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Chapter 2

Penulis: Bagel
Luca's tall frame went rigid.

A flicker of shock crossed his deep-set eyes, his brow furrowing even deeper.

Mia was completely stunned, even forgetting to squeeze out more tears.

I took out a silk handkerchief, casually wiped the wax from my fingertips, and then knelt.

I lowered my head, blinking hard to keep the tears from falling.

Without even putting on gloves, I began picking up the pieces of still-hot wax and sharp glass with my bare hands, tossing them into a nearby brass wastebasket.

A shard of glass pierced my palm, but I didn't even flinch.

Once I was done, I stood up and glanced at Luca.

"I got my dress dirty. I'm going back to my room to take care of it."

I turned and walked toward the staircase, my back perfectly straight.

Luca's eyes followed me the entire way.

I pushed open the bedroom door and locked it.

I slid down the heavy wood, hiding in the dark, and let silent tears fall.

I just never imagined that seven years of love and devotion would end so unceremoniously.

Just then, the encrypted phone on the bedside table lit up. It was a message from my eldest brother, Lorenzo.

"What the Bellinis owe you, I'll make them pay back, with interest."

I stared at the words, my eyes growing hot. The oak door was violently kicked in.

Luca stormed in, radiating a chilling aura, his sharp gaze locking onto the phone in my hand.

He strode toward me and snatched it away.

Thankfully, the screen went dark just as he reached for it.

He didn't even bother trying the password, simply tossing the phone onto the thick carpet.

He grabbed my chin, forcing my head up to look at him.

"What was that little performance downstairs?" His voice was low and scrutinizing. "Trying a new tactic?"

I met his gaze, my tone flat.

"Haven't you always complained that I was too clingy, telling me to be more independent?"

"I gave her the ring and the rubies. Isn't this exactly what you wanted? Are you satisfied?"

A flicker of an emotion I couldn't read crossed Luca's eyes.

His grip on my chin suddenly loosened, and his large hand clamped onto the small of my back, pinning me against the wall.

His shirt carried the sharp scent of rum, mixed with the cloying sweetness of Mia's rose perfume.

The two scents mingled in my nostrils, a suffocating combination that made me desperate to escape.

He leaned down, his warm, thin lips brushing against my earlobe. His voice was a low, hoarse whisper.

"Elara, I know you felt wronged tonight."

"But Mia's brother died passing me intel. I owe her a debt, and I have to protect her."

"As long as you behave, stop being so needy, no one can take the Donna's position from you. You will always be the woman who has lasted the longest in my bed. The most special."

He was making a promise, in a condescending, charitable tone.

He was certain I would come crawling back for this crumb of affection.

A sudden, urgent knocking came from outside the door.

Mia's frail voice drifted through the wood.

"Luca, my heart is hurting again. Can you come check on me?"

The hand on my waist instantly let go.

Without a moment's hesitation, he turned to leave.

As his hand grasped the doorknob, he paused and looked back at me.

"There's an underground high-stakes game tomorrow night. I'm taking Mia to show her the ropes. Take that Saint Christopher medal off your neck and give it to her. Let her wear it for some good luck."

I almost thought I had misheard.

That Saint Christopher medal.

Three years ago, after I took that bullet for him and survived the surgery, his mother, the previous Donna, had personally placed it around my neck.

His mother, the previous Donna, had told me with tears in her eyes, "Elara, from this day on, you are a part of the Bellini family."

The amulet was soaked in my blood and my loyalty to him. I had always treated it as more sacred than my own life, never taking it off, not even to shower.

Once, a new maid had placed it somewhere I didn't know, and I burst into terrified tears, thinking it was lost.

Back then, Luca had pulled me onto his lap, kissed me, and laughed, calling me his fragile little cat. "No one is allowed to touch your things," he'd said.
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    After tying up the remaining loose ends in Serafino, I prepared to move back to the castle for good.With the Bellini family liquidated, Luca was now saddled with an astronomical debt to the Rossis.My brother's intelligence network reported that when Luca hit rock bottom, Mia had stolen the last of his emergency cash from his safe and tried to flee by boat. Our men intercepted her at the docks and sank her into the harbor.As for Luca, he had collapsed in a dark alley from a combination of wound infection and a massive stomach hemorrhage. He was found by patrolmen, who called an ambulance that dumped him in a slum emergency room.The doctors barely saved his wretched life, but his broken body would now forever rely on IV drips to survive, while facing the endless pursuit of his enemies and debt collectors.On the way to the private airstrip, the days-long downpour finally stopped.The sun came out over Serafino, a rare sight. Through the bulletproof glass, a sliver of long-forgotten w

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    A collective gasp echoed through the grand hall. After a half-second of dead silence, the room erupted in a deafening roar of gossip.Everyone in the Corvona underworld knew the Don of the Bellini family kept his "little cat" of seven years locked away in his estate. They had also heard that, for a new flame, he had cast that same cat out into a blizzard.But no one could have imagined that the woman he had trampled on for seven years was the long-lost heiress to the powerful Rossi family of Serafino.Luca was deaf to the jeers and shocked whispers around him.Clutching his chest where the old wound had been struck, he pushed himself up from the marble floor, inch by inch.He didn't look at Lorenzo. His eyes were fixed on me, like a drowning man clinging to his last piece of driftwood."Elara, what they're saying isn't true, is it?" His voice was trembling. "You're just mad at me. You hired people to put on this show to scare me, right?""What about all the things you used to say? Tha

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    One month later.At the Palazzo D'Oro, the Rossi family's six-star hotel on the shores of Serafino Bay, the top-floor ballroom was ablaze with lights.The Rossi family had booked three entire floors for a homecoming banquet for their princess, an event that sent shockwaves through the Serafino underworld.Only the most powerful Mafia bosses and the political and business titans who controlled the nation's economy were granted entry.Luca attended the banquet with Mia.In just thirty days, the Bellini family's overseas arms routes had been ruthlessly dismantled by an unknown force. Their territory had shrunk drastically, and their losses were so catastrophic they were on the brink of bankruptcy.He hadn't slept for nights on end. His eyes were sunken, his sharp jaw covered in a scruffy, defeated beard, and he had lost a shocking amount of weight.The old wound in his chest flared up more and more frequently, and even the maximum dose of painkillers couldn't suppress the agony.He had u

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    In the Corvona underworld, there is one unspoken rule.When a Don keeps a new woman by his side for three consecutive months, the Donna must personally remove the signet ring symbolizing her power and place it on the new woman's finger before the entire family.When my husband, Luca, the Don of the

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    Luca let out a derisive snort, his voice laced with absolute certainty."Give up? Elara's biggest gamble was tying her life to mine. Don't worry. She can't leave me.""She has nothing, and no one, but me."The tray tilted in my hand.A few drops of scalding liquid splashed onto the back of my hand.

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    Luca stood in the shadows of the doorway, his eyes fixed on my back as I vanished into the blizzard. Then, with a surge of force, he slammed the heavy oak door shut.The muffled slam was swallowed by the Corvona blizzard.I stepped into the knee-deep snow, bent to retrieve the canvas bag he had thro

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