To protect his biological child, the mafia Don deliberately announces to the world that my fiance is his long-lost son.

A Rolls-Royce pulls up outside my house. My fiance stares at his custom-tailored suit, his entire body trembling with excitement.

I'm about to tell him it's all a lie when he shoves me aside and brushes off his sleeves with disgust, like he's touching something filthy.

"Stay away from me. I can smell the poverty on you from here!"

"Since I'm the Don's son, our engagement is over. An unwanted nobody like you isn't even fit to lick my boots."

I try to explain, but he pulls out a check and slams it against my face—the sharp paper edge slices across my cheek.

"Here's a million dollars. Consider it a breakup fee, and don't bother me again. We're not from the same world anymore."

Watching the check flutter down into the mud, I quietly dim my phone screen.

On it is a text from my father, the mafia Don. "Mia cara figlia, bear with it a little longer. Papa will bring you home soon to take over the family."

Since he wants to burn every bridge between us, fine. He can have all this fortune on a silver platter.

Whether he'll live long enough to enjoy it is another question entirely.

"Take this million dollars and get lost! You think just because I've made it, I'm going to let a bottom-feeding nobody like you keep leeching off me?"

My fiance, Marco Benedetti, slapped the check against my face, arrogance written all over him. "I used to think you were at least obedient, but now I see you're nothing but dead weight.

"I was born with noble blood running through my veins, but for six years, you made me live like a rat in the slums. Now that I've reclaimed my inheritance, cheap trash like you isn't even fit to lick my boots!"

I stood there stunned. "You're really breaking up with me over an identity you haven't even confirmed yet?"

Marco looked at me with contempt. "That's right."

"These past six years, your mediocrity has swallowed up all my brilliance. Look at me now. Do I look anything like the heir I'm supposed to be?

"You only drag me down. Dumping you now is God's will!"

I almost laughed. During our six years together, I worked during the day and took assassination contracts on the black market at night just to pay off his millions in gambling debts.

It turned out that everything I'd sacrificed meant nothing to him. Worse, I'd become an embarrassment he needed to erase.

Marco ignored my furious expression and continued, "What, the money's not enough? Of course, you're just a gold digger, but don't you dare think you can cling to my family's power!"

"The Benedetti family is one of the Four Great Mafia Families. An outsider like you has no right to even touch that world!"

I stared at his smug face and let out a cold laugh. "Marco, don't be so confident. You can't fake the truth. Deep down, you know exactly what you are."

Marco's expression shifted. He shoved me hard. "You're talking nonsense! You're just jealous. No matter how much you slander me, it won't change the fact that I'm the heir!"

Just then, a cab pulled up to the curb.

The door opened, and my sworn enemy, Isabella Romano, stepped out dripping in designer labels. She rushed straight into Marco's arms.

"Marco! Is it true? Are you really the mafia heir?"

Back when Marco and I first got together, she never missed a chance to mock me for being with a broke loser who'd keep me poor forever.

Now that Marco thought he'd struck gold, here she was, ready to stake her claim. The way they clung to each other told me everything. They'd been sleeping together long before today.

In fact, judging by how quickly she showed up, Marco probably told her the news before he even told me. Seeing my shocked expression and pale face, he pulled Isabella closer by the waist and kissed her right in front of me, even more pleased with himself.

"Of course! Who else could be worthy of me?"

Then he pointed at my house with disgust. "You were right, Isabella. Just looking at her makes me sick.

"Someone get in there! Smash everything in that dump! Burn it all, capisce?

"I'm Marco Benedetti, and I'm destined for great things. I can't have this kind of stain on my record!"

"Isabella, being with you makes me feel truly alive!

"You helped me when I was at my lowest. Now that I've reclaimed my identity, I have to share this glory with you!"

"You hate Giulia, don't you? Watch me put her in her place. I'll make her disappear for good. You're the only woman fit to stand beside the heir!"

While the two of them carried on, I kept trying to stop the workers from destroying everything.

But there were too many of them. I watched my home get torn apart, then turned back to look at Marco.

The irony wasn't lost on me. I was the one who secretly took out the debt collectors' hitmen to keep him alive. And he thought his luck changed because he swapped girlfriends?

I instinctively touched the bullet scar on my back.

Three years ago, he racked up a massive gambling debt and got locked up in an underground fight club. I went in alone and took a bullet for him just to get him out.

I even drained every penny I had saved to convince them to spare his life.

I looked at him coldly. "Marco, have you forgotten? Three years ago, if I hadn't..."

Marco's face went rigid before he exploded. "Shut up! Don't bring up that filthy past!

"I'm the mafia heir now! Those memories only taint my status! A street rat like you needs to stay as far away from me as possible!"

Just then, Isabella clutched her stomach dramatically and let out a little "Oh!"

Marco immediately rushed to support her. "What's wrong, amore mio? Is our little heir kicking?"

Isabella shot me a smug look. "Sì, the baby seems to know his papa's about to inherit a fortune. He's excited."

I stared in disbelief. He had a kid? That was impossible! Marco had gotten tested, and he had severe oligospermia.

This wasn't some little heir. There was definitely something else going on. I couldn't help it anymore, and I laughed out loud.

Marco saw my cold laugh and instantly lost it. "What are you laughing at? Isabella got pregnant with my family's heir after just one month! You were with me for six years and couldn't even give me that!

"I used to think something was wrong with me, but now I see it clearly. You're just some slum woman with inferior genes who can't carry my child!"

I pretended to look surprised. "One month? Marco, are you sure the timeline adds up?

"Didn't you say you spent last month hiding in a basement eating plain bread because loan sharks were after you?"

Isabella's face went pale. She quickly grabbed Marco's arm. "Marco, don't let her drive a wedge between us!

"Don't you remember? Last month, when you were 'dodging debt collectors,' you were actually at my apartment.

"We were working day and night to give the family an heir!"

Marco's face lit up with a lecherous grin. "Right! Isabella really knows how to take care of me. Not like you, always making me suffer!"

In that moment, I felt nothing but cold emptiness. So his "hiding out and going dark" meant shacking up with her.

He had no idea that during that month, I'd been taking on job after job to scrape together his debt money. I stepped on the wrong toes and nearly got kidnapped to have my organs harvested.

If the man captured alongside me hadn't helped me fight off those thugs, if he hadn't taken a fatal bullet for me, I'd be dead. And while I was out there thinking I'd die just to see Marco one last time, he was rolling around in bed with Isabella?

My stomach churned.

Marco, eager to prove his loyalty in front of Isabella, kicked aside the broken glass on the ground and pulled out a document. He threw it onto the ruins.

"Giulia, don't say I'm heartless. Just sign this Severance Agreement and swear you'll never tell anyone we knew each other. Then I'll let you live.

"As for this pile of trash, keep it as a souvenir!"

I looked at the agreement and signed it without hesitation.

"Fine. I'll sign. After all, there's no point arguing with a dead man."

Marco snatched away the freshly signed agreement and flicked the paper with his fingertips, as if brushing off dust.

"This dump is yours now. It's a wreck, but at least the land's worth something."

He pulled Isabella close and didn't even spare me another glance before turning toward the silver Rolls-Royce. "Let's go to the best hospital. Isabella needs the finest prenatal care. I can't let the filth from these commoners harm our precious baby."

Watching the taillights disappear, I took one last look at my destroyed home, drew a deep breath, and flagged down a cab. "Sacred Heart Hospital, please."

My mind was a mess, but I couldn't let myself fall apart yet. The man who took a bullet for me when we were captured, Luca Santoro, was still lying in the hospital waiting for me.

My eyelid kept twitching. The Benedetti family owned that hospital. I could only hope I wouldn't run into those two.

But of course, fate had other plans.

The moment I stepped out of the VIP floor elevator, I heard something shatter at the nurses' station.

"Rules?" Marco's voice dripped with casual cruelty. "In this city, I am the rules."

Isabella clung to his arm, pointing at the trembling head nurse. "Are you deaf? Clear out the best private room. Now!

"I don't care who's in there. Kick them out!"

"But... that gentleman just had surgery..."

Mid-argument, a door at the end of the hallway opened. A man in a striped hospital gown came out, leaning against the wall for support.

He didn't want trouble. He stepped forward to offer the room to Marco, but the moment his hand touched Marco's shoulder, Marco's face twisted as if a cockroach had crawled across his foot.

He lifted his leg in disgust.

The kick was fast, brutal, and precise. The man tried to dodge, his body tilting slightly, but his injury slowed him. Marco's foot slammed directly into his chest, right where the wound was.

The man flew backward and crashed into the wall before sliding down. Blood soaked through the front of his hospital gown as he coughed it up, but he didn't make a sound.

A nurse screamed and rushed over to help.

"Luca!"

My mind went blank. I pushed through the crowd and dropped to my knees in the pool of blood.

Marco pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the tip of his shoe, glancing down from above before letting out a mocking laugh.

"Well, well. If it isn't Giulia. What are you doing here?

"What, heard I got my identity back and came to the hospital to stage an accident?"

Luca clutched his chest in agony, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth as he fixed his sharp gaze on Marco. "I know you. You're Marco, Giulia's fiance..."

"Shut up! Don't talk to me about Giulia!"

Marco glared at Luca's handsome face with pure hatred. "You call her by her first name so casually. Look at you two, all cozy together.

"You must've been sneaking around behind my back! Breaking up with her was the smartest thing I ever did!"

My voice shook. "Marco, this has nothing to do with him. Luca is the man who saved my life! While you were cozying up with Isabella, he's the one who saved me when I was being hunted!"

Marco looked like I'd struck a nerve. He spat back, "You think I'd believe that? What stranger risks their life for trash like you? If he's so eager to die, let him. Just don't block my way."

In that moment, whatever I'd felt for him died completely.