Chapter 3

Following the hints from the live chat, I found the Instagram account of Matteo's mistress, Julie Rossi. Only after seeing it did I realize that she hadn't appeared out of nowhere. Our lives had overlapped countless times long before I ever noticed.

Julie was a microinfluencer online. She had attended many of Matteo's events.

I had seen her a few times before, too, but I'd always assumed she was someone else's date. I never imagined that she and Matteo had this kind of relationship.

Scrolling through her Instagram posts, I noticed several familiar locations. One street, in particular, I recognized instantly. Even the man's back in that photo was unmistakably familiar.

There was only one person it could be—Matteo.

Julie had captioned that post, "I thought our relationship was nothing, just a blank page. I never expected he would abandon his perfect-match fiancee for me."

The post had thousands of likes, and the comments were full of envy.

"Oh, my God! This is straight out of a romance novel. I'm so jealous."

"I've read stories like this. You're his true love. The fiancee is just an accident. LOL."

"True love always finds people who are already rich. Does this guy have a brother? Asking for myself."

The live chat, at least, was more clear-headed.

"Jesus! Are those commenters even real? What romance novel? This is a mistress stealing her way in."

Before I ever met him, my parents had already arranged a childhood engagement for me to the heir of the Valente family. I heard that he had already become the new Don.

But there were no feelings between us, so I refused to marry him. I didn't want to marry someone I didn't love just for the sake of family interests.

Growing up, I watched my parents, bound together by family interests, constantly argue and blame each other, only to put on a show of affection in public.

That kind of marriage exhausted me, and so I rejected it completely.

Then, in middle school, I met Matteo. Whenever I felt down, he would gently comfort me. Over time, we fell in love. After we got together, we became the couple everyone at school envied.

When news of our marriage spread, everyone congratulated me, saying I was marrying for love.

I believed that too.

I never imagined that behind my back, Matteo had found himself a mistress.

I watched the video of Julie clinging to Matteo's arm, calling him "hubby" again and again. Meanwhile, the comments below were full of envy, urging her to post more.

It was true. In those videos, Matteo doted on her completely. He bought her bags and jewelry, took photos with her, playing along to maintain her online persona.

He never showed his face. But after all these years, I knew him well enough to know that he was enjoying it.

After all, Matteo rarely did anything against his own desires. And looking at those locations, it became even clearer. All those "business trips" he told me about were just excuses to spend time with Julie.

The nights he never came home weren't because of social events. He was with her.

I had been naive, kept completely in the dark. Once, I even told him, "Don't push yourself too hard. Your health is more important."

Back then, Matteo said, "Annie, your parents have always looked down on me. They think we're not a good match. I don't want that. I want to make enough money to prove myself to them."

He had played his part perfectly. Even before his "death", he didn't forget to send me a message saying he would love me forever.

I held onto that message and cried over it again and again.

It was only until the live chat appeared that I realized everything had been a lie.

"Matteo has planned everything perfectly. He already knows how he'll explain it to Annie when he comes back."

"Yeah. In the original story, Annie believes Matteo and marries him, while he continues seeing the mistress. Annie forgives him over and over, until she dies in childbirth."

"But now that Annie knows the truth, will the story change?"