My husband Bruno's goomah was pregnant with their second child.

At the family dinner, he caressed his lover Ava's rounded belly.

"This one will be a boy, the future heir to the Marino family. As my wife, it is your duty to raise him."

This was the second time he had openly acknowledged one of his bastards.

I didn't make a scene like I had before. I just calmly lifted my head and looked Bruno straight in the eye.

Raucous laughter erupted from the family members around the table.

"Remember last time, when she acted like a madwoman? Looks like she's finally learned her place."

"The Rossi family's businesses have all been carved up. What can she do besides be an infertile trophy wife? She'll be kicked to the curb sooner or later."

Bruno's face was expressionless, allowing them to hurl their insults at me.

I fought back the tears burning my eyes and even managed a small smile.

"Bruno, let's get a divorce."

Bruno looked as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world, his lips curling into a dismissive smirk.

"Liliana, if you can come up with the hundred million dollars you owe this family, I'll sign the papers right now. Otherwise, stop making a scene."

I didn't argue, and just dialed an encrypted number.

"I accept the terms we discussed."

A lazy laugh echoed from the other end of the line.

"A hundred million? Merely the cost of a port. I can have it for you anytime, my princess."

My husband Bruno's goomah was pregnant with their second child.

At the family dinner, he caressed his lover Ava's rounded belly.

"This one will be a boy, the future heir to the Marino family. As my wife, it is your duty to raise him."

This was the second time he had openly acknowledged one of his bastards.

I didn't make a scene like I had before. I just calmly lifted my head and looked Bruno straight in the eye.

Raucous laughter erupted from the family members around the table.

"Remember last time, when she acted like a madwoman? Looks like she's finally learned her place."

"The Rossi family's businesses have all been carved up. What can she do besides be an infertile trophy wife? She'll be kicked to the curb sooner or later."

Bruno's face was expressionless, allowing them to hurl their insults at me.

I fought back the tears burning my eyes and even managed a small smile.

"Bruno, let's get a divorce."

Bruno looked as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world, his lips curling into a dismissive smirk.

"Liliana, if you can come up with the hundred million dollars you owe this family, I'll sign the papers right now. Otherwise, stop making a scene."

I didn't argue, and just dialed an encrypted number.

"I accept the terms we discussed."

A lazy laugh echoed from the other end of the line.

"A hundred million? Merely the cost of a port, nothing more. I can have it for you anytime, my princess."

...

"But are you sure you want to bind yourself to me? All for a man who betrayed you?"

The whispers of the capos around me felt like needles in my skin.

"I hear the Rossi family's territory was carved up by the other famiglie. It's only because of Bruno's charity that they weren't completely wiped out."

"A stray like her? Without the Marino family's protection, she'd be on her knees begging in the streets by tomorrow."

I looked at the divorce papers I had prepared long ago, a familiar tightness gripping my chest.

Ten years of marriage, and Bruno had a child with his first love, Ava, then dumped the girl on me to raise.

When I first heard the news, I had collapsed in tears and refused outright. But Bruno threatened me with my family's fate.

He said it was my duty to raise an heir for the family, and if I refused, he'd let the other famiglie take over what little was left of the Rossi businesses.

Over the years, he never ended things with Ava.

I'd struggled, I'd fought back, I'd even made threats. Until three years ago, during an argument, I demanded he choose between me and Ava.

In response, he had his men lock me in my rooms and take away my phone.

That winter, locked in the estate's basement, I nearly broke. In the end, I gave in and begged for mercy.

There was a time we were truly in love. When we were younger, he even took a bullet for me, fired by a rival family.

Whatever love we'd had was gone. It was time to make a clean break.

Without any hesitation, I answered the voice on the other end of the phone. "I'm sure."

The man let out a pleased, low chuckle.

"In three days, you'll have your wish."

The call ended. I remained silent for a long time.

Seeing my silence and the unshed tears in my eyes, Bruno's mocking expression softened slightly.

"Liliana, just raise Ava's and my child. As long as you behave, the title of Mrs. Marino will always be yours. Stop making trouble."

He so rarely tried to soothe me, and now he did so only for the sake of another woman.

I no longer had the strength to argue. I turned and left the banquet hall.

I had just stepped into the main house when a toy gun hit my forehead, the impact making me stumble backward.

It was Carla, Bruno and Ava's six-year-old daughter.

The girl I had raised for six years was now glaring at me with pure hatred in her eyes.

"You're supposed to play with me! Go away!"

Wincing in pain, I glanced at the two nannies who were busy doing their nails. One of them sneered.

"The Underboss made it clear. Keeping the principessa company is your responsibility. We wouldn't dare overstep."

Of course. This was all part of Bruno's carefully orchestrated torture.

Bruno had given me the task of caring for his and Ava's child, claiming it was so Carla would learn to depend on me, the lady of the house.

I remembered when Carla had a high fever, I was the one who had walked the hospital corridors all night with her in my arms, afraid her crying would disturb the other patients.

When she was hospitalized with pneumonia, I was the one who had stayed by her side for half a month, not leaving until she was fully recovered.

Though I hated Bruno and Ava with a seething passion, the child was innocent.

I wasn't her birth mother, but I had treated her as if she were my own.

But the girl I had poured my heart and soul into raising now looked at me with hostility.

Blood ties, in the end, trumped everything. In her heart, I would always be an outsider she could order around at will.

In the end, I knelt down anyway, picking up the scattered building blocks to build a castle with her.

I had just finished one wall when she viciously kicked it apart.

"You call that a castle? You're useless!"

"Can't even keep a child happy?"

Bruno was back. His cold voice came from behind me as he yanked me to my feet.

"What if the Don sees Carla acting up like this?"

My throat tightened. It was clearly Carla who had started it, but in Bruno's eyes, I was always the one at fault.

Besides, I was the one who would have to clean up the mess of blocks scattered all over the floor.

Carla shot me a triumphant smirk and threw herself into Bruno's arms.

"Papa, she's so clumsy at everything! When are you taking me to the resort villa?"

Bruno stroked her hair dotingly.

"In three days, how about we go with Mama Ava to the beach house?"

Just then, Ava came slowly down the stairs. A flash of triumph crossed her eyes when she heard the plan, and she linked her arm through Bruno's even more tightly.

When I saw the man's watch on her wrist, clearly too large for her, I froze.

That was the watch my father had given to Bruno with his own hands before he died, a symbol of our family's legacy.

The truth was, my marriage to Bruno was founded on a hundred-million-dollar family deal.

Thirteen years ago, when I fell in love with a Bruno who had yet to take full control of the Marino family, I was deliberately misdiagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

At the time, he was a rising star in the underworld.

Not wanting to drag him down in his fight for the family inheritance, I used my family's supposed disapproval as an excuse to break up with him.

Later, when the Rossi family was on the brink of bankruptcy, it was Bruno who showed up with a hundred million dollars, saying he would use the money to save my family if only I married him.

I was so naive back then. I thought he truly loved me, that he would sacrifice anything to have me, that I had finally found true love.

I never imagined he had come with a heart full of vengeance.

On his deathbed, my father entrusted that watch, a symbol of our family's honor, to him. With red-rimmed eyes, Bruno promised he would always treat me well.

And now, that watch was on Ava's wrist, a slap in the face to me and a profound humiliation for the Rossi family.

"Liliana, Bruno saw how much I liked this watch."

She noticed me staring and deliberately dangled her wrist.

"After all, he said it was old and not worth much, so he figured he might as well give it to me as a toy."

Bruno chimed in nonchalantly from the side, "That's right. Old things need to find a new purpose."

A bitter mix of emotions churned inside me, but since I was leaving, there was no point in arguing.

I turned to leave, but then I heard a sharp crack.

"Oh!" Ava suddenly cried out as the watch "accidentally" fell to the floor, shattering into pieces.

I instinctively bent down to pick up the pieces, but then I felt a hard shove from behind.

Caught off guard, I stumbled and hit the fireplace mantel. The sharp marble edge gashed my forehead.

As blood beaded on my skin and dripped onto the expensive Persian rug, I caught the shift in Bruno's expression from the corner of my eye. He instinctively reached out to steady me,

but Ava suddenly shrieked, crying that a piece of glass had cut her wrist.

He immediately turned his attention back to her, anxiously checking the supposed wound.

And I was left to stagger and fall onto the cold floor.

Ava leaned into Bruno's arms, her voice trembling.

"Oh my god, Bruno, why is she still so violent?"

Ava leaned against Bruno, her voice sickeningly sweet.

"Bruno, should we call the family doctor to take a look?"

Bruno glanced at me with a frown. After a moment's hesitation, he said impatiently, "It's just a scratch. Stop making a scene."

"Liliana, can't you do anything without making a mess?"

He turned and led Ava and Carla upstairs to rest.

I didn't answer. I went to find the first-aid kit to treat the wound myself.

The woman in the mirror was pale, the blood on her forehead having clotted into a dark red line.

Outside, the nannies' undisguised mockery cut through the door. "A fallen princess from a ruined family, still putting on airs. She's worse than a maid!"

I curled up on my narrow single bed, the cut on my forehead still throbbing dully.

Yes, the last princess of the Rossi family. The same woman Bruno had sworn to love for the rest of his life ten years ago, his eyes red with emotion.

Now, it all seemed like a joke.

At three in the morning, the door was roughly shoved open.

Bruno's tall frame filled the doorway, the family doctor trailing behind him.

Before I could react, he yanked me up so forcefully it made me wince.

"Sit still. Don't move."

"It's bleeding, and you don't even have the sense to clean it?"

He gestured for the doctor to come forward and examine my cut.

"Tomorrow night is the family gala. You're not planning on letting the Don see you in this pathetic state so he'll take your side, are you?"

"I'm telling you, you'd better act like a proper Mrs. Marino and stay out of trouble."

The doctor silently cleaned my wound while Bruno stood by, watching over me like a prison guard.

"Bruno," my voice was quiet, but I suddenly had to ask, "Why did you marry me?"

He froze for a second, then mockingly gripped my chin.

"Because the Rossi family came to us begging for a hundred million dollars."

In the darkness, I laughed silently as tears streamed down my face. I should have known long ago I would never get the answer I wanted.

He might have had many reasons for marrying me, but love was not one of them.

For ten years, he's resented my parents for breaking us up, never knowing that I was the one who left because I was misdiagnosed with a terminal illness.

By the time I could have told him the truth, he already hated me to the bone, and he had someone else by his side.

Or maybe, I was never the only one for him.

After the doctor left, I pulled the signed divorce papers from under my pillow and placed them on the bed.

It wasn't the first time I had brought up divorce, but it never worked.

With the Rossi family bankrupt, I was little more than a prisoner in Bruno's estate, forced to care for his child.

I had no way to come up with the hundred million dollars he demanded for my freedom.

He knew that perfectly well and had never taken my request seriously.

He was also certain that I could never leave him.

This time was no different.

Bruno looked at me impatiently. "Liliana, are you ever going to stop this?"

"This time it's for real," I said, my voice firmer than I felt.

"As for the hundred million, I'll find a way to get the money and pay you back. Even if you don't believe me, I won't..."

Before I could finish, Ava's coquettish whine drifted down from upstairs.

"Bruno, where did you put my silk nightgown?"

Bruno immediately let go of me. Without even a glance at the papers, he ripped them to shreds. "Stop daydreaming. Just be a good Mrs. Marino."

"Who do you think would give you a hundred million dollars, besides me?"

The door slammed shut.

The scraps of paper on the marble floor looked like pieces of my shattered life.

The next day, I forced myself to put on makeup, covering the cut on my forehead before arriving at the family gala, only to be seated in a corner in the very last row by Bruno's assistant.

The men at my table were all low-level soldati, and there were even a few new recruits.

This was a blatant humiliation.

"Well, if it isn't Mrs. Marino."

A Capo's wife tittered as she passed, her hand covering her mouth.

"What are you doing at the soldati table?"

I sat down in silence as the whispers started behind me.

"I hear Bruno's about to have another kid. A boy this time. That Ava is really something, no wonder he dotes on her."

"I know, right? The actual wife is stuck at the soldati table. It's pathetic."

I clenched the napkin in my lap, my knuckles turning white.

Bruno walked over from the main table, his expression dark.

"Who arranged this seating?"

"Miss Ava said that since the madam has been feeling unwell lately, it might be better for her to sit farther away, so as not to upset the Don," a steward replied respectfully.

Bruno frowned, seeming like he was about to say something, but just then Ava linked her arm through his.

"Darling, the Don is looking for you."

For a moment, panic flickered in Ava's eyes, but she quickly recovered her polite smile.

When she looked at me, her gaze was openly triumphant.

Bruno glanced at me once more, but in the end, he didn't change the seating arrangement.

I followed Bruno to pay my respects to the Don. After a few words of kind concern for me, he turned and saw Ava. His eyes instantly turned cold.

"Not just any woman can step through the doors of the Marino family. Next time, don't bring women with no standing here."

Ava's face went pale. Just then, Carla threw herself at her, calling out sweetly, "Mama."

Ava's expression softened considerably. After all, she had given Bruno a child, and was now carrying his first son and heir. No matter how much the Don disliked her, he would tolerate her for the child's sake.

The Don shot Ava a cold, warning glare before calling Bruno away to discuss family business.

I was about to leave as well when Ava's hand pressed down on my shoulder, her voice a low sneer.

She leaned in, speaking in a whisper only I could hear.

"A woman who can't produce an heir doesn't deserve to stand by Bruno's side."

"Liliana, how about we make a bet and see who gets the last laugh?"

I ignored her. I'd lost count of how many times she'd tried to provoke me over the years.

After the gala ended, I walked alone toward the lake behind the estate.

The night wind was cold, and the lake's surface shimmered black under the moonlight.

From a distance, I saw Ava take breadcrumbs from her purse and lead Carla toward the lake at the back of the estate.

"My sweet girl," she said, gently stroking her head, "Mama is going to teach you a brave girl's game."

She knelt down and pointed to the swans gliding on the water. "See those white swans? Only a truly brave little girl can be friends with them."

Carla clapped her hands excitedly.

"I want to play! I want to be a brave little girl!"

She had paid her little attention since her birth, but today she was suddenly taking her out to play.

A sense of foreboding washed over me.

I hurried toward them. Just as I reached them and opened my mouth to call out, Ava suddenly shoved Carla from behind.

"Ah!"

The six-year-old was completely unprepared and tumbled into the icy water.

The lake instantly swallowed her small body.

And Ava was already pointing a finger at me.

"Help! Help me!" she started screaming like a madwoman. "Liliana pushed Carla! She pushed my daughter!"

I didn't have time to think. I jumped straight into the lake.

The bone-chilling cold enveloped me instantly. Water rushed into my nose, and I choked, struggling to breathe.

I swam desperately toward Carla. She was thrashing in the water, her small face turning red.

"Carla! Grab on to me!"

I used all my strength to lift her above the water and swim toward the shore.

On the bank, Ava was still crying hysterically. "Mrs. Marino, no matter how much you hate me, you can't take it out on Carla! She's Bruno's firstborn child!"

Footsteps rushed in from all directions as the gala guests were drawn by the commotion.

Bruno was the first to arrive. When he saw me and Carla, both soaking wet, his face turned to stone.

"What happened?"

I froze completely. I couldn't believe she would do something so depraved just to frame me, even using her own son.

"Bruno!" Ava sobbed, throwing herself into his arms. "Liliana pushed Carla! She pushed her into the lake!"

The crowd grew larger, and Ava's cries were heart-wrenching.

I was splayed on the cold stone steps, struggling to push myself up. I reached a trembling hand toward Carla.

"Carla, sweetie, don't be scared... You tell Papa what just happened..."

Before I could finish, Carla scrambled behind Bruno in terror, her voice thick with tears.

"It was her! She pushed me in! I'm so scared!"

I froze, my outstretched hand falling limply to my side.

I wanted to say something, but Bruno lunged forward and slapped me across the face.

"You dare lay a hand on my firstborn child? Are you even human?"

"Just because I brought Ava to the family gala, you get so jealous you try to kill my daughter? The very girl you raised with your own hands!"

I opened my mouth, but the taste of blood was overwhelming. The words dissolved into a silent, bitter laugh.

I looked into Bruno's furious eyes.

"Bruno, do you really believe that?"

"She's only six years old! Would she dare lie in front of the whole family?"

The family members around us were muttering amongst themselves.

A soldato pointed at me and called me "vicious." The head of another family sneered, "No wonder she can't produce an heir. With a heart that cruel, this is all just karma."

Their accusations washed over me like a tide, but what hurt more was Bruno's hateful gaze, a dagger plunging into my heart. In his mind, I was nothing but a jealous, vicious woman.

Ava, nestled in Bruno's arms, looked at me with red-rimmed eyes.

"Madam, if you have a problem, take it up with me. How could you be so cruel to a child?"

Carla's crying grew louder. She said she was afraid just looking at me.

Bruno pointed a finger at me and roared.

"Liliana, get out of my sight! And don't you ever appear in front of me again!"

"The Marino family has no place for a woman like you."

I wiped the blood from the corner of my mouth and staggered to my feet. I pulled a fresh copy of the divorce papers from my bag, a bitter smile on my lips.

"It's time I got out... Just sign it. I'll disappear for good."

The murderous intent in Bruno's eyes flared. He shot to his feet and slapped the papers against my face.

"Without a hundred million dollars, don't even think about leaving! You remember this, Liliana. For the rest of your life, you are the Marino family's property!"

A torrential rain began to fall outside. I stumbled toward the parking lot, the cold rain mixing with my tears.

Ten years of marriage, of blood, sweat, and humiliation. When I got that money tomorrow, it would all finally be over, wouldn't it?

I yanked open my car door, started the engine in the downpour, and sped recklessly away from the estate.

At a sharp turn just outside the gates, my vision blurred by tears, I didn't see the road clearly.

The car spun out of control and crashed into the guardrail. The hood crumpled, and the windshield spiderwebbed with cracks.

I slumped over the steering wheel, my body aching, my consciousness fading.

Through the sound of the rain, I heard the engine of another car.

Footsteps grew closer. Someone tapped gently on my shattered car window.

A man's voice, low and unhurried, held a trace of concern.

"I'm only a few minutes late, and you've already made such a mess of yourself, haven't you?"

When I woke up, I was in a private clinic.

"Be careful. The doctor said you're pregnant. Eight weeks."

My whole body went rigid.

The timing... it had to be from that night Bruno came home drunk. We hadn't been intimate in a long time, and he had been incredibly rough.

Lorenzo Vitale's gaze settled on me, his expression unexpectedly gentle.

"Interesting. The Marino family's underboss throws his wife out, not even knowing she's pregnant with his child."

Then he smiled, but let out a cold laugh.

"So that's how cruelly he's treated you. But not for much longer."

"The hundred-million-dollar wire transfer has been sent to the Marino family."

"You are free."