When Rocco Morelli, a mafia don, finds me, it's when I'm working as a stripper at an illegal bar, pleasing the men around me with sultry smiles and provocative dances.

He throws his jacket over me and grabs me by the jaw, saying, "Come home with me."

From that day onward, I fell in love with Rocco.

After doting on me for five years, he proposes to me. Yet, in the month leading up to the wedding, he suddenly disappears.

I launch a frenzied search for him before eventually seeing him in a jewelry boutique. With his arm wrapped around the dolled-up woman beside him, he picks out a 20-carat wedding ring.

That woman is Emilia Leone, who is my father's illegitimate daughter.

He stares at her, his eyes filled with affection. "I'll prepare the grandest wedding ceremony for you."

"What about Cassandra?" Emilia asks with a coy smile. "You proposed to her, too."

Snorting, Rocco replies scornfully, "Can't you tell? That's just my way of toying with her. Her older brother nearly took your life. Now that he's gone missing, it's only right for her to suffer the consequences in his place.

"On our wedding day, I'll abandon her at the altar and marry you instead. She'll become the laughingstock in all of Langshore. Only you, the daughter of the Leone family, the largest mafia family, are worthy of me."

The wedding day arrives, and I skip out on the ceremony as well.

At Rocco and Emilia's wedding ceremony, I broadcast 99 photos of Emilia fooling around with other men.

He panics and tearfully begs for me to return to him, but I take the gun my brother hands me and point it at his head, saying, "Actually, I'm the real daughter of the Leone family."

A month before our wedding, my fiance, Rocco Morelli, disappeared. I searched for him for weeks, until I finally saw him in a jewelry boutique.

He was there with a beautiful woman, helping her pick out a diamond ring. She was Emilia Leone, my father's illegitimate daughter, the one I kicked out of the family three years ago.

Rocco slipped a 20-carat diamond ring onto her finger, the stone blindingly bright.

I was just about to march up to him and confront him for his disappearing act when I heard his subordinate, Anthony Johnson, ask, "Are you really going to organize a fake wedding ceremony, then abandon Cassandra on the wedding day and broadcast indecent photos of her for all to see?"

"That's not all I'm going to do. Emilia and I will have a grand wedding ceremony for us on that day, too. I want to let Cassandra watch us get married," Rocco declared nonchalantly. "It's just to teach her a lesson. She has no one but her brother to blame since he bullied Emilia."

Anthony chuckled. "The groom doesn't show up, and indecent photos of her get released. She'll definitely be utterly humiliated. What's going to happen after that, though? What do you plan on doing with her?"

After a brief pause, Rocco answered indifferently, "Once I've taught her a lesson, I'll just keep her on the side. I can give her love, but I can't marry her.

"Emilia is the only one I want to marry. After all, she's the daughter of the Leone mafia family. She's the only one worthy of me, and the one who can save my family from imminent bankruptcy."

He picked up a one-carat ring and said, "This is the ring for her. She can't get anything that's better than what Emilia gets."

I froze. Staring fixedly at that handsome face I used to know so well, I was desperate to find even a flicker of guilt or hesitation in his eyes.

But there was none.

That self-satisfied smirk on his face made him completely unlike the man who usually gazed at me with deep affection.

Well, for the past five years, Rocco had played the part of a man fully devoted to me.

Knowing that I liked peace and quiet, he bought me a private island where I could be away from the bustle of society.

When I mentioned at random that I liked the smell of a particular type of grass, he had people cultivate it specifically in the greenhouse.

I liked stargazing, so he bought the naming rights for a star just for me.

I used to think he loved me dearly, but he'd vanished before our wedding.

Now I knew this was all just an elaborate revenge plan he was executing on Emilia's behalf.

The moment realization struck, the pain in my chest left me scarcely able to breathe.

Rocco didn't know that I was the real daughter of the Leones, the largest mafia family in the country. He had no clue that my relationship with him was meant to be a bet.

Back then, I'd fallen hopelessly in love with him and insisted on marrying him. Ciaran Leone, my older brother, refused to agree to it.

He said Rocco wasn't good enough for me, so I made a bet with him. I asked him to give me five years. If Rocco continued to love me and dote on me throughout all five years, he would have to agree to let us get married.

There was only a week left until the end of the five-year period. The bet was supposed to end on our wedding day.

If Rocco had truly loved me all along, Ciaran would have appeared at the ceremony with my family's death pact for him to sign. Once he did, it meant that our family would fully support him with everything we had.

But he'd ruined everything by lying to me.

I went home in a daze and sat awake all night.

If things just ended now, I wouldn't be able to accept that the five-year relationship had been nothing but a lie. I certainly couldn't accept that he'd fooled me like this.

At dawn, Rocco came home looking rather tired. When he saw me sitting on the couch, he pulled me into his arms at once, burying his face in my hair and kissing my tresses longingly.

"Why are you up so early?" he asked, his voice tender with concern.

"Where were you?" I asked, only to realize how dry my throat was.

I looked into his gentle gaze, hoping to find something that proved he didn't love me, to no avail.

"I had a business negotiation with another family. Didn't I message you about it? Don't overthink it," Rocco said before kissing my face affectionately.

But that only made me feel disgusted.

"Really?" I asked, my eyes fixed on him. "Have you really deleted all of those intimate photos of me in bed that you talked me into taking?"

Rocco's gaze was "earnest" as he declared, "Of course! Don't you believe me? In any case, I only wanted to keep those photos to myself. Come now. The wedding is next week. Don't worry so much."

As Rocco spoke, he took out a velvet box with the one-carat diamond wedding ring. That was the moment my heart finally died.

My love was worth so little to him.

Rage and bitterness filled my heart.

Just then, his phone rang, and he stiffly avoided my gaze as he took the call. It was from Emilia.

I didn't know what she said, but Rocco suddenly grew frantic. "Wait for me! I'll be right there. Don't cry!"

Without sparing me a single glance, he turned on his heels and walked off.

My vision blurred with tears.

Well, since he wanted to toy with me like that for Emilia's sake, I was going to play this game with him and see it to the very end.

Once again, Rocco stayed out all night.

I started sorting through everything in my room, cutting up and destroying everything that had anything to do with him, such as the hundreds of photos we'd taken together and the personalized items he got for me.

With each ruined item, my heart ached a little more.

Out of nowhere, my phone buzzed. An unfamiliar number had sent me a link to an Instagram account. Once I clicked on it, I was greeted with intimate photos of Rocco and Emilia.

"My darling took me ring and dress shopping today! He said he wants to give me the best of everything!"

"As we stood under the northern lights, he held me close and told me he loved me."

"He had the scare of his life when I fell and got a scrape today!"

The latest post showed Rocco crouching in front of Emilia with an affectionate expression as he carefully bandaged her ankle.

That unfamiliar number sent me another message. "He kept calling me 'baby' when he was in bed with me last night. He doesn't love you at all."

It was followed by an indecent photo taken in bed.

My stomach churned. Resisting the urge to vomit, I texted back, "Is that so? Do you think he'll still feel the same way if he finds out that you've been impersonating me the whole time?"

There was no reply to that. It was just as I'd expected. These messages were coming from Emilia.

After a while, she replied, "He won't find out about that. He'll only trust me. Oh, right. I forgot to show you a gift I got."

She sent me a photo of a sapphire necklace—the one Grandma gave me!

"Rocco gave this to me," Emilia texted.

This explained why I hadn't been able to find the necklace recently. I couldn't believe Rocco had given her one of my belongings!

I couldn't take it anymore.

After checking her latest updates, I confirmed that she was currently at a hospital. My anger got the best of me.

I dashed straight to the hospital. Immediately, I spotted Emilia, who stuck out in the crowd. She was wearing Grandma's necklace.

"You filthy impersonator!" I screeched as I marched up to her and yanked the necklace off her neck.

Emilia clutched her neck and screamed. Glaring daggers at me, she lashed out, "You shameless woman! How dare you! Rocco gave that to me!"

"Did he?" I snarled as I held the necklace tightly. "But you know very well it belongs to me!"

Emilia stared at me. That face that resembled my father's so much abruptly curved into a smirk. "Really, now? But who do you think Rocco will believe, hmm? The daughter of the Leone family who ran away from home?"

Then, she suddenly let out a high-pitched scream, wailing as she begged, "No! Don't hurt me, Cassandra! Please, I beg you!"

A powerful shove pushed me aside. I slammed into the wall and immediately felt a shooting pain down my back.

"Emilia! Are you okay?" Rocco asked as he gently consoled the sobbing Emilia.

Not once did he look at me.

Two sleepless nights had left my body in a dire state of exhaustion. Before I could even say anything, I blacked out.

…

When I woke up, I was lying in bed. Rocco's eyes were bloodshot as he asked me, "Are you still in pain? I'm sorry. I was just a little too anxious earlier."

"You hurt me," I said emotionlessly, keeping my eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"I'm sorry, Cassandra. It was just in the heat of the moment. I didn't mean to push you," he said, avoiding what I said.

Staring him straight in the eye, I questioned, "Why did you give her my necklace?"

Rocco was silent for a moment before he slowly replied, "It's hers in the first place. I already know who you are, Cassandra. You're an illegitimate daughter of the Leone family, and you stole that necklace."

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that. I laughed at my foolishness for having loved a man like him for so many years.

"What if I told you that the necklace is mine, and she's the illegitimate daughter?"

Rocco let out a long sigh. "Stop lying. Don't I know you well enough by now? Be good and don't cause any more trouble. We'll be getting married in one week."

But there wasn't going to be a groom at my wedding ceremony anyway.

"What about Emilia?" I asked.

Looking like he'd been caught in a lie, he averted his eyes and said, "She's just a business partner of the family."

As soon as he finished speaking, he turned around and walked off, looking like he was fleeing instead. I heard a click when the door closed—it'd been locked.

Tensing, I dashed to the door and tried to open it.

"Rocco! Let me out!"

His voice came from the other side, cold and unyielding."You're going to stay in there until the wedding."

Even on the night before the wedding, I was still locked in the room. Rocco didn't drop by a single time throughout the entire week. He probably guessed that I knew the truth.

I couldn't understand. Could someone truly hold two people dear in his heart at once?

But these things didn't matter anymore. I took out the backup satellite phone from a hidden compartment in the drawer and sent a message. "You win, Ciaran. Come get me."

Suddenly, the door flew open, and Emilia appeared in the doorway. She held her hand up, waving that blinding 20-carat diamond ring in my face. What an eyesore it was.

However, my eyes were fixed on the sapphire necklace around her neck—it was what Grandma had left to me after she died.

"My, my. Who would've thought that the almighty daughter of the Leone family would end up like this?" Emilia remarked with a gloating smile, her voice grating on the ears.

"You're not at all worried that my brother would expose you?" I shot back.

Emilia didn't seem the least bit anxious about that. "Three days ago, I used your phone to send your brother a text, saying that you want to cut off all ties with him, and that you despised him. I also blocked his number after that."

I simply listened to her in silence. She was so dumb. She had no idea I had a backup satellite phone that couldn't be tracked or interfered with. Its battery life was extremely long, too.

"You didn't expect that, huh?" she continued with a vicious cackle. "All I did was tell Rocco that you, the bastard daughter, kept bullying me, and he believed everything I told him.

"I guess he never cared about you all that much anyway. The moment I batted my eyelashes at him, he crawled right into my bed.

"Well, it's time for you to enjoy this 'gift' I prepared for you."

As soon as she finished speaking, four burly men entered the room with disgustingly perverse expressions.

Still grinning smugly, Emilia declared, "Don't worry. Rocco will be in bed with me tonight, so he'll be too busy to care about what's happening to you."

Once again, the door was locked.

I looked at the men without even flinching. I wasn't at all scared.

Emilia probably forgot that I was the daughter of the most powerful mafia don in the country. By the time I was 15, I was already hunting down our family's enemies with a gun.

Ten minutes later, the door opened again. The last of the four men had taken a bullet in the head, and his blood splattered all over the wall.

I wiped the blood off my face before looking at Ciaran, who was standing in the doorway.

I finally broke down from all of the grievances that had built up inside of me. Stumbling into his arms, I sobbed, "Take me away from here! I was so wrong. I'll never not listen to you again!"

Ciaran sighed and stroked my hair.

"I knew you'd never say you want to cut off ties with me. I looked into it and found out that it was all Emilia's doing. I'm sorry I'm late. It took a bit of time to arrange the helicopter.

"As for those two, you can deal with them however you want. I'll do whatever you say."

I lifted my head, my gaze burning with resentment. "I want them to pay for what they've done!"

…

It was 10:00 pm. Rocco sat in a chair, staring at his phone. Even till now, he hadn't received any news about the fake wedding ceremony he'd organized to "teach me a lesson".

He recalled the way I looked at him the last time he saw me. The contempt and hostility in my eyes made it seem like I'd seen right through him. For a moment, he was gripped with panic.

Rocco was the most powerful mafia don in Langshore. No one had ever made him feel this way before.

A coy, saccharine voice rang out. "Am I beautiful, Rocco?"

He turned to the door and saw Emilia standing there in her wedding gown. She was all dolled up and undeniably beautiful, but he didn't feel even a shred of happiness.

Rocco kept trying to reassure himself that everything was fine. Once his plan to set me up was complete, everything would go back to normal afterward. He'd still continue to dote on me like he did before.

With this in mind, he forced out a smile and said, "Yeah. You look beautiful. Let's go. It's time to start the wedding ceremony."

They'd just arrived in the hall when, at the very next second, the projector screen lit up, and a series of photos started playing.

Everyone present widened their eyes in shock as explicit photos of Emilia with various men began flashing before them.

There was also a photo of a statement declaring that the Leone family had severed all ties with Emilia, the illegitimate daughter of the family, after she stole confidential information from the family and sold it.

Rocco's eyes went wide as well. He couldn't believe what he saw. "What… How could this be…"