The hospital arranged a sperm donation program. My fiancé signed his name and clearly asked to donate to his female “brother.”

When I heard the news and went to confirm it, I saw both families already seated together, holding a dinner to celebrate the pregnancy. The long table was set in the Ferrantes' dining room, candles lit, wine poured, as if this were any other Sunday gathering.

Among the happy talk and laughter, the female "brother" seemed to suddenly think of something and asked, "Oh, right, Marco, have you thought about how you're going to explain this to Bianca Valentini?"

"I don't really mind, but a girl like her who gets upset over everything, once she knows, who knows how much trouble she'll stir up."

"If she ends up making a scene and refuses to marry you, I'm not taking responsibility!"

Before Marco Ferrante could reply, his mother, Patrizia Ferrante, smoothed the front of her dress with both palms and quickly spoke up. "She wouldn't dare! My Marco is valued by the Don himself and is about to get a special promotion to the Family Council."

"For someone with conditions like Bianca's to marry my son is already a huge favor. How could it ever be her place to make demands?!"

Marco turned the lighter between his fingers, looking rude and pleased with himself.

"My mom is right. Besides, Bianca has chased after me for ten whole years, sticking close to me everywhere and loving me like crazy."

"Making her give up marrying me would be the same as telling her to die. Don't worry, I've got you covered!"

Their laughter felt like a cold wind that suddenly stabbed straight into my heart. I lowered my gaze, gave a bitter, mocking smile, and then called my father.

"Dad, cancel Marco's promotion on hold for now. I want to marry someone else."

——

When I pushed the curtain aside and walked in, Marco had Serena Marchetti wrapped in his arms. The two of them were holding an ultrasound photo and talking about who the baby would resemble in the future. A bodyguard stationed near the door glanced at me and looked away, the kind of deliberate blindness men in this world perfected early.

The moment they noticed me, everyone's faces changed, like they had seen something dirty.

For a moment, Marco looked scared. He was about to let go of Serena, but instead she hooked her arm around his arm and walked toward me together with him.

"Bianca, your timing is perfect. I'll speak for Marco first so you don't turn this into a big scene."

"You know I've always planned to stay single, but my parents only want a grandchild in their lifetime. Marco only helped me by donating sperm to meet their wishes."

"If you're upset about anything, take it out on me. Don't put pressure on him."

Before I had a chance to respond, Patrizia also rose and stepped in to smooth things over.

"That's right, Bianca, this was something we all agreed on. We've known Serena since she was a child. She's always been a playful, mischievous tomboy; she would never do anything to damage your relationship. You can rest easy."

"And besides, the baby already exists. We can't just ask her to end it and carry that guilt, can we? You're a woman too; you shouldn't be so heartless."

Watching this family switch faces so easily depending on who they spoke to, I only felt chilled and faintly amused. The candles on the table flickered in the draft from the open door, and no one moved to close it.

I turned my mother's ring slowly around my finger. The garnet caught the candlelight once, then went dark.

I removed the engagement ring and tossed it toward Marco. "Aunt, you're thinking too much. I came here only to call off the engagement."

"Marco, we're breaking up."

Marco immediately put on that familiar look that said, "Here it goes again."

That sounded reasonable enough. Ever since Serena returned to the country, I had mentioned breaking up at least ten times.

And every single time, I ended up being the one to calm myself down, then quietly go back to him again.

He probably felt sure that after staying with him for ten years, I wouldn't be able to find anyone better anymore.

He pressed his fingers to his forehead. "Do you really need to cause trouble in front of my family?"

"Bianca, if it weren't for me pushing for it, my parents wouldn't have even considered your background at all, not to mention agreed to let me marry you."

"Besides, there's nothing between Serena and me. What exactly are you making such a big deal over?"

"Just this one thing that I don't want to see my husband having a child with another woman! If I went and had a child with another man, too, would you accept that?"

"How dare you?!"

Marco's face changed right away. After a short pause, his tone softened again, sounding tired and helpless.

"How could men and women ever be equal? Stop stirring things up, alright?"

I no longer wanted to keep debating and turned around to walk away. Marco reached out and tried to hold me back.

With a loud crash, Enzo Ferrante struck the table hard with his palm.

"Go. Let her leave!"

"A woman living off my son is acting all proud now, don't come back crying and begging later!"

His chin was lifted, arms crossed against his chest, the posture of a man who believed he was the highest authority in the room. He had never once stood that way in front of my father.

Marco truly listened this time and did not run after me.

The cold wind on the road rushed straight toward me, just like that winter when I first fell for Marco at a single glance.

Back then, my closest friend warned me.

"Him? He's that well-known nobody in our crew who only focuses on the work. Runs logistics for one of the Family's smaller fronts, keeps his head down, never looks up."

"So many connected girls tried to get close to him, and he didn't even look their way. When asked, he only said he didn't have time for that nonsense."

"If you want to go after him, that'll probably be tougher than reaching the sky."

But I still liked him.

So I hid who I was, switched into his world, and began shamelessly sticking close to him, doing everything I could to make myself noticeable to him.

Behind the scenes, I covered his expenses through anonymous channels my father's people never questioned. I used every connection the Valentini name could quietly open to make sure Marco trained under the best operators in the organization, sat in on meetings he had no business attending, received territory assignments men twice his age would have killed for.

I refused every son of every allied family my father introduced and poured all my time and energy into Marco alone.

In the end, as someone considered "on the same level" as him, I naturally became his partner.

After we settled into the arrangement, with everything already in place, he and I both moved into roles within my father's front operations. The Valentini hospital network, the pharmaceutical logistics, the legitimate face of everything the Family touched.

I did not move into the apartment my father had bought long ago in the secured building near the compound. Instead, I chose to squeeze into a small studio close to the hospital with him.

We once shared a truly happy time.

In the mornings before work, when I didn't want to get out of bed, Marco would hold me and help me brush my teeth and wash my face.

In the evenings after work, we would walk hand in hand to buy groceries together.

Curled up on the couch watching television, I would rest against his shoulder, and he would feed me fruit he had peeled himself.

But after Serena returned from Europe, everything became different.

She turned into Marco's focus and main concern.

The car Marco bought using his very first real earnings from the front business, its front seat turned into a seat meant only for Serena.

"Anyway, our place is very near the hospital. Walking a little more is good exercise for you."

One evening after working late, some sick and deranged man followed me through the parking structure.

With shaking hands, I called Marco and begged him to come get me, yet he was already heading to Serena's place.

"Serena is at home with bad cramps and can only drink the ginger tea I make. At a moment like this, can you stop being jealous and causing problems, okay?"

When that man rushed at me, I fought wildly in fear and despair.

When I grabbed a brick and swung it down, blood scattered across my face.

I was a Valentini. The Don's only daughter. And I was alone in a parking garage with blood on my hands because the man I had given everything to was making tea for another woman.

The next day, when I walked out of the police station, Marco was nowhere in sight.

Instead, I saw two flight tickets posted on Serena's social media.

Feeling awful during my time of the month. My good friend didn't hesitate to take me on a trip to relax.

That place was the Maldives, the spot I had always held onto Marco about wanting to visit.

Every time I talked about it before, he would always say our main focus right now was saving money for the future, not wasting money to enjoy ourselves.

Yet the moment it had Serena involved, every plan about saving money completely disappeared.

I slowly let out a breath and wiped the tears away.

Then I thought about every visit I made to the Ferrante home, where I busied myself serving the whole family like hired help in a house that should have bowed to mine.

Patrizia would always smooth the front of her dress with both palms, then slip the family heirloom sapphire bracelet onto Serena's wrist, sighing again and again about how perfect it would be if she and Marco were together. Serena would tilt her head to the right, that closed-lip smile of hers, and say nothing. She never had to.

Bit by bit, moment by moment, I always believed that as long as I loved Marco, I could endure everything.

But now, I could no longer keep loving.

Since in their family's hearts, I would forever be an outsider, I decided from then on I would no longer mistreat myself.

I turned my mother's ring slowly around my finger. The garnet caught the streetlight, small and dark as a drop of old blood. The decision was already made.

I went back to the villa to pack my belongings and leave, but the keypad at the door failed again and again.

Just as I was about to call Marco to ask, the door suddenly opened from inside.

Serena stood in the doorway dressed in my pajamas, arms folded, looking annoyed as she asked me. "What did you come here for?"

Before I could even ask her anything, Marco happened to return. He quickly pulled Serena behind him in a guarding way and explained, "Bianca, don't think too much. After Serena became pregnant, she hasn't been sleeping well, so I let her stay here at the safe house."

"Besides, the rental near the clinic hasn't ended yet. You can stay there a little longer for the time being. After the baby is born and we get our papers signed, you can move back."

I said with shock, "I also paid half of the money for this property. What right do you have to let her live here without asking me? And what right do you have to decide so easily when I can come or leave?"

In truth, the safe house in this part of the territory cost much more than Marco believed.

My father didn't want me to suffer, so he had already paid eighty percent of the total price in advance. Don Valentini's money, moved through three shell companies so it would never trace back to him. On the surface, Marco and I each paid half to purchase it.

Marco looked away with a guilty face, his thumb drifting along the edge of his jaw, and in the next moment, Serena was already yelling with a proud tone.

"That's because the property papers have my name and my brother's name on them!"

"I only didn't have the boys throw you out because of my brother!"

I stared at Marco in shock. Only then did he explain, clearly unwilling.

"Serena grew up with me. She's basically part of my family. She won't be getting married later and still has to raise a child. I'm the child's father, so I need to give her some protection."

"Anyway, you and I will get married sooner or later. No matter what happens, I won't leave you. Does whose name is on the house really matter more than what we have?"

Seeing the twisted logic of the man standing in front of me, I almost couldn't recognize him.

I had once thought Marco just didn't love me that much. I never thought that even the small bit of feeling left had long been replaced by careful planning.

Was this really the man I bent myself to love for ten years? The man I'd funneled my father's resources to, the man whose every promotion I'd quietly arranged from the shadows?

Not worth it, truly not worth it.

When he saw my eyes turn red, Marco looked uneasy and, without thinking, took out a cigarette and lit it. After noticing that Serena was still pregnant, he quickly stepped away and put it out.

Using that moment, Serena walked over and jabbed my shoulder hard with her finger.

"I'm really tired of women like you, always complaining and picking at things! My brother is willing to take care of me. What does that have to do with you?"

"If you have any sense, hurry up and leave!"

Just as I lifted my hand to knock hers away, she suddenly used both hands to shove me with force, pushing me straight into the man-made lake at the edge of the property.

Hearing the sound, Marco hurried back. Serena spread her hands with a careless look.

"I didn't touch her."

Marco slowed his rushed steps, his eyes turning cool as he watched me struggle in the water. The night air off the lake smelled of stone and algae, and the lights from the safe house barely reached the surface.

"That's enough, stop acting. Serena isn't the kind of person who pulls fake sympathy acts."

"Stop using such awkward tricks to get pity. Get out by yourself!"

Water rushed into my mouth, and my legs began to cramp. "It was her! Help… help me!"

Noticing something felt off, Marco panicked a bit, reaching out as if to pull me up.