Chapter 1

A month before our wedding, my fiance, Rocco Morelli, disappeared. I searched for him for weeks, until I finally saw him in a jewelry boutique.

He was there with a beautiful woman, helping her pick out a diamond ring. She was Emilia Leone, my father's illegitimate daughter, the one I kicked out of the family three years ago.

Rocco slipped a 20-carat diamond ring onto her finger, the stone blindingly bright.

I was just about to march up to him and confront him for his disappearing act when I heard his subordinate, Anthony Johnson, ask, "Are you really going to organize a fake wedding ceremony, then abandon Cassandra on the wedding day and broadcast indecent photos of her for all to see?"

"That's not all I'm going to do. Emilia and I will have a grand wedding ceremony for us on that day, too. I want to let Cassandra watch us get married," Rocco declared nonchalantly. "It's just to teach her a lesson. She has no one but her brother to blame since he bullied Emilia."

Anthony chuckled. "The groom doesn't show up, and indecent photos of her get released. She'll definitely be utterly humiliated. What's going to happen after that, though? What do you plan on doing with her?"

After a brief pause, Rocco answered indifferently, "Once I've taught her a lesson, I'll just keep her on the side. I can give her love, but I can't marry her.

"Emilia is the only one I want to marry. After all, she's the daughter of the Leone mafia family. She's the only one worthy of me, and the one who can save my family from imminent bankruptcy."

He picked up a one-carat ring and said, "This is the ring for her. She can't get anything that's better than what Emilia gets."

I froze. Staring fixedly at that handsome face I used to know so well, I was desperate to find even a flicker of guilt or hesitation in his eyes.

But there was none.

That self-satisfied smirk on his face made him completely unlike the man who usually gazed at me with deep affection.

Well, for the past five years, Rocco had played the part of a man fully devoted to me.

Knowing that I liked peace and quiet, he bought me a private island where I could be away from the bustle of society.

When I mentioned at random that I liked the smell of a particular type of grass, he had people cultivate it specifically in the greenhouse.

I liked stargazing, so he bought the naming rights for a star just for me.

I used to think he loved me dearly, but he'd vanished before our wedding.

Now I knew this was all just an elaborate revenge plan he was executing on Emilia's behalf.

The moment realization struck, the pain in my chest left me scarcely able to breathe.

Rocco didn't know that I was the real daughter of the Leones, the largest mafia family in the country. He had no clue that my relationship with him was meant to be a bet.

Back then, I'd fallen hopelessly in love with him and insisted on marrying him. Ciaran Leone, my older brother, refused to agree to it.

He said Rocco wasn't good enough for me, so I made a bet with him. I asked him to give me five years. If Rocco continued to love me and dote on me throughout all five years, he would have to agree to let us get married.

There was only a week left until the end of the five-year period. The bet was supposed to end on our wedding day.

If Rocco had truly loved me all along, Ciaran would have appeared at the ceremony with my family's death pact for him to sign. Once he did, it meant that our family would fully support him with everything we had.

But he'd ruined everything by lying to me.

I went home in a daze and sat awake all night.

If things just ended now, I wouldn't be able to accept that the five-year relationship had been nothing but a lie. I certainly couldn't accept that he'd fooled me like this.

At dawn, Rocco came home looking rather tired. When he saw me sitting on the couch, he pulled me into his arms at once, burying his face in my hair and kissing my tresses longingly.

"Why are you up so early?" he asked, his voice tender with concern.

"Where were you?" I asked, only to realize how dry my throat was.

I looked into his gentle gaze, hoping to find something that proved he didn't love me, to no avail.

"I had a business negotiation with another family. Didn't I message you about it? Don't overthink it," Rocco said before kissing my face affectionately.

But that only made me feel disgusted.

"Really?" I asked, my eyes fixed on him. "Have you really deleted all of those intimate photos of me in bed that you talked me into taking?"

Rocco's gaze was "earnest" as he declared, "Of course! Don't you believe me? In any case, I only wanted to keep those photos to myself. Come now. The wedding is next week. Don't worry so much."