The day before the family’s position transfer deadline, I received an order assigning me to the Bellarosa branch.

It had come from Don Enzo Vitelli, who also happened to be my fiance.

My fingers went cold as I dialed his number.

His voice was drawling, as if he had just rolled out of bed. “Oh, Lucrezia submitted that for you. She said it was a prank. She wanted to see if you’d notice. Well, you did notice, so just cancel it yourself.”

Lucrezia was the new assistant with whom he had a thing with.

I held the phone and stayed silent for a long moment.

All those six years I had fought for my place in the family, yet someone was treating it as a prank.

I did not argue or scream.

I simply packed my things calmly and boarded the flight to Bellarosa on schedule.

Enzo panicked.

He called back. His voice finally lost that lazy drawl. “I told you to cancel it. Have you cancelled it?”

“No.”

When I found the transfer notice, I was cleaning a trusty Beretta I had used for three years.

Enzo Vitelli and I had an agreement.

Once the family’s personnel changes were settled, we would get married.

We had made that promise four years ago.

I somehow turned out being transferred thousands of miles away, to Bellarosa.

If I had not made it a habit to check internal files myself, I would not have even had the chance to cancel it.

The phone rang for a long time before he answered.

Background noise filled the line. There was music and laughter from women.

“Oh, that,” Enzo said, like he was just talking about what to have for dinner. “Lucrezia just wanted to see how you’d react. She just wanted to see if you’d notice it yourself. She’s young. She was just playing around. Don't make a mountain out of a molehill. The deadline hasn’t passed yet, has it? Just explain it to the Commission and cancel the thing.”

I gripped the phone so hard my knuckles went white. “What if I hadn’t checked today? She abused her access. According to family rules, I could have her weighed down and dropped into the East River.”

Enzo’s tone went cold. “Amelia, when did you become so unreasonable? Are you going to kill her over a prank she made? Can’t you be a little kind, and a little more forgiving to her?”

He was getting worked up. His voice was rising. “How many times have I told you? She’s a young girl, and she’s barely of age. I am the Don of this family. What’s wrong with me looking out for her? Do you intend to hurt her? You’d have to go through me first.”

Then, without letting me answer, he hung up.

My name was Amelia Ross.

I had known Enzo Vitelli for eleven years. We had been together for six years.

He was my fiance. He was also the Don of the Vitelli family.

I remembered the year I first became his subordinate. I had messed up during my first collection errand and ended up being locked in a warehouse.

He drove there alone, kicked the door open with blood on his hands, and pulled me out. Beneath the streetlight, he had lit a cigarette for me and said, “Don’t be afraid. I’ll show you the ropes next time.”

I also remembered the Christmas party during that year. Someone was pouring drinks down my throat and feeling up my legs. In front of the other Dons, he broke that man’s wrist. Then, he put his own coat over my shoulders, looked down at me, and asked if I would be his Donna. That meant being the lady of the Vitelli family.

Six years.

We had been together for six years.

Everyone said we were a perfect match, like a blade and its sheath.

We had exchanged rings. The wedding was set for early spring the following year.

Everything should have gone smoothly.

Yet, staring at the bright “Cancel” button on the screen, I suddenly remembered his words. “A prank.”

An overwhelming sense of exhaustion crawled up from my bones.

I suddenly felt tired.

Someone knocked on the door.

Lucrezia Calderon stood there with that cloying smile of hers.

“Amelia.”

Her voice was neither too soft nor too loud, but it was just enough for the servants in the hall to hear. “I just finished briefing Don Vitelli on some family business. He seemed a little off and said he wanted to go to the bar for a drink. I was wondering if it was all right for me to go with him?”

Her words were polite, yet the trace of smugness in the corner of her eyes could not be hidden.

For the past six months, she had always been like that in front of me.

She played sweet, acted soft, yet she was unable to completely suppress that little self-satisfied glow.

When had Enzo started to change?

At first, he clearly disliked Lucrezia. He said she was incompetent and her ambitions ran too wild. He was going to get rid of her.

He even complained to me that she was always hanging around him. It greatly annoyed him.

Then there was also that negotiation with the Eastern Bloc crew. Someone slipped Enzo something. He went down to a warehouse.

I was out in Redshore collecting a debt and could not get back.

Word was that Lucrezia drove over by herself, dragged him out of there, and stayed two days in the hospital by his bedside without a wink of sleep.

Since then, Enzo’s attitude toward her changed.

First, he made an exception and allowed her to become an official member of the family. Later, he constantly kept her close. Eventually, he started telling people she was like a little sister to him.

Every mafia family in New Avalon knew that Enzo Vitelli had found himself a little sister.

On the other hand, behind my back, they called me “the woman Enzo keeps at home.”

Every time I heard that, my face would darken.

Enzo did not care. He would just smile and put his arm around my waist. “What is all this ‘at home’ and ‘out there’? Don’t listen to them. I only love you.”

Was that still the case?

Would he still dare to say he only loved me?

I curled my lips and watched the woman at the door playact.

Lucrezia was still smiling. “Amelia, are you upset?”

Before her voice even faded, Enzo was already striding over. His dress shoes were clicking hard against the marble floor.

“Lucrezia, didn’t I tell you to wait for me in the garage? What are you doing here?”

“I… I could not decide.” She twisted her fingers together, her eyes going red at the rims, her voice soft and sweet. “I was afraid Amelia would be upset, so I wanted to ask for her permission first.”

Enzo’s expression softened immediately.

He glanced at me, then turned to her. His look went tender. “I don’t need anyone else’s permission to drink with you.”

Lucrezia lowered her head. The corners of her mouth curled up, though her words still came out haltingly. “But it’s only right to let Amelia know.”

Enzo turned to me with impatience flashing in his eyes. “She’s being respectful enough now, right? She asked your permission just to go have a drink at a bar. What about you? You’re pulling a long face at her just over a prank.”

He still thought that altering my transfer order without permission and treating my future as a prank were merely insignificant pranks.

On top of that, I was the one being unreasonable.

Why should I endure this?

I snorted.

“Respect me? The last six months, how many little shows has she put on for you, right in front of me and behind your back? Are you really blind to it? She was showing up every day in a low-cut dress to bring you coffee while pressing herself against you right in front of me. Do you call that keeping proper boundaries? Even after all that, she keeps clinging to you, saying you’re like her brother to her. Even if she doesn’t feel any shame, watching it certainly makes me sick. Do you, Enzo Vitelli, actually find someone like that appealing?”

Lucrezia’s face paled instantly.

Her skin drained of color. Her tears started to roll down her cheeks onto the floor.

Enzo’s expression darkened completely.

“Amelia, since when have you become so cruel?”

He looked at my expressionless face and suddenly let out a mocking laugh. What he said next struck like a dagger. “With your temper, you’re not fit to be my wife. On top of that, you’re not even fit to be my mistress.”

It felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart.

I had never imagined that Enzo would mock me with words like that.

Who did he think he was? Who did he think I was?

Also, what did he mean by saying that? Was he breaking up with me?

I stared at him without moving.

He grew uneasy under my gaze and looked away first.

I knew he was recalling all these years we had shared.

We had been together so long and always supported each other. We had never hurt each other.

Something fundamental had changed.

He clearly cared about Lucrezia more than me.

“Lucrezia is reasonable. She wouldn’t take it to heart. Just apologize to her, and we can put this behind us.”

A single sentence had shown me that six years of trust, love, and promises were all gone.

I shook my head. My voice came out soft. “I’d never.”

Enzo’s tone turned cold and sharp. “Amelia, is this really how you want to play it?”

How else was I playing it?

Every word out of his mouth felt more absurd than the last.

Suddenly, I did not want to fight for any of it anymore.

“I’ve always been like this, Enzo. You didn’t meet me yesterday.”

I pushed them out and slammed the door.

I sat back down in the chair and stared at the transfer notice again.

Less than an hour remained.

The transfer would go into effect in the next hour.

I would have to leave this city I had lived in for eleven years and go to Bellarosa for the first time in my life. I did not know a single thing about that place.

Yet I still did not press cancel.

I simply sat there and watched the countdown tick away.

The display eventually switched to “Confirmed.”

I exhaled slowly.

It turned out that leaving Enzo was not that difficult, after all.

In fact, it felt as though something deep inside me had finally let go.

My phone lit up.

Texts from my best friend Layla Pedro came pounding in like bullets.

[Amelia, I just ran into your fiance at the bar!

[Enzo and Lucrezia are here! Your family is all assembled there too!

[They’re insane. They’re cheering him on to do a mouth-to-mouth shot with her! My goodness, that woman is practically glued to him!]

Then, she sent me a video.

The camera shook violently. The lights were low and red.

Enzo was surrounded in a booth, his suit undone and his tie crooked. He had a broad grin on his face.

Lucrezia pressed up next to him with her face against his shoulder. She blushed as the crowd cheered.

Someone shouted, “Don Vitelli, rules are rules! You lost. You have to either do a mouth-to-mouth shot with a lady here, or you call your fiancée Amelia to come get you! Pick one!”

“Yes, yes, call her! Let’s see if Amelia will do you the favor and show up!”

The energy surged to a fever pitch.

Everyone knew we were fighting. They delighted in the drama, egging it on even more.

Lucrezia looked at him with eyes full of hope.

Enzo furrowed his brow, clearly irritated by the noise.

After a few seconds of silence, he pulled out his phone.

Lucrezia’s face went pale instantly.

The call connected.

Enzo’s voice was flat. “Amelia, I got carried away earlier, but I’m calm now. Come over and apologize to Lucrezia in person. We’ll forget what happened before.”

I said nothing.

Enzo’s patience burned out fast. “Say something! Is it that hard for you to swallow your pride and say you’re sorry?”

“Yes, Enzo. I did nothing wrong. You want me to apologize? Over my dead body.”

“Fine! Amelia, you have some nerve!”

He roared with anger, “In that case, listen from the other end while I kiss her in front of everyone!”

I immediately hung up.

Layla’s video came through again.

The footage was chaotic. Enzo had smashed a glass. Liquor was spilled all over the table.

Lucrezia’s voice trembled. There were tears in her eyes. “Don Vitelli, let’s stop the game. Please don’t be mad.”

“Who says we’re stopping?”

Enzo suddenly looked up and stared straight at the camera.

He had known Layla was recording the whole time.

“Don’t bother hiding. Keep filming! Let your best friend watch who I’m kissing right now!”

He grabbed the back of Lucrezia’s neck.

Amid the crowd’s gasps, he kissed her fiercely.

In spite of myself, my heart still ached at the sight of that.

However, the sting came fast and faded just as quickly.

I turned off the video and went back to clearing my things off the desk.