Chapter 2

After returning to the villa, I went straight to the bedroom upstairs, intending to pack a few coats. But then, I discovered that the closet was filled with Liliana's clothes.

I looked around the room and saw that Liliana's belongings were scattered everywhere. There was her lipstick on the nightstand, and the sexy nightgown casually tossed onto the bed. Every corner of the room carried traces of her presence. There were strands of her bold curls beside my pillow.

For a moment, I couldn't even tell whose home this was. Giorgio had once promised that this home would forever belong to me. Only now did I realize that I had never truly belonged here.

My heart clenched tightly as waves of dull pain slowly spread through me. My eyes reddened as I shoved clothes haphazardly into my suitcase.

I dragged out the safe from beneath the bed. I had never opened it since we got married. Hence, a thick layer of dust had already gathered on its surface.

I opened the door and, with trembling hands, took out the divorce agreement. Giorgio had left his signature at the bottom of the page long ago.

It was bold and sharp, exactly the same as the signature he had used seven years ago when he bought me out of the underground auction house, no matter how much it cost him.

To repay him for saving my life, I had risked my life to pass along calls for help when he was trapped in a hotel. I had disguised myself as a dancer to seduce the Capo who controlled the outskirts. On top of that, I had helped him complete an assassination and eliminate traitors within the famiglia.

Once, I had even taken three bullets for him when he walked straight into an ambush. I had very nearly died in the emergency room that time.

And on the day Giorgio became the new Don, what I received was not another mission, but a family signet.

He had gently placed the signet in my palm and said, "Bella, I have a new mission for you. It is one that will take us a lifetime to complete together. Are you willing to do it?"

It should have been the moment my dream came true, yet I was trembling with fear.

The gap between us was far too great. I had been afraid that happiness would disappear in an instant and that Giorgio was only acting on impulse. I was even more afraid that he would one day grow tired of me, and I wouldn't even have any way of getting out of our union.

But Giorgio said nothing. On the night before our wedding, he simply tossed a few sheets of thin paper—the divorce agreement—to me.

He pulled me gently into his arms and ruffled my hair. "I love you, Bella. We're equals. I swear on my life that I'll never allow anyone to hurt you, including myself."

But only a year after we got married, he brought Liliana home and allowed her to humiliate me however she pleased. Every time I objected, all I got in return was Giorgio's increasingly impatient explanation.

"I'm just repaying the old Don's kindness. Why are you holding grudges against a child?" he said in exasperation.

The man who had once gone through life and death with me gradually drifted farther and farther away.

"Don Vitoriano."

Hearing the servants greeting him in the hallway, I quickly stuffed the divorce agreement into my inner pocket. I hastily grabbed my suitcase, preparing to leave.

Just as I opened the door, I saw Giorgio standing outside.

The moment his gaze landed on the suitcase by my side, his expression darkened instantly.

"Where are you going?" he asked.