Chapter 1

My phone wouldn't stop vibrating.

One photo after another of Vincenzo Moretti and his new lover, Sienna Newton, flooded in.

A five-star hotel, a champagne-filled bathtub, her seductive red lips… They kissed like no one else existed.

And me?

I, Isabella Bradford, an executive at Stonehaven Healthtech, once the most independent and clear-headed kind of woman, had married this bastard.

Sienna, covered in kiss marks, leaned against Vincenzo’s chest as if marking her territory.

Meanwhile, I lay in a hospital bed, hooked to an IV, drugged, stitched up, and hanging by a thread.

At that moment, Renato Moretti—the original Don of the Moretti empire—still didn’t know the full truth.

“Isabella,” he said gently, “Vincenzo… he’s a good kid at heart.

“You’ve been together so many years. Why not give him another chance? As long as I’m here, no one can take your place in this family.”

I didn’t answer.

Instead, I tapped on the video Sienna had sent me—a provocation in digital form.

Their voices echoed through the sterile hospital room.

Sienna gasped, her scarlet nails digging into Vincenzo’s back, each moan louder than the last.

Vincenzo pinned her against plush pillows and whispered, “Tell me, who do you belong to?”

Eyes hazy with lust, Sienna murmured back, “I’m yours. I belong only to you…”

Then her voice turned playful.

“You really left Isabella and her baby in the street today. Don’t you feel even a little guilty?”

Vincenzo bit her neck, his voice cold.

“Guilty for what? I love you. Her? Even if she bore my child, she’ll never compare to you.”

Renato’s face darkened as the sounds of their pleasure filled the room.

He lowered his head.

“The Morettis owe you. I’ll take care of the divorce. In seven days, you’ll have your freedom.

“As for your mother and the child…”

Before Renato could finish, a nurse walked into the room, carrying the lifeless body of my baby.

That tiny bundle who, just that morning, had nursed in my arms was now cold to the touch. And with him, the last of my heart died.

“He will be buried under the Moretti name. But my mother’s ashes—I’ll take them.”

“Thank you, Isabella,” Renato said hoarsely.

“You’re a good woman. You don’t deserve to be chained to a son like mine.”

With that, Renato took my baby and left.

My tears finally broke free.

Marrying Vincenzo had always been about mutual interests, about exchange. He needed a respectable wife to mask his bloodstained rise through the underworld, and I needed money—a fortune—to save my mother’s life.

So I put on a wedding gown and walked into the trap called “marriage”.

At first, I thought he wasn’t entirely heartless.

I heard him cry in his sleep, calling out for “Mama”.

He had lost both parents as a child, and in those moments, he seemed like a boy trapped in a never-ending nightmare.

I had felt something stir in me, believing two broken souls might find warmth in each other’s wounds.

With a heart full of compassion, I had tried to heal him by learning his mother’s cooking and rebuilding the wooden cabin from his childhood memories. I trained myself in the kitchen, striving to recreate the taste of his mother’s love.

I endured every demand, every controlling impulse he had in bed—all to give him a fleeting sense of safety.

I had foolishly believed that love might call him back to humanity.

In the end, he took my best friend to a hotel.

I rushed there to confront him, but he dismissed me with cold indifference, hiding behind the excuse of our “transactional marriage”.

“Who do you think you are?” he demanded angrily.

“You’re nothing but a dog my father took in to polish my image and cover up my identity.

“Don’t test me. Or I’ll immediately stop all of your mother’s medical treatments.”

After that, he shamelessly continued sleeping with other women.

He destroyed my social circle.

I had worked hard to become a department head at my company, but he threw everything into chaos. Projects stalled, meetings disrupted, clients lost.

All because I had to drop everything at a moment’s notice to clean up whatever mess he made.

I endured the rot of my marriage, watching my life erode until I could no longer recognize myself.

And yet, I endured it all for the sake of covering my mother’s medical bills.

One day, in a haze of exhaustion, I fell down the stairs.

When I woke up, they told me I was pregnant.

Renato came to see me, his tone almost pleading.

“Keep the child… Maybe this baby will soften his heart.

“If he still doesn’t change after the child is born, I swear, I won’t stop you from leaving.”

I hesitated. I struggled, but in the end, I agreed.

And yet, my mother died. My child was gone, and I laughed at myself for trying to tame a beast with gentleness.

In the end, he devoured me, leaving not even my bones behind.

Yes, I had lost everything, yet finally, I feared nothing.