Love on Loan

My husband Bruno's goomah was pregnant with their second child.

At the family dinner, he caressed his lover Ava's rounded belly.

"This one will be a boy, the future heir to the Marino family. As my wife, it is your duty to raise him."

This was the second time he had openly acknowledged one of his bastards.

I didn't make a scene like I had before. I just calmly lifted my head and looked Bruno straight in the eye.

Raucous laughter erupted from the family members around the table.

"Remember last time, when she acted like a madwoman? Looks like she's finally learned her place."

"The Rossi family's businesses have all been carved up. What can she do besides be an infertile trophy wife? She'll be kicked to the curb sooner or later."

Bruno's face was expressionless, allowing them to hurl their insults at me.

I fought back the tears burning my eyes and even managed a small smile.

"Bruno, let's get a divorce."

Bruno looked as if he'd heard the funniest joke in the world, his lips curling into a dismissive smirk.

"Liliana, if you can come up with the hundred million dollars you owe this family, I'll sign the papers right now. Otherwise, stop making a scene."

I didn't argue, and just dialed an encrypted number.

"I accept the terms we discussed."

A lazy laugh echoed from the other end of the line.

"A hundred million? Merely the cost of a port, nothing more. I can have it for you anytime, my princess."

...

"But are you sure you want to bind yourself to me? All for a man who betrayed you?"

The whispers of the capos around me felt like needles in my skin.

"I hear the Rossi family's territory was carved up by the other famiglie. It's only because of Bruno's charity that they weren't completely wiped out."

"A stray like her? Without the Marino family's protection, she'd be on her knees begging in the streets by tomorrow."

I looked at the divorce papers I had prepared long ago, a familiar tightness gripping my chest.

Ten years of marriage, and Bruno had a child with his first love, Ava, then dumped the girl on me to raise.

When I first heard the news, I had collapsed in tears and refused outright. But Bruno threatened me with my family's fate.

He said it was my duty to raise an heir for the family, and if I refused, he'd let the other famiglie take over what little was left of the Rossi businesses.

Over the years, he never ended things with Ava.

I'd struggled, I'd fought back, I'd even made threats. Until three years ago, during an argument, I demanded he choose between me and Ava.

In response, he had his men lock me in my rooms and take away my phone.

That winter, locked in the estate's basement, I nearly broke. In the end, I gave in and begged for mercy.

There was a time we were truly in love. When we were younger, he even took a bullet for me, fired by a rival family.

Whatever love we'd had was gone. It was time to make a clean break.

Without any hesitation, I answered the voice on the other end of the phone. "I'm sure."

The man let out a pleased, low chuckle.

"In three days, you'll have your wish."

The call ended. I remained silent for a long time.

Seeing my silence and the unshed tears in my eyes, Bruno's mocking expression softened slightly.

"Liliana, just raise Ava's and my child. As long as you behave, the title of Mrs. Marino will always be yours. Stop making trouble."

He so rarely tried to soothe me, and now he did so only for the sake of another woman.

I no longer had the strength to argue. I turned and left the banquet hall.

I had just stepped into the main house when a toy gun hit my forehead, the impact making me stumble backward.

It was Carla, Bruno and Ava's six-year-old daughter.

The girl I had raised for six years was now glaring at me with pure hatred in her eyes.

"You're supposed to play with me! Go away!"

Wincing in pain, I glanced at the two nannies who were busy doing their nails. One of them sneered.

"The Underboss made it clear. Keeping the principessa company is your responsibility. We wouldn't dare overstep."

Of course. This was all part of Bruno's carefully orchestrated torture.

Bruno had given me the task of caring for his and Ava's child, claiming it was so Carla would learn to depend on me, the lady of the house.

I remembered when Carla had a high fever, I was the one who had walked the hospital corridors all night with her in my arms, afraid her crying would disturb the other patients.

When she was hospitalized with pneumonia, I was the one who had stayed by her side for half a month, not leaving until she was fully recovered.

Though I hated Bruno and Ava with a seething passion, the child was innocent.

I wasn't her birth mother, but I had treated her as if she were my own.

But the girl I had poured my heart and soul into raising now looked at me with hostility.

Blood ties, in the end, trumped everything. In her heart, I would always be an outsider she could order around at will.

In the end, I knelt down anyway, picking up the scattered building blocks to build a castle with her.

I had just finished one wall when she viciously kicked it apart.

"You call that a castle? You're useless!"

"Can't even keep a child happy?"

Bruno was back. His cold voice came from behind me as he yanked me to my feet.

"What if the Don sees Carla acting up like this?"

My throat tightened. It was clearly Carla who had started it, but in Bruno's eyes, I was always the one at fault.

Besides, I was the one who would have to clean up the mess of blocks scattered all over the floor.

Carla shot me a triumphant smirk and threw herself into Bruno's arms.

"Papa, she's so clumsy at everything! When are you taking me to the resort villa?"

Bruno stroked her hair dotingly.

"In three days, how about we go with Mama Ava to the beach house?"

Just then, Ava came slowly down the stairs. A flash of triumph crossed her eyes when she heard the plan, and she linked her arm through Bruno's even more tightly.

When I saw the man's watch on her wrist, clearly too large for her, I froze.

That was the watch my father had given to Bruno with his own hands before he died, a symbol of our family's legacy.

The truth was, my marriage to Bruno was founded on a hundred-million-dollar family deal.

Thirteen years ago, when I fell in love with a Bruno who had yet to take full control of the Marino family, I was deliberately misdiagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

At the time, he was a rising star in the underworld.

Not wanting to drag him down in his fight for the family inheritance, I used my family's supposed disapproval as an excuse to break up with him.

Later, when the Rossi family was on the brink of bankruptcy, it was Bruno who showed up with a hundred million dollars, saying he would use the money to save my family if only I married him.

I was so naive back then. I thought he truly loved me, that he would sacrifice anything to have me, that I had finally found true love.

I never imagined he had come with a heart full of vengeance.

On his deathbed, my father entrusted that watch, a symbol of our family's honor, to him. With red-rimmed eyes, Bruno promised he would always treat me well.

And now, that watch was on Ava's wrist, a slap in the face to me and a profound humiliation for the Rossi family.

"Liliana, Bruno saw how much I liked this watch."

She noticed me staring and deliberately dangled her wrist.

"After all, he said it was old and not worth much, so he figured he might as well give it to me as a toy."

Bruno chimed in nonchalantly from the side, "That's right. Old things need to find a new purpose."

A bitter mix of emotions churned inside me, but since I was leaving, there was no point in arguing.

I turned to leave, but then I heard a sharp crack.

"Oh!" Ava suddenly cried out as the watch "accidentally" fell to the floor, shattering into pieces.

I instinctively bent down to pick up the pieces, but then I felt a hard shove from behind.

Caught off guard, I stumbled and hit the fireplace mantel. The sharp marble edge gashed my forehead.

As blood beaded on my skin and dripped onto the expensive Persian rug, I caught the shift in Bruno's expression from the corner of my eye. He instinctively reached out to steady me,

but Ava suddenly shrieked, crying that a piece of glass had cut her wrist.

He immediately turned his attention back to her, anxiously checking the supposed wound.

And I was left to stagger and fall onto the cold floor.

Ava leaned into Bruno's arms, her voice trembling.

"Oh my god, Bruno, why is she still so violent?"