After I married Riccardo, the Don of the Moretti family, he paraded a string of mistresses in front of me.

He never gave me a second glance.

But on our tenth anniversary—right after my father’s death—he suddenly promised me half of his empire.

The catch? In return, he planned to seize control of all my family’s arms-dealing routes.

That pissed off his favorite mistress.

She cornered him on his yacht, demanding he take his words back. Then she fell overboard and died. An “accident.”

After she died, Riccardo went insane. He took it all out on me.

He tied me to the back of his yacht. He dragged me through the sea, a human anchor, until the rocks shattered my legs.

The rocks shattered my legs, crippling me for life.

I became the family’s shame. Then, as I lay helpless, he finished the job with poison.

Then I opened my eyes.

I was back on the day Angelo Marino—the head of our rival family—proposed to me.

In my last life, my family forced me to say no.

He came for me, a one-man army. He killed Riccardo, but died in the process.

This time, I looked at his kind face and nodded. Yes.

But as we embraced, Riccardo appeared. He ripped me from Angelo's arms and claimed me as his own.

That’s when I realized the cruelest joke of all.

My monster was back, too.

My husband, Riccardo, blamed me for his mistress’s death. It wasn't until I was dying that I learned the truth: Angelo Marino, the rival boss who’d once proposed, had loved me all along.

I open my eyes. I'm back. Ten years in the past, on the day Angelo Marino proposed.

"Liliana, if you won't marry me, then I won't force you."

His voice snapped me back to the present.

I stared at the man kneeling before me. Angelo Marino, Don of the rival Marino family.

My eyes burned with tears.

I was screaming on the inside.

I was really back. Ten years ago.

When we first met, I didn't know what he was.

I only found out he was the Don of the Marino family right before he proposed.

But my bastard half-sister, Gia, was obsessed with him.

She threatened to kill herself.

She blackmailed me with our mother’s heirlooms, forcing me to give Angelo up.

I turned him down, my heart breaking.

Then I married the head of another mafia family, Riccardo Moretti.

And in the end, Angelo married Gia.

For ten years, Riccardo paraded a string of mistresses in front of me.

But then his favorite, his "little rose," threw a jealous fit over me and ended up dead.

Riccardo went mad.

He tied me to the back of his yacht and dragged me through the sea until I crashed into the rocks.

I lay in a cold hospital bed, a white sheet covering my legs.

I would never walk again.

That’s when Angelo, the man who hadn’t spoken to me in a decade, stormed the Moretti compound alone.

He killed Riccardo, only to die in a hail of gunfire himself.

It was only then, as my own life faded, that I finally understood.

He had always loved me. He never stopped.

Now, Angelo’s eyes were full of a gentle warmth, but also a hint of sadness.

I knew he was disappointed that I’d said no.

I was such a fool in my past life.

I rejected the man in front of me and chose to marry that monster, Riccardo Moretti.

This time, I wouldn't make the same mistake.

I rushed forward, not caring that I’d just rejected him moments ago.

"Wait, Angelo! I changed my mind. I'll marry you."

The light returned to Angelo’s eyes.

"Really? You mean it?"

I held out my trembling hand.

He carefully slipped the ring, engraved with the Marino family crest, onto my finger.

The cool diamond felt right against my skin, just as I’d imagined it would before I died.

"Liliana..." he stood up, his voice thick with emotion.

I stood on my toes, cupping his face in my hands. "Angelo, I..."

"What a touching scene."

A familiar voice cut through the crowd, stopping our kiss.

I spun around to see Riccardo Moretti walking toward us.

He was wearing a black suit, that same fake smile plastered on his face.

My husband from my past life. My nightmare.

"Riccardo," my voice turned to ice.

But I couldn't show how much I hated him.

"Congratulations, Liliana." He stopped in front of me, his eyes dark. "And to you, Angelo. But before you make it official, I think you should see the little 'love token' Miss Falcone sent me."

He didn't pull out an iPhone.

He pulled out a burner. An old Falcone cipher phone, a relic from the old days.

Guests who knew what it was gasped.

It was an old piece of tech, supposedly destroyed years ago, used to send the family's most sensitive secrets.

Riccardo plugged it into a laptop.

A decoded message flashed onto the massive screen in the hall:

Pier 3. Next Tuesday, midnight. The Siren. —From your Butterfly.

My heart stopped.

Pier 3 was one of the Marino family’s most important arms depots.

"The Siren" was their mobile armory, disguised as a cargo ship.

Leaking that intel was like handing our enemy a key to the Marino family’s heart.

"A little gift from Liliana, after we spent a night together three months ago," Riccardo announced into the microphone. "She said she had to prove her loyalty to seal our deal. And 'Butterfly'… that's the pet name she only uses for me."

The room erupted.

Impossible.

Three months ago, I didn't even know Riccardo.

But that device... that name, "Butterfly"...

I felt Angelo’s body go rigid behind me.

"It's a fake," I turned to him, my eyes filling with tears. "Angelo, you have to believe me. It's a lie."

Angelo stared at me, his brow furrowed.

His eyes were filled with pain, confusion, and a flicker of doubt I couldn’t bear to see.

Riccardo's laugh cut through the silence. "Don't worry, Angelo. I have more proof. Liliana gave me a 'little secret' to confirm the intel was real."

He paused, his eyes turning dangerous. "She told me that to prove her love, she set the device's activation key to the date we first met. A secret only she would know."

My blood ran cold.

That was my private passcode, set to the anniversary of my mother's death!

In my past life, Riccardo only learned that after he'd broken my family and tortured the truth from my lips!

There’s no way he could know that now.

Unless…

I saw the smug smile on his face, and a horrifying realization slammed into me.

He was reborn, too.

"It's a lie! That date is in memory of my mother..." I screamed, my voice raw.

I didn't care how Riccardo was back. I had to stop my past life from repeating itself.

But Riccardo just walked closer, a cruel smirk on his lips. "Is that so? Then can you explain why you used a secret Falcone code to ask me to meet at the St. Marco Hotel, room 1204, to discuss our families' future?"

Ice flooded my veins.

Room 1204 at the St. Marco.

That was our wedding night suite in my past life.

The bastard really was back.

"Remember, Liliana?" Riccardo's voice dropped to a whisper only I could hear. "The things you told me in bed? About Angelo's weaknesses? About the Marino family's... secrets?"

"Shut up!" I lunged at him, but Angelo grabbed my arm.

"That's enough," Angelo's voice was like ice.

He slowly turned to me, the warmth in his eyes gone.

All that was left was the disappointment and pain I remembered so well.

"Angelo, it's not what you think," I grabbed his arm. "I swear, I never—"

"Swear?" He ripped his hand away, his laugh like ice. "On what? Your lies? Your betrayal?"

The ring slipped off my finger and clattered to the floor.

It sounded like my heart breaking.

Angelo bent down, picked up the ring, and closed it in his fist. "Liliana Falcone, as of now, we're done."

He turned and strode away.

"Angelo!" I tried to run after him, but Riccardo grabbed my wrist.

"Don't waste your breath, sweetheart," he said, dragging me toward a back exit. "He doesn't want you anymore."

I could feel the guests' eyes on me. Whispers and laughter followed us out. I was a joke.

Riccardo pulled me into the alley behind the hotel.

"Let go of me!" I struggled.

"Don't move," he said, pinning me against the wall and showing me a photo on his phone.

It was Marco. My childhood friend. My most loyal bodyguard.

He was hanging in a warehouse, covered in blood.

"He's not dead... yet, Liliana," Riccardo’s voice was pure venom. "But if you don't behave, the next picture will be of his corpse. I'll make everyone you care about disappear, one by one."

My blood froze.

This was the real Riccardo. The monster.

In our last life, even with all his mistresses, he’d killed Marco.

Just because Marco had stepped between us once when Riccardo was hurting me.

Riccardo saw it as a challenge. He thought Marco wanted his woman.

And now, he’d already kidnapped him...

"If you're back, you know everything!" I shrieked. "Your little rose is alive! You have your mistresses! Why won't you leave me alone?!"

He sneered, his eyes raking over me with contempt.

“Let you go? Liliana, in our last life, I died at the hands of Angelo’s revenge. If it wasn’t for that, I never would have known how much he loved you. How dare he desire what is MINE? This life, you are still my woman, even if I have to chain you in a room and torture you every single day. You will not marry anyone else!”

The bastard.

Even if he didn’t love me. Even if he never spared me a glance after we were married.

In his eyes, everything Angelo did for me wasn’t about love.

It was a challenge to his authority.

He had to possess me, consume me, until there was nothing left…

A week later, the phones at the Falcone estate wouldn't stop ringing.

Our cargo ships were vanishing at sea.

Our front businesses were getting hit by rival crews.

My father called me into his study.

He looked like he'd aged a decade overnight.

"Liliana, the Moretti family has offered to help us through this," he said, his voice weary. "On one condition... you marry Riccardo."

I had only one option left.

I had to see Angelo.

Desperate, I went to the one place I knew he frequented in our past life.

The underground fight club in the neutral zone.

I pushed through the loud crowd and found him in a VIP booth.

"Angelo," I said, walking up to him.

He looked up, a flash of surprise in his eyes that quickly turned to ice. "Liliana Falcone. What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to you."

"We have nothing to talk about." He looked back down at his papers.

"About the cipher phone that night, I can explain—"

"Explain?" He shot to his feet, his voice rising. "How are you going to explain it? Tell me it's not from your family? Or that the 'Butterfly' signature—a code only you and your father know—is a forgery too?"

"You don't have to love me, Liliana. But you will not make a fool out of me." His words were knives. "A traitor has no right to stand in my presence."

"Get out," he said, sitting back down and refusing to look at me. "Now."

His guards escorted me out of the booth.

I walked down the hall in a daze.

Suddenly, the power went out.

The club plunged into darkness and chaos.

People started screaming.

In the confusion, I felt people moving toward me.

Not one person. A group. They were coming for me.

Just as I was cornered, about to die, Riccardo appeared.

The attackers scattered instantly.

Riccardo’s grip was like iron as he dragged me through a secret passage, one he navigated with an expert’s familiarity.

A passage only insiders should have known.

My wrist burned, feeling like the skin was about to tear.

When we emerged from the passage back into the brightly lit main hall, Angelo was standing there.

He had just gotten clear of the chaos and was directing his men.

He watched us emerge together from an emergency exit… one marked with the Moretti family crest.

“Liliana, are you alright? But thanks to you, I know about this passage now.” The moment he saw Angelo, Riccardo feigned concern, checking me for injuries.

He was deliberately making Angelo believe, once again, that I had betrayed his trust.

He pressed his body close, ripping my dress in the process.

I was locked in his arms, unable to move, my chest crushed against his.

It looked sickeningly intimate.

But all I could feel was a searing pain.

It felt like he was about to shatter my bones.

I stared into his eyes, fury burning through me, wanting to scream why he had to torture me like this.

Why he had to orchestrate all of this right when I was trying to win Angelo back.

But I knew it was useless.

The moment Riccardo appeared, my attackers had retreated.

They were his men.

He would never let me escape his grasp.

My eyes, red with unshed tears, turned to Angelo.

"Angelo!" I broke free from Riccardo and ran toward him. "I can explain. Someone tried to kill me—"

"Explain this," his voice was eerily calm. "Explain why you just walked out of a private Moretti exit. On my territory. During an attack on my club. Looking perfectly safe under the protection of my enemy."

He looked at me, and the last flicker of conflict in his eyes died, leaving only a dead calm.

"Liliana, you made your choice. Don't regret it."

He turned and walked away without a second glance.

Riccardo stepped up beside me, a smug look on his face. "Looks like your knight in shining armor thinks you're a co-conspirator."

I watched him walk away. My heart turned to ash in my chest.

Even if I couldn’t get Angelo back, I was still trying everything to avoid marrying Riccardo.

When Riccardo came to make the official proposal, I was sitting in the Falcone family meeting room.

"You want to marry me? Fine. Here's my condition," I said, looking Riccardo dead in the eye. "I want the man who caused my mother's car crash three years ago. And I want him alive."

The room was stunned.

Everyone believed it was an accident, but I was convinced it was murder.

It was an impossible demand. I wanted him to fail.

Riccardo smiled. "An interesting condition. I accept."

Three days later, a bloody, beaten man was dumped at the gates of the Falcone estate.

He was a minor captain from a Moretti branch family.

Riccardo announced that this was the killer and that he had "cleaned house" as a show of good faith.

My father was stunned.

Riccardo had sacrificed one of his own capos. For a woman.

The message was clear: he was powerful, ruthless, and absolutely obsessed.

In his mind, the marriage was a done deal.

Just then, the butler rushed into the room.

"Sir, Angelo Marino is here."

A flicker of hope ignited in my chest.

He had to be here to stop this sham of a wedding.

The moment Angelo walked in, I stopped breathing.

He was as handsome and powerful as ever.

But the look he gave me was ice-cold.

"Mr. Falcone." He nodded to my father, completely ignoring me.

"Angelo, have a seat," my father said, gesturing to the other end of the table.

Angelo sat down, lacing his fingers on the table. "I hear the Moretti family is making a very generous offer. But I'm here to remind you of the price for making a deal with the devil."

My father's face tightened.

"I'm here to make a real proposal. One that will truly solidify the alliance between our families." Angelo's gaze swept the room.

His eyes slid past me, as if I were nothing more than a piece of furniture.

For a split second, I thought he was going to change his mind.

"I want to marry your other daughter, Gia Falcone."

The world went silent.

Angelo added calmly, "Gia is untouched. Simple. Pliable. She'll make a fine wife for the Don of the Marino family. This is business, Liliana. Nothing more."

The room started to spin.

Gia. My half-sister.

The one who used our mother's memory and the threat of suicide to force me away from Angelo.

The illegitimate one.

So, in the end, is it all fated to repeat itself?

"Angelo..." my voice was barely a whisper.

He finally looked at me, his eyes empty of any emotion. "Miss Liliana, congratulations on your upcoming marriage to Mr. Moretti. It seems we've both found our most logical match."

"'Logical match'?" I stood up, my voice trembling. "This isn't what I want..."

"Well, Mr. Marino wants to marry your sister," Riccardo taunted from the side. "Looks like you're stuck with me for life."

"Shut up!" I snapped at him.

"Liliana, sit down," my father's voice was stern.

I didn't. I looked at Angelo, tears in my eyes. "Why Gia?"

Angelo was silent for a few seconds. "Because she's clean."

That one word was a knife to the heart.

Clean.

Which meant I was tainted.

Because of the lies. Because of the betrayals he believed were real.

"Angelo, let me explain—"

"There's no need," he cut me off. "My decision is made."

He turned to my father. "Mr. Falcone, I await your answer."

"You don't have to wait," my father stood up. "I accept your proposal."

I collapsed back into my chair, my world falling apart.

Angelo was going to marry Gia.

And I was going to marry Riccardo.

This was so much worse than my last life.

At least then, Angelo had still loved me, even after I'd rejected him.

This time, he hated me.

After the meeting, I ran out and blocked Angelo's car at the estate gate.

The window rolled down, revealing his cold, impassive face.

"Move, Liliana."

"Why?" I leaned on the car window, my vision blurred by tears. "Why are you marrying Gia?"

He looked at me without a flicker of emotion. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yes."

His lips twisted into a cold smirk. "This way, when you're Mrs. Moretti, you won't have to feel guilty about betraying me."