Chapter 1

I floated in mid-air, staring at the gooey, lumpy mess that was once my body—though it could hardly be called that anymore.

Rotting flesh clung to the skeleton like damp, dark soil, mixing with the coal dust around. An absolutely nauseating stench was coming from it, enough to make one gag.

Even I couldn't tell that this used to be the Francesca Marino who once dominated the underworld.

"Don Costa, why have you come personally?"

The one who spoke was Matteo Costa's right-hand man and the Underboss of the family, Paolo Torento. His face was twisted into a disgusted grimace as he pinched his nose shut.

"This body was dug out from the abandoned western mine that collapsed. It's so severely decomposed that if it weren't for the family emblem, who would've been able to tell it was one of ours?"

Pointing at the skeleton, Paolo added, "Judging from how all the bones are broken, this person was clearly tortured to death before being abandoned in the mine."

Upon hearing that the body had been found in the abandoned western mine, Matteo paused in the act of lighting a cigar.

In the next second, an icy look entered his gaze as he put on a pair of black leather gloves before striding toward the body.

I floated in front of him, gazing intently at the man I had loved for 10 years.

Two years.

I had been dead in the mine for two entire years. During that time, my soul was trapped, bound to my body. Unable to go anywhere, all I could do was watch as it slowly decomposed and was eaten by maggots. It wasn't until the mine collapsed that I once again saw the light of day.

At first, I thought the workers would simply bury me in a shallow grave and forget about it. Unexpectedly, someone noticed the Costa family's emblem on a scrap of clothing, which was why Matteo had come in person to inspect the body.

As Matteo neared my body, he subconsciously took a half-step back, his brows furrowed tightly. The horrid stench had him clamping a hand over his mouth and nose to stop himself from gagging.

After putting on a mask, he turned to ask Paolo, "Does Bella know about this?"

Paolo hurriedly shook his head. "Ms. Rossi is busy trying on her wedding dress for tomorrow. I would never dare to let her come close to something so disgusting."

Only then did the tense lines between Matteo's brow relax. "Block this news from spreading. I don't want her hearing of it. With how timid she is, she'll likely get nightmares if she learns of this."

The gentle look in his eyes as he spoke was particularly jarring to me, and I could only stare at him in a daze.

It seemed like after two years, Isabella Rossi had finally gotten her wish.

Tomorrow, the murderer who had killed my child and me would officially become the Don's wife in a glorious wedding ceremony. She would be the new Donna.

Even though I had died long ago, I still felt a chilling cold that seeped deep inside of me, as though I still had a body and bones.

Matteo focused his attention back on the body that had been laid on the ground, coldly ordering his men to cut it open.

I watched on blankly as the coroner sliced into my rotting flesh, and even though I no longer felt any pain as a spirit, I still couldn't help but shudder.

"All four limbs have comminuted fractures, indicating that they were shattered by blunt force trauma before the deceased's death. Three ribs are broken and have stabbed into the lungs. However, the cause of death is an injury to the back of the head."

Paolo clucked his tongue and shook his head. "Someone sure had a deep-seated grudge against this person. Just how much must the killer have hated the deceased for them to torture the person so and dump the body in this kind of place? Imagine the despair the victim must have felt before their death!"

Nonetheless, Matteo remained unfazed as he gestured for the coroner to continue.

The scalpel moved down, stopping at my lower abdomen. The flesh there had been crushed and mangled beyond recognition before my death, but years of rotting had wiped away any traces of it.

"There's something in the abdomen."

The coroner paused briefly, almost as though even he found this cruel. Nevertheless, he used pliers to peel back the rotting flesh before plucking out a tiny femur.

"Preliminary findings suggest that the deceased was a pregnant female. Based on the skeletal development, the fetus was at least four months old and a male."

It was our child, the heir the entire Costa family had been eagerly praying for for five long years.