"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.

Marco knew better than anyone that I loved him, that I was the last person who would ever cheat. For six years, I'd risked my life for him. We once thought we were each other's only support in this forsaken city.

But now, he didn't hesitate to drag my name through the mud just to justify his betrayal. In his eyes, I was nothing but the dirt he needed to erase.

"Marco, forget this trash. The auction's about to start." Isabella covered her nose as she urged him on.

Marco immediately put on a fawning expression and wrapped his arm around her. He stepped over the blood on the floor before swaggering into the elevator.

They didn't even look back, as if what they'd just crushed wasn't a few ribs but a pile of dirt. I swallowed my murderous rage and helped the on-call doctor wheel Luca into the emergency room.

The red light above the emergency room burned my eyes as I sat on the bench. Just then, my phone vibrated.

The screen lit up with a notification from Marco's social media. In the video, Marco and Isabella were sitting in a private suite at the "Midnight Paradise" auction.

It was the city's most exclusive den of vice. One couldn't even get through the door without connections.

Marco looked flushed with excitement, waving the card I'd given him to pay off his debts as he shouted arrogantly, "Six million dollars!"

Six million, he said? A cruel smile curved my lips as my finger tapped the screen, sending an instruction to freeze the account.

Less than five minutes later, Marco's call came through. The moment I answered, his furious roar blasted through.

"Giulia! You bitch, you locked my card! Why else would it suddenly decline?

"Unlock it right now! Cash out that money from the agreement and get your ass to Midnight Paradise to pay my bill!"

I let out a cold laugh.

"Marco, did you get kicked in the head? We broke up. That's my breakup money. Why the hell would I use it to clean up your mess?

"Besides, that card is mine. You've been living off me this whole time, and I haven't even settled that score yet. Why would I pay for you now?"

"Cut the crap!" Marco's voice warped with fear. Clearly, the security guards had already surrounded him.

"I'm the Benedetti heir! This is pocket change! Once I officially take over the family tomorrow, I'll pay you back ten times... no, a hundred times over!

"If you don't come, I'll have someone kill that little lover of yours in the emergency room!"

Was he really threatening me with Luca?

I lowered my eyes to the crimson glow above the emergency room door and spoke softly into the phone, my tone so gentle it would send chills down anyone's spine.

"Marco, if you're really the mafia heir, then use your life to pay your debts.

"Oh, and a friendly reminder. Black market organ harvesting doesn't use anesthesia. It's going to hurt."

I hung up. The cold light from the phone screen reflected on my emotionless face. I took a deep breath and dialed that top-secret number.

"Papa, I want to come home."

There was a moment of silence on the other end, then came the reply. "Come home, figlia mia. It's time you returned."