After the engagement dinner, my grandmother was hauled down to the family's dungeons.

The order was given by Serena, who handled the finances for my husband-to-be, Vincent, the heir to the Moretti family.

Vincent himself led her down, refusing to hear a word of explanation.

"The late Don's wife's diamond cross is missing. Your grandmother was the only guest not part of the family. If she didn't take it, who did?"

Serena stood at the top of the stairs, her arrogant gaze sweeping over my face.

It was laughable. Based on nothing but Serena's word, they could lock an old woman away.

"She stays down there for every day the cross is missing. But that's one thing, our wedding is another. We're still on for next month."

I glanced down at the diamond ring on my finger, engraved with the family crest.

Exhaustion washed over me.

This whole marriage felt meaningless.

For fifteen days, the Moretti family used its full power to keep my grandmother locked in that damp, cold dungeon.

When I was finally allowed to see her, she suffered a heart attack and crumpled to the stone floor.

I screamed for the guards to get the family doctor, but they deliberately took their time, and my grandmother's breath and pulse grew weaker and weaker.

"Chloe, Grandma didn't steal anything. I saw Serena drop that cross into the champagne tower… I saw it with my own eyes."

"You need to get Vincent to come here. I'll explain it to him in person. I can't let you suffer because of me…"

My grandmother was drawing her last breaths, but her hand clutched mine so tightly her knuckles turned white.

Tears streamed down my face as I grabbed my phone and frantically dialed his number.

After what felt like an eternity of desperate, unanswered rings, he finally picked up, his voice thick with irritation.

"I'm busy running the family business and planning a wedding, and what about you? You vanish for half a month. Do you even want to get married or not?"

"Vincent, please, just send a car to take Grandma to a proper hospital. Please, I'm begging you, just come and see her…"

I ignored his complaints, my voice trembling as I pleaded.

Vincent was silent on the other end. After a long pause, he replied dismissively.

"I get it. I'm in a meeting with the capos and I can't get away. Just wait for me there."

Grandma held on, waiting from morning until night.

My phone died from calling him over and over, but Vincent never showed up.

The next shift of guards walked past the cell, one with a cigarette dangling from his lips, chatting excitedly with his partner about the big event of the night.

"The Boss booked the best yacht in the bay tonight, a welcome party just for Miss Serena. It's even more extravagant than the engagement dinner!"

"I heard they're setting off fireworks over the whole bay all night. Some life, huh? Being the boss's woman."

My grandmother, resting in my arms, heard their words, and the light in her eyes faded.

She patted the back of my hand, just like she did when I cried as a child.

"My sweet girl, I've been such a burden to you."

"I have a brooch, a gift from your mother. I hid it under your pillow… Don't fight with Vincent. Don't let this destroy your future..."

Her hand fell limply to her side. In the dead silence of the dungeon, her chest was still, her breathing stopped.

I collapsed, sobbing, onto the cold stone slab.

Outside, the night sky erupted with one firework after another, illuminating the bay as bright as day.

A guard's phone, left on a nearby table, lit up.

The screen showed a social media notification: a photo of Vincent with his arm around Serena's waist, leaning in to whisper in her ear. They looked like they were made for each other.

I clutched my grandmother's still-warm hand, refusing to let go.

"Grandma, wake up."

"I'm not marrying him. Not now, not ever."

The first time I met Vincent was the night he got dumped.

His fiancée, the girl he'd been engaged to since childhood, had flown off to Italy without a second glance.

He was sitting alone, slamming back drinks at the dive bar where I worked.

I'd open a bottle of hard liquor, and he'd down the whole thing.

My commission from his drinks that night alone was thirty thousand dollars.

As I was getting ready to leave at dawn, he grabbed my sleeve and wouldn't let go.

"How do I forget her… Please, help me forget her…"

For the sake of that thirty thousand dollars.

I took advantage of my summer break from college and brought this dangerous man back to my grandmother's old house in the suburbs.

Life in the slums had a simple rule. Spend your days chopping firewood and patching a leaky roof, and you'd be too exhausted to dream of anything but swinging an axe.

Sure enough, after five days of hard labor, he was too exhausted to think of anything but axes and tin roofs.

A month later, I took Vincent in our neighbor's beat-up pickup truck to the town market to sell the secondhand furniture we had restored.

After a month of hard work, we had made a total of fifteen hundred dollars.

After the cost of tools and gas, our net profit was less than seven hundred bucks.

I counted out two hundred and fifty dollars in cash and pressed it into Vincent's hand.

That night, this man who was used to seeing crates of dirty money tossed and turned in his narrow wooden bed, clutching those few worn-out bills.

The next morning, he sat down beside me with dark circles under his eyes.

"Chloe, be with me. I have money."

Of course, I knew he had money.

For the famous heir of the Moretti family, money was never an issue.

From that day on, he started to pursue me.

It was a grand spectacle, and everyone in our world was watching the show.

Wherever I went, there were whispers from family members.

"See? A mob boss's love isn't worth a dime. Serena's barely been gone a month and the heir's already found a new girl from the slums."

I finally said yes when Vincent rented out an entire city block and piled countless crates of the finest red roses in front of me.

He stood there stunned for a long moment before pulling me into a tight embrace.

Pressed against his furiously beating heart, I felt a strange and powerful surge inside me.

They didn't know. The heir to the Moretti family had everything, except for a moment of pure, uncalculated affection.

After getting together with Vincent, what shamed me most was my background.

But I had a stubborn streak and never intended to bow to their class-based rules.

I studied the complex ledgers day and night, eventually earning all the necessary licenses to become his most trusted financial assistant, the one who could legitimately manage his business.

Unfortunately, the good dream didn't last.

Serena, the childhood sweetheart who had ruthlessly abandoned him, came running back from Europe in disgrace.

She cried in his arms for a night, and the next day, my position was gone.

Serena effortlessly took my place as the family's new chief financial officer.

Vincent leaned back in his executive chair, loosened his tie, and looked at me with tired eyes.

"Chloe, I have no choice. Her father controls two city blocks. For the good of the family, I have to give her this position."

"Besides, once we're married, you'll be the Donna of the family. You need to see the bigger picture, to make some small sacrifices."

I bit my lip and, in the end, I gave in.

After that, I could only watch numbly as he and Serena became inseparable.

He bought her a luxury yacht for her birthday, and he even bought her an identical copy of the cross necklace he had given me when he proposed.

I waited, slowly dying inside from the cycle of hope and disappointment.

I suddenly understood. He probably didn't need my sincere heart anymore.

That day, I sat alone in the bridal shop for eight hours, only to be met by a bodyguard sent to try on the groom's suit in his place.

I finally lost my temper and yelled at him over the phone.

On the other end, he was even angrier than I was.

"Chloe, do you have any idea how much pressure I'm under, fighting everyone to marry a commoner?"

"Serena and I are in a negotiation in the South District. This isn't a game I can just walk away from. It's a stupid dress. Can't you see what's important and what isn't?"

From falling in love to wearing his engagement ring, seven whole years had passed.

He had never taken me to any public events, nor had we taken a single photo together.

Yet he allowed Serena to post pictures of them skiing together in the Alps on her social media.

I had swallowed every injustice, believing he loved me. Now I finally understood the reason I had to endure it all was simple. He just didn't love me anymore.

Two days later, at the morgue of a small church in the suburbs, I collected my grandmother's ashes.

As I bent to sign the papers, Vincent's call came through.

"Where are you? We had a dress fitting scheduled today. Why didn't you show up?"

I lowered my gaze, watching the staff carefully place the urn in a transport box. I was about to refuse.

But Vincent didn't give me a chance to speak and hung up.

"Text me the address. I'll send a car."

I didn't send it.

But less than half an hour after I left the church, a fleet of black cars pulled up at the entrance.

To my surprise, Vincent himself stepped out of the lead armored car.

He loosened the tie of his bespoke suit and gestured toward me with his chin.

"I was out of line the other day. No matter how busy I am with family business, I should have gone to see your grandmother."

"Even if you think her hands weren't clean, she's still the woman who raised you. I get that."

I frowned.

"Once we're married, she'll be your family too. And she would never steal anything."

"Fine. Since the cross wasn't found on her, she didn't steal it. Serena said she was distraught over the late Donna's heirloom and panicked when she had her men take your grandmother."

"She feels terrible about having your grandmother thrown in the dungeon over this. We'll go and get her out personally in a bit."

The passenger side window rolled down, and Serena's delicate face appeared, a small smile playing on her lips.

"I heard your grandmother has a heart condition. I forgot to have someone prepare her medicine that day. It was so thoughtless of me. This is a special medicine flown in from Switzerland, the best and most expensive kind. Let's bring it to the old lady."

The innocent, radiant smile on Serena's face was like a blade in my eyes.

"Save it. Cut the act."

Serena's smile vanished.

Vincent's expression immediately darkened.

"Chloe, don't push it. Serena and I just postponed a family meeting with the capos to come here. I didn't drive all this way to watch you make a scene."

"Get in the car. Don't waste my time."

Serena nodded, looking wronged.

"Chloe, I'm being sincere. I've come to apologize. I was too reckless before. It was all a misunderstanding."

But what she called a "reckless misunderstanding" had cost my only family her life in a cold dungeon.

I clenched my fists and took two steps back.

"Apologize? Fine. Then get on your knees and apologize to her."

Serena's eyes instantly turned red.

"How can you say that? I came here with medicine and a sincere heart, and you're humiliating me…"

"Forget it. It's my fault. It's what I deserve for losing something so important. You two go try on the dress. I should have never come back from Italy…"

She threw the car door open as if to bolt, but Vincent grabbed her.

He pushed her back into the passenger seat, murmuring soft comforts. After a long moment, he looked up at me, his gaze cold.

"Chloe, I understand you're angry, but you don't have the right to speak for your grandmother."

"It doesn't matter. She can hear everything."

Vincent's expression faltered. I didn't wait. I turned and walked toward the cemetery.

The staff at the cemetery had already called several times. It was time for the burial.

Alone, I laid my grandmother to rest in the public cemetery in the South District.

By the time I finished all the arrangements and took a car back to the city center, night had fallen.

I didn't want to go back to the apartment. I found a random roadside motel and checked in.

Just after I showered, my phone started ringing incessantly.

Vincent was sending me picture after picture of wedding dresses.

When I didn't reply, the calls started, one after another.

I didn't even look. I just turned my phone off.

Just as I was drifting off, my door was kicked open.

Vincent saw me, and a wave of relief washed over him.

"You scared the hell out of me. No matter how angry you are, you don't turn off your phone. And you don't run away."

"Since you don't want to see Serena, I came to get you myself."