Elena Rossi married Victor Moretti, the most feared mafia Don in the underground world.

For three years, he treated her like a queen.

Everyone said the ruthless Don was madly in love with his wife.

Elena believed them.

Until the night everything fell apart.

At a family banquet, Elena was drugged.

When she begged Victor to stay with her, he simply told his guards to take her to the hospital—then left to meet her sister.

In that moment, the love Elena had once been so proud of shattered.

She soon learned the cruel truth: Victor had married her only because he believed she was the woman who once saved his life. And now that the “real” savior had appeared—her sister—Elena had become nothing more than a mistake.

So Elena made her choice.

She quietly arranged everything, had Victor unknowingly sign the divorce papers, and disappeared from his world—carrying his unborn child.

Only after she was gone did Victor realize.

The woman he thought he married out of gratitude had long become the one he could not live without.

The woman who had saved his life years ago had been Elena all along—only she had been injured back then and lost that part of her memory.

By the time the truth came to light, Elena was already gone.

The cold-blooded mafia Don who once controlled the entire underworld finally lost control.

That night, I realized something I had never allowed myself to see before— in Victor’s world, I had never been the most important person.

“I don’t feel well… I think someone drugged me.”

My fingers tightened around the sleeve of his suit as I spoke, my voice trembling. Heat rushed through my body, my breathing turning shallow and uneven, and the floor beneath me seemed to tilt as I struggled to stay upright.

Victor glanced down at me, those deep blue eyes as calm and unreadable as the ocean. For a moment he slipped an arm around my waist, clearly about to escort me out, but his phone rang before we could take a step.

He answered, listened for a few seconds, and then slowly let go of me.

“Take Donna to the hospital,” he instructed one of his men. Then he looked back at me, his tone as steady as if we were discussing a routine business matter. “Elena, I have something to handle. I’ll check on you later.”

I stared at him in disbelief.

“Victor, I’m your wife. Someone just drugged me, and you’re sending me to the hospital alone?”

A faint crease appeared between his brows, the same expression he used whenever he thought I was being unreasonable.

“Be good,” he said quietly. “This is important.”

Then he turned and walked out of the ballroom.

I stood there, watching his broad back disappear into the crowd, my heart tightening as if an invisible hand had closed around it.

What could possibly be more important than that?

The drug was spreading through my system fast. I bit down on my tongue hard enough to taste blood, using the pain to keep myself conscious. Shoving away the bodyguard who tried to steady me, I stumbled out of the hall.

Outside, I flagged down a taxi and told the driver to follow Victor’s car.

Twenty minutes later, the car stopped outside an upscale restaurant.

I pushed the door open and stepped out unsteadily. Through the enormous glass windows, I watched Victor walk toward a table.

And the person waiting for him there—was Stella Rossi.

My sister.

Cold spread through my entire body in an instant, because there was no one in the world I hated more than her.

Stella sat there in a tailored beige suit, her long hair falling softly over her shoulders, wearing that same gentle, composed smile she always showed the world.

She had always looked perfect. The perfect daughter. The perfect younger sister.

All my life, she had been the pride of the Rossi family, while I was simply the older sister who was expected to “be understanding.”

When we were children, I tried telling our parents what she did behind their backs, but they never believed me. They always took her side.

“You’re the older one,” they would say. “You should let your sister have her way.”

“Stella is such a sweet girl. There’s no way she would do something like that. You must have misunderstood.”

Eventually I stopped trying to explain.

I just grew to hate her more and more.

After Victor and I got married, I once mentioned all of this during a casual conversation. At the time he told me he would always stand on my side. During several family gatherings afterward, he barely acknowledged Stella at all.

He treated her like she wasn’t even there.

And yet now—

he had abandoned me at a mafia family banquet just to have dinner with her.

I leaned against the cold wall outside the restaurant, staring at the two of them through the glass.

Victor sat across from her with that same look I knew so well. The same quiet focus he used to reserve for me.

He poured water for her himself, passed her a napkin, every movement natural, effortless, intimate.

Stella’s voice drifted softly across the table.

“Victor, are you sure it’s okay to leave Elena alone like that just to have dinner with me? I heard she wasn’t feeling well tonight.I already had my men take her to the hospital.”

Then he added,

“Right now, what concerns you matters more.”

Standing outside that restaurant, I suddenly thought back to the alliance marriage three years earlier that had bound my life to his.

Victor Moretti— the man the entire underworld feared.

Stories about him circulated constantly. People said he was ruthless, that traitors ended up at the bottom of the ocean and enemies simply disappeared overnight.

And me Elena Rossi.

I had always been proud, stubborn, and unwilling to let anyone dictate my life, which was exactly why I hated being forced to marry a man I didn’t know and certainly didn’t love.

So I rebelled.

When Victor gave me a ruby necklace worth a fortune, I donated it to charity the next day and told him it was tacky.

When he took me to a mafia family auction gala, I slipped out halfway through and went clubbing instead.

Everyone was convinced my behavior would eventually push him too far.

That one day Victor Moretti himself would deal with me.

But he never did.

Instead, he indulged me.

When I locked away the jewelry he bought me, he sent something even more extravagant the next day.

When I walked out of the auction, he had his assistant settle the bid and deliver the piece I had glanced at to my room.

When I smashed his limited-edition sports car, ten identical ones appeared in the driveway of the estate the following morning.

“All that matters is that you’re happy,” he told me once.

“Break as many as you like.”

I had been stunned.

Victor stood in front of me then, tall and commanding, those deep blue eyes cold and fathomless, his sharp features and powerful build giving him the unmistakable presence of a man born to rule.

But that day, when he looked at me, there was no anger in his eyes. No irritation.

Only a quiet warmth I couldn’t quite understand.

And that was the moment I fell in love with him.

“What concerns you matters more.” Those words felt like a blade sliding straight into my chest.

Wasn’t I supposed to be the most important person in his life?

Since when had Stella Rossi taken my place?

The drug coursed through my bloodstream, heat rolling through my body in waves while my heart felt like it had been dropped into ice.

I wanted to storm inside and demand an explanation from Victor Moretti himself, but my legs felt as heavy as lead.

And then the accident happened.

Outside the restaurant.

A black SUV lost control and came hurtling straight toward the building, smashing directly into the floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

The explosion of glass echoed through the street, shards scattering everywhere as terrified screams erupted inside the restaurant.

In the chaos, I saw Victor move almost on instinct.

He lunged forward and pulled Stella into his arms, turning his body so that his back faced the crashing vehicle and the rain of glass, shielding her completely.

A jagged shard sliced across his temple, and blood instantly ran down his face, staining half of it red.

“Victor!”

Stella cried out, her face pale with shock.

But he only frowned slightly, his voice rough. “I’m fine.”

Moretti family bodyguards rushed in immediately, clearing the area and securing the scene.

Victor was helped to his feet, his face already frighteningly pale, yet the first person he looked at was still Stella.

He spoke softly to reassure her.

“I’m going to the hospital to get this taken care of. You’re afraid of blood, so don’t come. I’ll have someone escort you home.”

His voice was gentle, almost coaxing, like he was calming a frightened child.

From beginning to end, he never once noticed that I was standing right there at the entrance.

In that moment, I felt frozen in place.

So this was the truth—Victor would risk his life to protect Stella.

“Shocking, isn’t it?”

A soft voice sounded beside my ear.

I turned stiffly. Stella had somehow appeared next to me without my noticing.

Her face still held the pale look of someone who had just been frightened, but her eyes had already returned to their usual softness, and beneath it there was unmistakable triumph.

“You didn’t expect Victor to risk his life for me, did you?” she said as she stepped closer, her gaze full of quiet mockery.

“Elena, have you ever wondered why Victor loved you so much in the first place?”

“Many years ago Victor was ambushed and badly wounded. I was the one who saved him. I hid him at the old Rossi estate and took care of him for three days and nights. When he finally woke up, he spent a long time searching for me.”

“Eventually he traced the lead back to the Rossi family and learned that the person who had saved him might have been one of the Rossi daughters, which is why he approached our family in the first place.”

“But unfortunately for him, the information he found was wrong. He thought you were the one who saved him.”

“So he married you and indulged you without limits.”

My breathing stopped.

Every memory that had once made my heart race flashed through my mind— the way he used to look at me with quiet intensity, the way he indulged every whim I had, every moment of warmth he had ever shown me.

So that was it.

He had simply mistaken me for someone else.

“Later,” Stella sighed softly, though the pride in her voice was impossible to hide, “somehow he discovered the truth and realized that the one who saved him back then was actually me.”

“So of course he took all that affection back from you.”

She looked at me and smiled, the expression both gentle and cruel.

“Victor is a man who takes responsibility seriously. Even after learning the truth, he wouldn’t divorce you easily because he feels obligated to you.”

She leaned closer, her voice lowering into something venomous.

“But with your pride, Elena, once you know the truth you won’t cling to a marriage that was never meant for you.”

The triumph in Stella’s eyes was no longer hidden.

My chest felt like it had been torn open, cold air rushing into the wound until every organ inside me ached.

So that was the truth.

The last three years had been nothing more than a ridiculous misunderstanding.

If Victor didn’t love me, he could have told me the truth.

I am Elena Rossi. I can love deeply, but I can also walk away.

No matter how much I loved a man, I would never steal someone else’s.

I didn’t know how long I stood there while the drug continued to churn through my body, but the pain in my chest had already eclipsed everything else.

I stumbled to the curb and flagged down a taxi.

“Hospital,” I said. I needed the antidote, and more than that… I needed clarity.

I lay in the hospital bed staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep the entire night.

Early the next morning the doctor walked in holding a report.

“Miss Rossi.”

“Congratulations. You’re two months pregnant.”

My entire mind went blank.

I stared at the ultrasound image in my hands, the tiny life barely visible on the screen.

And suddenly I understood something.

This child should never be born into a marriage built on a lie.

I picked up my phone and called my best friend.

“Lillian, I need a favor.”

“I’m sending you the divorce papers. Find a way to make Victor sign them.”

A marriage that existed only because of obligation…

was not something I was willing to keep.

By the time I returned to the Moretti estate, the sky was already dark.

The moment I stepped into the grand hall, Margaret, the housekeeper, hurried over.

The moment she saw how pale I looked, concern flashed across her face and she asked carefully, “Madam… are you alright?”

“I’m fine, Margaret. I need you to do something for me.”

Without waiting for a response, I walked straight into the dressing room and motioned for her to start taking down the dresses and the expensive jewelry from the display cabinets.

“Call the auction house. I want all of this sold.”

Margaret froze where she stood.

“But… these are all gifts from the Don…”

“Just do it.”

She hesitated for a second, then nodded and stepped out to make the call.

By the afternoon the representatives from the auction house had already arrived.

They were just about to move the crates out of the estate when the front doors opened.

Victor had returned.

He filled the doorway the moment he stepped inside, tall and broad-shouldered, his tailored suit fitting perfectly over his powerful frame.

His deep blue eyes were cold as winter seas, his sharply sculpted features carrying the unmistakable elegance of old European bloodlines.

There was something inherently dangerous about him, the kind of quiet authority that made people instinctively lower their gaze.

Even with a strip of gauze across his temple and a faint pallor still lingering on his face, nothing diminished the commanding presence that surrounded him.

His eyes moved across the room and landed on the packed crates and the men from the auction house.

His brow drew together slightly.

“What’s going on here?”

“I’m sending them to auction. I don’t want them anymore.”

Victor looked at me for several seconds, his gaze deep and unreadable as if weighing something. Then he gave a small nod.

“Alright. I’ve already asked someone to prepare a new collection of dresses and jewelry for you. They’ll be delivered in a couple of days.”

“And that pink sports car you liked? I bought it. It should arrive this week.”

Before, I would have thrown my arms around his neck and kissed him for something like that.

Now I felt nothing.

I simply couldn’t understand why he was still willing to spend time and money on me.

Was responsibility really more important than being with the woman he actually loved?

He leaned down and brushed a kiss against my forehead, his voice soft and intimate.

“About last night, I really did have urgent business. Don’t stay mad at me. I’ll make it up to you tonight.”

Before I could respond, he continued casually,

“By the way, today is your father’s birthday. I postponed a meeting with the family captains. We’ll go to the Rossi house together later.”

A sharp pain stabbed through my chest.

My father’s birthday had never been something I looked forward to.

Growing up, my parents had always favored Stella.

No matter what gift I brought them, their reaction was always distant and lukewarm.

But during these past three years, every time I went back to the Rossi estate Victor had accompanied me.

When my parents criticized me or tried to pick me apart, he would either step in quietly or shift the conversation somewhere else.

Sometimes he would even take my hand under the table, squeezing it lightly.

It always felt like he was telling me without words that he was on my side.

But now…

All I could see in my mind was the way he had shielded Stella.

And the words he had said.

What concerns you matters more.

Maybe the only reason he wanted to go tonight was because Stella would be there.

“I don’t want to go,” I said.

Victor was loosening his cufflinks. “Elena, don’t be difficult. They’re still your parents.”

A sudden thought crossed my mind then— I was leaving soon anyway, and before I disappeared from their lives completely, perhaps I should see them one last time.

“Alright,” I said quietly.

“I’ll go change.”

I changed into a simple black dress.

By the time we arrived at the Rossi estate, my parents were already waiting in the living room.

The moment Victor walked in, both my father and mother stood up immediately to greet him.

Their smiles were warm and almost eager.

“Victor, you’re here!”

Their enthusiasm nearly overflowed, but the moment their eyes shifted to me the smiles faded.

“Elena is here too,” my mother said flatly as she looked me up and down, her brows knitting together slightly. “You look terrible. Were you drinking again at the banquet last night?”

My father frowned as well, his tone clearly displeased. “I also heard that you left the banquet early and caused quite a scene.”

He paused, his gaze growing darker. “Elena, you represent more than the Rossi family now. You’re the wife of the head of the Moretti syndicate. If people start thinking you can’t control yourself in public, it reflects badly on Victor.”

If this had happened before, Victor would have defended me.

But today…

He simply sat on the sofa, looking down at his phone as if he hadn’t noticed any of it.

I watched my parents’ cold, judgmental expressions, then glanced at Victor in silent desperation, hoping he would say something.

The next second he lifted his head.

“Where’s Stella?” he asked. “I didn’t see her.”

My mother looked slightly surprised before smiling again.

“We arranged a dinner for her tonight with a very promising young man. Since Elena has been married for three years already, it’s time Stella began considering her own future.”

In that moment, I clearly saw the expression on Victor’s face change.