I'm Bella, the Donna of the Vitoriano Famiglia.

The thing is, no one thinks I'm worthy of this position. After all, I'm a former slave who has been rescued by Giorgio Vitoriano, the next Don in line, from an underground auction house.

In order to repay him for his act of benevolence, I become the sharpest weapon of his arsenal. I pull off every task flawlessly, be it assassination, infiltration, or purging the family of unwelcome moles. I make it my life's mission to block every source of danger aimed at him, even if it means sacrificing myself.

On the day Giorgio becomes the new Don, he places a family signet ring onto my palm.

"Bella, I have a new mission for you that requires both of us to carry out for the rest of our lives. Will you do me the honor of accepting it?"

Of course, I will.

But Giorgio ends up bringing his adopted sister, Liliana Vitoriano, home one year into our marriage.

I think it's my time to leave now.

Today marked the third anniversary of my marriage to Giorgio Vitoriano, the Don of the Vitoriano famiglia.

I had personally prepared everything, and just as I was about to have dinner with Giorgio, the piercing ringtone rang out again. The name flashing across Giorgio's screen—"Lili"—was an unbearable eyesore to me.

Liliana Vitoriano was the daughter of the former Don, Clemente Vitoriano. After Clemente passed away, he entrusted her to Giorgio, her adoptive older brother.

Since then, no matter how big or small the matter was, Liliana would call Giorgio regardless of the occasion or time.

Giorgio glanced at me for a moment. But in the end, he frowned and answered the incessantly ringing phone.

"I'm busy," he hissed.

"Gio, hurry and come to the Darkcrow Club! They're all ganging up on me! If you don't come…"

Liliana's spoiled voice came from the other end of the line. It sounded as though she was still thinking of how to threaten him into coming.

But the moment Giorgio heard the words "ganging up", he had already taken the coat handed to him by one of his men.

Compared to me, his wife, even the slightest disturbance involving his adoptive sister would immediately draw his full attention.

I tightened my grip on the knife and fork in my hands as I looked at Giorgio, who was about to leave.

"Today is our wedding anniversary," I said.

Giorgio raised his hands to massage his temples, turning around to avoid my pleading gaze. "Liliana needs my help."

"You know how she is. Most of the time, she's just messing around..." As my eyes met Giorgio's icy ones, my voice gradually grew softer.

Giorgio sighed, sounding somewhat apologetic. "I'll be back soon. It'll only take an hour at most."

Back soon?

I had heard that line far too many times. When it came to Liliana, I always had to give way.

"Okay," I said softly.

Giorgio seemed to let out a sigh of relief. He hurriedly pressed a kiss against the side of my face before striding out the door.

I stared at the cold dishes on the table until the clock on the wall rang once more. Then, I grabbed my coat and got into my car. Without delaying a second, I drove straight to the Darkcrow Club.

But the moment I pushed open the door to the private room, the scene before me made my blood run cold.

Liliana was straddling Giorgio's lap, clutching his tie tightly. Their lips were pressed together as cheers erupted around them. The lights flickered and danced around. They kissed passionately as though they were the married couple.

The instant our eyes met, Giorgio's face stiffened. The intense shock in his eyes was unmistakable.

The private room instantly fell silent.

Giorgio frowned and walked toward me, ignoring the alcohol that had soaked his pants. It was the first time he had overcome his germophobia for my sake, but I couldn't bring myself to feel happy about it.

I forced the corners of my lips upward, trying to plaster on a polite smile.

"Bella, it's not what you think. I—" Giorgio tugged irritably at his tie.

"I know." I looked at the bright red lipstick mark on his neck. "I'm your wife. I won't argue with her over this. She's just being childish."

That was what Giorgio always said to me.

Whether it was Liliana barging into our bedroom in the middle of the night, suddenly deciding to shave my head bald as a prank, or cutting up my dress before a banquet…

Giorgio always thought it was just childish mischief. He believed that since I was already his wife, no one could take him away from me. So, he assumed I would still feel secure about our relationship as I tolerated her antics.

"But I'm getting tired of this, Giorgio," I lamented inwardly.

Giorgio parted his lips slightly, as though he wanted to say something. But soon, he calmed himself down and regained his composure.

Well, that much was expected. He had always hoped I would tolerate Liliana unconditionally. Now that I didn't seem to mind, he was over the moon. So, how could he possibly bother to distinguish whether it was genuine indifference or true generosity?

A cloyingly sweet female voice cut through the silence and sounded from behind him. "Gio, what are you doing? You lost your round when we were playing Truth or Dare. Of course, you had to kiss me! Everyone's watching."

She rested her head against Giorgio's shoulder, her tone filled with innocent arrogance and a hint of barely concealed provocation. "Don't be so petty, Bella. It was just a game."

I said nothing and just stared at Giorgio's wrinkled tie.

I had given him that tie for our wedding anniversary. But now, it was stained with Liliana's smeared lipstick.

"Giorgio, I won't wait for you anymore," I said softly.

I turned and walked away, ignoring Liliana's tearful complaints coming from behind me and Giorgio's perfunctory attempt to stop me from leaving.

He said, "Fine, don't wait up. It's probably better if you head home first. I'll make it up to you for our anniversary celebration tomorrow."

Upon hearing his response, I suddenly found it all so laughable. This was the man I had loved for seven years—the man I had once been willing to give my life for.

In these seven years, hadn't I waited enough already?

On my birthday, because Liliana said she was afraid of the dark, Giorgio left me to wait alone in the restaurant until midnight. On the day he proposed, Liliana locked me inside a freezer room, but he spent the entire night comforting her while I waited.

On the day I was kidnapped by our enemy, Carlotta D'Angelo, he chose to rescue Liliana first despite knowing how deeply Carlotta hated me.

As he left, he repeated those same words that he always used on me.

"Just wait a little longer."

But this time, I didn't want to wait anymore.

I dialed a number. "Come pick me up. I agree to come home and reunite with my family."

After hanging up, I got into the car and watched the scenery fly backward outside the window.

I took a deep breath, thinking wistfully, "There's something I haven't had the chance to tell you yet, Giorgio. I found my family. I'm not an orphan anymore."

After returning to the villa, I went straight to the bedroom upstairs, intending to pack a few coats. But then, I discovered that the closet was filled with Liliana's clothes.

I looked around the room and saw that Liliana's belongings were scattered everywhere. There was her lipstick on the nightstand, and the sexy nightgown casually tossed onto the bed. Every corner of the room carried traces of her presence. There were strands of her bold curls beside my pillow.

For a moment, I couldn't even tell whose home this was. Giorgio had once promised that this home would forever belong to me. Only now did I realize that I had never truly belonged here.

My heart clenched tightly as waves of dull pain slowly spread through me. My eyes reddened as I shoved clothes haphazardly into my suitcase.

I dragged out the safe from beneath the bed. I had never opened it since we got married. Hence, a thick layer of dust had already gathered on its surface.

I opened the door and, with trembling hands, took out the divorce agreement. Giorgio had left his signature at the bottom of the page long ago.

It was bold and sharp, exactly the same as the signature he had used seven years ago when he bought me out of the underground auction house, no matter how much it cost him.

To repay him for saving my life, I had risked my life to pass along calls for help when he was trapped in a hotel. I had disguised myself as a dancer to seduce the Capo who controlled the outskirts. On top of that, I had helped him complete an assassination and eliminate traitors within the famiglia.

Once, I had even taken three bullets for him when he walked straight into an ambush. I had very nearly died in the emergency room that time.

And on the day Giorgio became the new Don, what I received was not another mission, but a family signet.

He had gently placed the signet in my palm and said, "Bella, I have a new mission for you. It is one that will take us a lifetime to complete together. Are you willing to do it?"

It should have been the moment my dream came true, yet I was trembling with fear.

The gap between us was far too great. I had been afraid that happiness would disappear in an instant and that Giorgio was only acting on impulse. I was even more afraid that he would one day grow tired of me, and I wouldn't even have any way of getting out of our union.

But Giorgio said nothing. On the night before our wedding, he simply tossed a few sheets of thin paper—the divorce agreement—to me.

He pulled me gently into his arms and ruffled my hair. "I love you, Bella. We're equals. I swear on my life that I'll never allow anyone to hurt you, including myself."

But only a year after we got married, he brought Liliana home and allowed her to humiliate me however she pleased. Every time I objected, all I got in return was Giorgio's increasingly impatient explanation.

"I'm just repaying the old Don's kindness. Why are you holding grudges against a child?" he said in exasperation.

The man who had once gone through life and death with me gradually drifted farther and farther away.

"Don Vitoriano."

Hearing the servants greeting him in the hallway, I quickly stuffed the divorce agreement into my inner pocket. I hastily grabbed my suitcase, preparing to leave.

Just as I opened the door, I saw Giorgio standing outside.

The moment his gaze landed on the suitcase by my side, his expression darkened instantly.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

Giorgio stood at the doorway, still wearing his black coat. The lingering irritation he had been suppressing ever since returning from the Darkcrow Club was evident from the faint frown on his face.

I tightened my grip on the suitcase handle and met his gaze unflinchingly. "I'm leaving this place."

He glanced at the suitcase by my feet and snapped as though he had finally run out of patience. "Bella, all this just because of that kiss tonight? I already told you. It was just a game!"

Just a game. Just childish behavior. Just fooling around.

Over the last seven years, Giorgio had always found countless excuses for Liliana and never held her accountable for anything.

I looked at him and suddenly felt that even arguing was meaningless now.

"It's not because of tonight. It's because I finally realized that my presence is unnecessary in this household." I removed the family signet from my finger and placed it in front of him.

Giorgio's gaze was trained on the signet instantly. It was the same signet he had personally put on my finger the day he became the new Don.

Back then, he had asked me to stand by his side. He had also promised that I would be his only wife.

But afterward, Liliana could push open our bedroom door in the middle of the night and sit on our bed wearing nothing but a nightgown. She could even order the kitchen to remove the dishes I liked and replace them with her favorites.

And Giorgio would always do nothing more than frown and tell me not to argue with her.

I spoke softly. "Do you know what people outside call her? They call her 'the Little Donna.' She looks more like the lady of this house than I do. She seems more like the one who will stand beside you in the future."

Giorgio clenched his jaw with displeasure, his voice turning dangerously low. "I never approved of that title."

I pushed the signet another inch toward him. "But you allowed her to get away with everything she did. If you can't bear to upset her even a tiny bit, then I'll leave. That way, you won't have to be conflicted as to who to side with anymore."

This time, Giorgio didn't refute me immediately. He only stared at the signet in silence for a long time. He stayed mum for so long that I almost thought he had accepted that I would be leaving.

But in the next second, he picked up the signet and held it firmly in his palm.

His voice was low and husky as he said, "Bella, I never thought of letting you leave."

I smiled faintly without saying anything.

Giorgio frowned hard at my response. He hated losing control, and he hated the feeling of anything slipping beyond his grasp.

I had loved him too much previously. I had been too obedient. In fact, I was like a familiar old possession that was bound to him and would never leave. So, he had never imagined that one day, I would stand before him calmly with a suitcase and tell him that I wanted to go.

"I'll make it up to you for tonight," he said.

He reached out and gripped my wrist. His hold wasn't painful, but it allowed no escape.

"Not just the anniversary, but also everything you've suffered before. I'll make it all up to you," Giorgio promised.

"Like how?" I questioned.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he found himself at a loss for words, which was uncharacteristic of him.

After a long pause, he finally spoke in a low voice. "Give me one night."

I had wanted to refuse. But upon seeing the rare tension in his eyes, I slowly released my grip on the suitcase.

It wasn't really forgiveness. I just wanted to see what the man I had loved for seven years could still offer in an attempt to keep me from leaving.

An hour later, the lights in the dining room came back on.

The candles on the long dining table had been replaced with the warm golden ones that I liked. The silverware had been polished spotless. Even the record player was playing the old song from our wedding night.

Giorgio had taken off his coat and stood by the table in only a black dress shirt. It was as though he had deliberately pushed aside every other matter for this occasion.

He pulled out a chair for me, his voice much gentler than usual. "Sit. No one will disturb us tonight."

I sat down and watched as the maids served the dishes one by one. But with each dish that was put onto the table, warmth gradually seeped away from my fingertips.

There was black truffle veal steak, pan-seared langoustines, saffron seafood risotto, and finally a butter cream cake topped with crushed hazelnuts.

Not a single dish was something I liked. Every one of them was food that Liliana had specifically requested whenever she came to the villa.

I stared wordlessly at the food for a long time—long enough that even Giorgio noticed something was wrong.

"Why aren't you eating?" he asked.

I didn't answer.

Instead, I looked up at the maid arranging the dishes nearby and inquired, "Who decided on tonight's menu?"

The maid's face turned pale as she lowered her head cautiously. "Donna Vitoriano, we just prepared the dishes as usual."

As usual.

So, even his attempt to make it up to me had merely followed the habits Liliana had left behind in this villa. It felt like my heart was slowly breaking apart into tiny fragments.

Giorgio followed my gaze, and his expression darkened as well.

But I no longer wanted to wait for his explanation.

I set down my knife and fork and said in a light voice, "Look, Giorgio. Even when you say you were making it up to me, what you prepared wasn't even meant for me."

The moment my words fell, the villa's doorbell rang.