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…"