Chapter 3

Vittorio intercepted me on the road down the mountain. I handed him the USB drive hidden in my hair.

"Inside are the detailed records of Gaspare's port trade operations."

In exchange, he passed me a roll of film.

"My men intercepted this. You guessed right. Vera wasn't the first."

Vittorio's voice carried a chill.

"Three years ago, they did it to a starlet in that villa. They made it look like she'd jumped."

After parting with Vittorio, I returned to the villa the Toscano family had given me and waited for Gaspare's next move.

Sure enough, early the next morning, my nominal father, Silvano Toscano, came pounding on my door.

"You've got some nerve now? Daring to run away!"

Before I could speak, his cane came down on me. Even though I had prepared myself, I was still beaten until I was dizzy and disoriented.

This was not the first time.

Whenever things did not go his way, Gaspare would threaten Silvano. He knew Silvano would do his dirty work for him. All Gaspare had to do was sit on his throne and wait for my apology.

Silvano only stopped after beating me half to death.

"Don't forget why I went through so much trouble to send you into the Volpe family! If you don't behave, Vera's fate will be yours!"

I glared at Silvano through gritted teeth, seething with hatred.

Silvano had thrown Vera to the wolves for his own selfish interests. Neither he nor Gaspare would escape my revenge.

I was beaten black and blue, then locked up for three days without food or water. When I was at the point where I was barely clinging to life, Silvano sent someone to treat my wounds.

I had won my gamble again. He did not dare let me die.

Before I had even recovered, he hurriedly sent someone to drag me to Gaspare to deliver food and apologize.

When I stood before Gaspare, the pain made my entire body tremble uncontrollably. I forced out a placating smile.

Gaspare did not even look at me properly. He dumped the food I brought into the trash.

"If it weren't for that old fool from the Toscano family crying and begging me, and you looking so much like Vera, how could you possibly have had the chance to marry me?

"Smart people learn to cherish what they have. Vera didn't have that fortune. I hope you're not the next her."

I nodded with downcast eyes. My hands were clenched behind my back so hard that my fingertips turned white.

Seeing how I obediently agreed, Gaspare did not make things difficult for me. Silvano's spy finally withdrew.

My marriage to Gaspare was nothing more than a transaction.

Whether it was Vera or me, we were both tools for the Toscano family to earn the Volpe family's favor.

Among the younger generation of the Volpe family, only Gaspare stood out as a playboy, which naturally made him hot property.

To squeeze into the upper class, Silvano went through great pains to find Vera. He trained her every smile and frown according to Gaspare's preferences.

On the day of the engagement to the Volpe family, the Toscano family got their wish and secured a trade route under Gaspare's control. Their attitude toward Vera immediately improved.

To win her over, they gave her whatever she wanted. Villas, cars, company shares.

After Vera's death, the Volpe family's stance towards them took a turn for the worse. As such, the Toscano family came looking for me, someone with an identical background to hers.

"Bloodline? That's the most useless thing there is.

"As long as you can be useful to the Toscano family, whoever we say is the Toscano principessa is the principessa. No one will care whether it's true or false."

Although my identity was fake, when Gaspare first saw me, his gaze did waver for a moment. After all, aside from appearance, the way I behaved was almost identical to Vera.

At first, he treated me as Vera's replacement and showed some interest. He kept me like a cat he could toy with when bored.

Now, Gaspare's Greenfield Tech bid was imminent. The bidding was just a front. In reality, he planned to use this project to launder money from the East District port.

I needed to meet one of Gaspare's former lovers, Elisa Moretti.

When she stood before me, her belly was already slightly swollen.

Gaspare never allowed any of his lovers to get pregnant. Every time, I would watch them swallow their birth control pills before letting them leave.

Elisa was the only exception.

When she agreed to cooperate with me, I knew the moment I had been waiting for had arrived.

I had switched out her pills, and she had successfully gotten pregnant.

Gaspare would never know that this one-night stand he had barely paid attention to would become his biggest problem in the near future.

After settling Elisa somewhere safe, I immediately bought a plane ticket to Cutton.

Elisa's appearance gave me the perfect opportunity to completely destroy Gaspare.

I had been preparing for five years. Finally, the time had come.

I was no fool.

The Toscano family needed me to be their puppet, and I needed the Toscano family as my stepping stone.

What I truly wanted to do was avenge Vera.

I wanted the Toscano family to go bankrupt. I wanted Gaspare to fall from grace. I would destroy him completely and make sure he suffered every moment of it.

A message from Vittorio arrived on my phone.

"The Romano family has agreed to join forces. Everything's in place. We're just waiting for the right moment."

I smiled at a photo of Gaspare and made a gun gesture with my hand.

Gaspare, you had more enemies than you knew.