For an entire week, neither my husband nor my son came to visit me.

Even though the hospital I stayed in was only a twenty-minute drive from the family estate.

Instead, Marco's chief assistant, David, arrived with a pile of limited-edition Hermes bags and Cartier jewelry.

They were stacked in the corner of the ward like a pile of expensive trash.

David conveyed Marco's message:

"The Don says these are the latest releases for the season, sent specifically to relieve your boredom. He has been too busy accompanying Gina and Luca ."

You see, this was Marco's love.

Reeking of money, arrogant and high-handed, but devoid of any warmth.

My phone vibrated. It was a taunting DM from Gina.

In the photo, she was wearing my silk pajamas, lying in the master bed—my bed—with a sleeping Luca beside her.

The caption read: [Luca said he wished I were his mother. He sleeps so soundly beside me.]

I turned off the phone, feeling my heart being crushed by an invisible hand.

After my parents died in a car accident, I became an orphan with no blood relatives in this world.

I was afraid of loneliness; I was terrified of the dark.

On our wedding day, Marco swore on the Bible in front of the priest: "Elena, the Corleone family is your blood now. I will never let you feel alone."

Later, when I had Luca, I thought I had finally taken root in this world.

But now I understood.

Even with sky-high power and wealth, if Marco decided to take it back, I would still be that orphan with nothing.

I looked at the room full of luxury goods and made a decision.

"Pack these up for me," I ordered the servants.

To leave New York, to leave the family's sphere of influence, I needed a large amount of cash.

Using Marco's supplementary card would expose my location. Only anonymous cash and jewelry transactions were safe.

That afternoon, Sotheby's Auction House.

Wearing sunglasses and a mask, I was in the VIP room having a set of emerald jewelry appraised.

The moment the door opened, the world seemed to stand still.

The man who was "too busy" was currently standing at the door, with Gina holding his arm.

Gina was wearing a simple white dress. Upon seeing the jewelry box in my hand, she covered her mouth in feigned surprise.

"Oh my God... everything here is so expensive. The shine is blinding. Marco, I shouldn't go in. Someone from my background doesn't belong in high-society places like this."

She shrank back like a frightened deer.

Marco immediately tightened his arm around her waist lovingly, his voice dripping with tenderness:

"Nonsense. You are Luca's savior, which makes you the benefactor of the Corleone family. If you wanted the stars in the sky, I would pluck them for you."

When he turned to look at me, the tenderness in Marco's eyes instantly froze.

He strode over, snatched the jewelry box I was about to consign, and let out a cold laugh.

"Elena, I didn't realize the Corleone family was so bankrupt that the Mamma had to come out and pawn her jewelry."

"I send you gifts, and you turn around and sell them for cash?"

"Are you that desperate for money? Are you that greedy?"

In his logic, I was slapping him in the face.

I was about to speak when the auctioneer walked onto the stage carrying the finale lot of the day.

It was an extremely rare ruby necklace named "The Heart of Sicily."

In our world, red symbolizes blood and power. A ruby of this caliber was historically something only the Mamma of a Mafia family was worthy of wearing.

Marco narrowed his eyes. To humiliate me for my "greed," he raised his paddle directly.

"Fifty million dollars."

The room went into an uproar.

Without any suspense, he won the necklace that symbolized the power and the wealth.

I thought he would at least maintain a shred of decency.

But he didn't.

In front of everyone, he picked up the ruby necklace and personally fastened it around Gina's neck.

"Elena, since you love money so much, don't even think about this necklace."

"Gina has a kind heart and doesn't care for fame or fortune. This 'Heart of Sicily' only stays clean around her neck."

Gina touched the ruby, looking overwhelmed with flattery. Right in front of me, she rubbed her body suggestively against Marco's arm and said in a delicate, sugary voice:

"Thank you, Don... This is too precious. I only did what I had to do. Taking care of Luca is my honor."

She turned her head, and in a voice only the three of us could hear, she said to me with feigned innocence:

"Elena, don't be mad. Marco just wanted to reward me. Besides... since you like money so much, selling what you have in your hand should be enough for you. Unlike me, I only need Marco's heart."

Marco looked at me, seemingly waiting for my outburst, waiting for my explanation, waiting for me to desperately prove that I loved him and not the money, just like I used to.

But he was disappointed.

I simply withdrew my gaze calmly and said to the auctioneer:

"Hurry up. I want cash."

Then, I left without looking back.

As I returned to the manor to pack my luggage, the door to the study was pushed open.

Gina walked in, holding a black ledger bound in lambskin.

That was the core secret of the Corleone family—the "Black Book" recording every money laundering channel and every bribed official.

"Leaving so soon, Elena?"

Gina smiled with a look of pure innocence, yet her hands moved quickly to shove that heavy ledger deep into the luggage I had just packed.

"Consider this a farewell gift from me."

Before I could even react.

Boom—!

A massive explosion erupted in the corner of the study.

The shockwave overturned the bookshelves, and tongues of fire instantly licked across half the room. Gina had planted a micro-bomb beforehand.

"Help! Fire! Help!"

Gina screamed, messily rubbing her hair and collapsing onto the floor.

Seconds later, the heavy mahogany doors of the study were kicked open.

Marco rushed in, holding a wailing, terrified Luca in his arms.

Seeing the scene inside, Marco's pupils constricted instantly.

"Don! Save me! Elena has lost her mind!"

Gina screamed hoarsely, pointing a trembling finger at me while her other hand protectively clutched the open suitcase, exposing the black ledger inside.

"She stole the family's Black Book to sell to the Feds to get revenge on you! When I caught her, she tried to blow us all up to silence me!"

The air in the room solidified instantly.

Marco's gaze fell on the black ledger.

In the Mafia world, Omertà is the absolute iron law. Stealing family secrets is something only a Rat would do.

Marco slowly lifted his head. In those deep eyes, complex emotions I couldn't read were churning—rage, disappointment, and a trace of deep helplessness.

"Elena..."

His voice was low, carrying suppressed fury.

"I tolerated your jealousy. I tolerated your tantrums. But I never thought you would cross the line."

"I didn't! She planted it..."

I tried to defend myself, but Marco cut me off.

"Enough! Even now, you try to drag an innocent person into this? Gina is just a low-level associate. What could she possibly know about these things?"

His accusation was the final nail in my coffin.

The fire began to spread, smoke rolling through the room.

Marco scooped up Gina—who was tightly clutching the "recovered" ledger—in one arm.

With his other hand, he held Luca.

He turned toward the door but stopped just before stepping out.

He looked back at me.

There was no heartless killing intent as I had imagined, but rather a look of arrogant exhaustion, like a parent disappointed in a hopeless child.

"Elena, you test my bottom line again and again. What am I going to do with you?"

He sighed, his eyes so deep they seemed capable of swallowing a person whole.

"By Mafia’s laws, a traitor must be executed immediately—skinned and cemented into a pillar. But in the end, I can't bring myself to do it to you."

He assumed the study's top-tier fire suppression system would activate any second.

"You stay here. Look at this mess. Reflect on where you went wrong."

"When the fire is out, and you've come to your senses, I'll let you out."

Bang!

The heavy blast-proof door was slammed shut.

The lock engaged.

He locked me in.

To make me "reflect," to teach me "submission," he left me in this burning room.

But what he didn't know was that Gina had already sabotaged all the automatic sprinkler systems.

The fire wouldn't be extinguished here. This room would only become an incinerator.

Flames rapidly swallowed the carpet. The heat wave scorched my skin, and the oxygen grew thinner by the second.

"Marco! Open the door! The suppression system is down! I'm going to die!"

I pounded desperately on the door panels, but the heavy soundproof door blocked all sound.

He couldn't hear me.

He was taking his son and Gina far away from here.

Was I going to die here?

No.

I refused to accept this.

I turned to look at the only exit—the massive floor-to-ceiling window.

This was the third floor.

Below the window was hard stone pavement.

Jumping meant severe injury, if not death.

But staying meant turning to ash.

Forcing my body, which hadn't fully recovered, I gritted my teeth, lifted a heavy chair, and used the last of my strength to smash it against the glass.

Crash—!

The moment the glass shattered, the night wind rushed in.

Without a second of hesitation, I closed my eyes and leaped.

In that moment, I felt like a bird with broken wings, finally flying out of this cage named "Love."

Thud!

Agonizing pain instantly swept through my body. The sound of bones snapping was clearly audible.

I lay on the cold stone pavement, my mouth filled with the taste of blood.

But I smiled.

Broken and covered in wounds, dragging a crippled leg, I crawled out of hell.

This time, no one could stop me on my road to a new life.