He Left Eight Times—I Left Forever

When I got home, I sorted out my assets in Italy and called my father.

“Father, I'm not marrying Luca Romano.”

There was silence on the other end for a few seconds before my father laughed.

“You're finally willing to come home.”

“He's walked out on your wedding eight times and turned you into a laughingstock in our circle. How could a man like that truly love you?”

“You're the princess of the Norelli Family. You could have any man you wanted. Come home.”

I gave a bitter smile.

My father was right. It had simply taken me an entire lifetime to understand it.

“I'll take care of everything here and come back in a week.”

After hanging up, I looked at the mountain of wedding gifts sent by the major Families, piled across the floor.

The smile faded from my face, leaving only exhaustion in my eyes.

I thought back to the day Luca and I first met.

I had hidden my identity and slipped away from my bodyguards, only to be targeted by assassins from a rival Family.

They chased me into an alley with nowhere left to run, and I thought I was going to die.

Luca took a bullet for me.

He gripped my wrist and dragged me out of the shooter's line of fire.

I was so terrified that tears spilled from my eyes before I even realized it.

Yet he gently wiped them from my cheek, his voice hoarse.

“Don't be afraid.”

After my bodyguards arrived, I asked him what he wanted in return.

He looked at me and suddenly smiled.

“I want a chance to court you.”

And just like that, we fell in love.

Over the next seven years, I stood beside him as he rose from an illegitimate son of the Romano Family to its Don.

He spoiled me until I became the most envied woman in the entire underworld.

The night he proposed, fireworks exploded across the sky as a thousand drones spelled DIANA above us.

He slipped a one-of-a-kind pink diamond onto my ring finger and promised to love me for the rest of his life.

Then, three months before our wedding, Vivian came back.

Luca didn't say much about it.

If anything, he became even more meticulous about preparing for our wedding.

He would turn down gatherings with the most powerful Families just to accompany me to wedding-dress fittings.

From where every white rose would be placed inside the church to what drinks would be served at the outdoor reception, he personally saw to every detail without the slightest impatience.

I thought he was doing it to reassure me. I thought Vivian no longer mattered to him.

But on our wedding day, Vivian called and said she had a fever.

Luca left me and every guest waiting there and went to her.

I cried and argued with him. He promised me it would never happen again.

But all I got in return was one humiliation after another, ending in the tragedy of my previous life.

This time, I had finally let go.

I would set him free, and set myself free as well.