who Julie was. He told me to be good and keep whatever was happening between us a complete secret from my father.

I stared at George’s contact name and fell silent. The intimate memories of last night were still fresh in my mind. I could still perfectly recall him whispering gently in my ear with his arms around me, “I wasn’t fully prepared this time, sweetheart. I’ll get the pill for you tomorrow.”

I even remembered how he explained the health risks of not taking it. Last night, I was drowning in happiness, but looking back now, it was nothing short of pathetic.

I wiped the tears from my face, composed myself, and finally stepped out of the stairwell.

I didn’t dare go to any of the major pharmacies in the city, terrified that someone would recognize me. The elite circle in Solaria was incredibly small. If word got out that the heiress of the Alfonso family was buying that kind of pill, the gossip would spread to every powerful family within twenty-four hours, and my father’s reputation would be ruined.

Eventually, I tracked down a run-down, obscure little pharmacy at the very edge of town, bought the pill, and snuck back home to take it.

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, I stared at the faint, bruising love bites visible on my neck. In an instant, a suffocating ache squeezed my heart.

I had loved George for a very long time. Ever since I first laid eyes on him at the sixteenth-birthday party my father held for me, I hadn’t been able to look away. He had been standing directly behind his father back then, a concealed pistol tucked neatly beneath his tailored suit jacket. He had turned around and flashed me a devastating smile, and I had carried the memory of that smile for years.

From that day forward, I followed him wherever he went. When he started taking over his family’s mafia business, I begged my father to let me get involved in our own family operations just so I would have a legitimate excuse to see him. However, today, I felt tired.

Unnoticed, the sky outside had darkened. Suddenly, my best friend Sophie called.

“Annie, why aren’t you at the Costa family banquet tonight? Your father has been looking all over the venue for you, and he looks absolutely furious. That Julie girl is here too. Apparently, George invited her personally. She’s basically glued to his side.”

With that, Sophie sent over a photo.

In a dimly lit corner of the banquet hall, George and Julie sat together.

Julie was wearing a sexy slip dress that perfectly accentuated her toned figure. She leaned back against George, and he naturally reached out, wrapping an arm around her waist to pull her close. With their backs turned to the rest of the crowd, the two of them were laughing and talking animatedly.

In the photos, they were smiling at each other, and George was pressing a tender kiss onto Julie’s cheek. Even looking through a phone screen, I could see the affection radiating from George’s eyes. It was a look he had never once given me, and it tugged at my heart painfully to learn that George was truly in love with Julie.

Sophie’s updates kept flooding my screen. The next photos showed the crowd cheering and egging them on to dance together. At first, they maintained a respectful distance, but suddenly, someone bumped into Julie, and she fell into George’s arms.

With everyone watching them, Julie’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. George, however, wasn’t shy. Instead, he took advantage of the moment to kiss her, and it wasn’t until the song finally ended that the two of them broke apart.

Staring at the couple on my screen, tears streamed down my face. It felt as though my heart was being ripped out of my chest.

Sophie’s voice came through the line. “Annie, did you see that? I told you a long time ago that George is in love with Julie.”

She had clearly walked outside to find a quiet spot to talk. “Annie, now that you’ve seen it with your own eyes, are you going to give up on him?”

I opened my mouth to reply, but my throat was so dry that no words would come out. All I could do was shake my head violently.

In the past, George was the only person who existed in my world. I believed absolutely everything he said. I had even greedily looked forward to marrying him one day, eagerly anticipating the moment the Alfonso and the Costa families would merge.

Now, I was finally waking up from the dream, and it turned out that everything had just been a delusion on my part.

“George is an absolute jerk. He knew exactly how much you loved him, so he deliberately dropped those breadcrumbs to make you think he felt the same way. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. He wanted Julie on one side, and you on the other. In his dreams!

“Annie, everything you just saw is real. That is who George truly is. Are you really going to waste more of your life on a guy like him?”

I let out a bitter, hollow laugh. “Sophie, I’ve made up my mind. I’m not going to the Costa family banquet tonight, and I won’t get involved in the family business either. There’s a corporate position open over in Londres. I’ve submitted my application. But please don’t tell anyone else about this just yet.”

Late that night, I gathered every single document required for my application and hit send. The company belonged to an old friend of my father’s based in Londres. It was a legitimate business and utterly disconnected from the mafia and criminal networks back home.

I took a quick screenshot of the confirmation page and texted it to Sophie. She was ecstatic. For the longest time, her biggest wish was for me to give up on George, leave Solaria behind, and live a peaceful, normal life far away from all this chaos. However, I had always stubbornly refused.

Simply to be near George, just to catch a few fleeting moments with him, I had turned down multiple life-changing opportunities abroad. Instead, I stayed by my father’s side, forcing myself to learn how to manage a family business I never actually wanted any part of.

Looking back now, I was incredibly foolish. Because our families had been good friends for many years, everyone naturally assumed that George and I would eventually get married. Behind closed doors, they had begun negotiating our future alliance, mapping out turf boundaries, and agreeing on which operations to merge. It was an unwritten, mutual understanding.

Everyone thought George and I were endgame, and for a long time, so did I. However, things were different now. By choosing a path opposite to George’s, an overwhelming sense of relief washed over me. From now on, my priority was myself, and I was going to make choices for my own future, rather than constantly compromising to accommodate George.

After taking a shower, I stood in front of the mirror, staring at the intimate marks left on my skin. The vivid memories of that night began replaying in my mind like a movie on loop. I quickly put on a freezing cold shower, desperate to snap myself out of it. Unfortunately, it was entirely useless; the memories kept flashing back anyway. That night had officially become the greatest regret of my life.

Needless to say, I suffered from insomnia that night. Around dawn, I checked my phone to see that there wasn’t a single notification. Unable to stop myself, I tapped on George’s profile picture and scrolled through years of our chat history. We used to talk about absolutely everything. Every single night, he would find an excuse to message me—sometimes about family business and sometimes just random nonsense.

A person’s desire to share their life wouldn’t just vanish into thin air without a reason, and it proved that George had someone new to talk to now. However, that was fine because the sooner I faced reality, the sooner I could wake up from this illusion.

I tossed my phone aside and forced myself to sleep. Yet, just as I was drifting off into a hazy blur, I suddenly felt someone kissing me. My eyes snapped open, and to my absolute shock, a familiar face was hovering right over mine. It was George.

I ran my fingers through my hair, and only then did it dawn on me. George was incredibly close with my family, so my father’s bodyguards wouldn’t dream of stopping him at the door. In their eyes, George was already the Alfonso family’s future son-in-law and the next Don of his family.

Seeing that I was awake, George reached out and pulled me tightly into his chest. I instantly shoved him away, and instead of getting mad, a smirk played on his lips.

“What’s this? Aren’t you a little late to be playing shy now?”

I didn’t say a word, stubbornly keeping as much distance between us as possible.

George grabbed my wrist, pulling me right back into his arms. “Annie, you haven’t sent me a single text. I came all the way here to see you, and you’re still trying to dodge me?”

I struggled desperately to break free, but against his physical strength, I stood absolutely no chance.

“Look, I went out of my way to bring you that gourmet cake you love today. Didn’t you use to throw a tantrum whenever you wanted to eat it? Well, I bought it for you. Though, having tasted it, I think you’re still much sweeter than the cake.”

With that, George leaned down to kiss me.

I used every ounce of strength I had left to shove him back, leaving myself completely out of breath. I glared at George and couldn’t seem to figure it out. Since he was already happily together with Julie, why on earth was he still coming over here to mess with my head?

George stared back at me. “Where is this massive attitude coming from? Did Sophie run her mouth to you again?”

Silently, I got out of bed.

George followed right behind me. “Didn’t I tell you to stop hanging out with her? Aside from trying to drive a wedge between us, what else is she actually good for? Look, all we did tonight was share a single dance. Julie didn’t have a date for the event. Was I supposed to reject her in front of everyone? You know her father controls those shipping routes up north. The Costa family needs that territory, so we had to show them some respect.”

Staring at George’s righteous, unapologetic expression, I realized it was entirely impossible to communicate with him anymore. He didn’t even bother to hide it from me.

Seeing him step forward to close the distance again, I threw all notions of politeness out the window and aimed a brutal kick straight between his legs.

“Annie!” George roared. “My patience has its limits!”

I ignored his shouting, put on my clothes, and walked out. However, George grabbed my arm. His face was dark, furious, as he tried to kiss me.

“Did you take the morning-after pill like I told you to the other day? Your health isn’t great. Taking the pill is for your own good.”

I met his gaze and let out a cold, mocking laugh. My reaction clearly rattled him.

“Annie, what the hell is wrong with you lately?”

"None of your business,” I replied flatly.

George finally snapped. “Annie, who exactly are you throwing this attitude at? We slept together once, and now you’re acting like you’re my official fiancée with the right to control my life? Do you have any idea how many business deals I have to manage out there, or how many high-profile people I have to deal with daily?”

His words stung, and before I could stop them, tears streamed down my face.

Seeing me cry, George reached out an anxious hand to wipe away my tears, his tone softening as he said, “I’m sorry. I messed up.”

I flinched away, refusing to let him touch me. Just like that, George’s hand froze mid-air, and neither of us said a word until his phone suddenly started buzzing loudly.

He glanced down at the screen, immediately answering it. His tone shifted instantly into a professional business register. “The shipment has arrived? Is the inventory count correct? Good. I’m heading over right now.”

Hanging up the phone, he turned around and said one last thing before walking out the door.

“Annie, stop throwing these childish tantrums. It’s high time you learned to control that temper of yours.”