Chapter 3

Anger and annoyance flickered in Vincenzo's eyes.

He looked at me and spoke calmly.

"Divorce? No way. Even if I don't love you anymore, you'll always be the most important person to me. I'm not letting you go. "

He looked me in the eye and said each word slowly.

"Elena, I've done nothing to you. If I owe anyone, it's Giuliana. I couldn't give her a title. She followed me without a label in the best years of her life. "

"I was going to give you some dignity. But you're so unreasonable you had to make a scene. "

He turned around, got down on one knee, and pulled out a huge diamond ring from his pocket. He looked at Giuliana with deep affection.

"Giuliana, it's my fault I met you too late."

"I can't give you a legal title in this lifetime, but I want to give you the biggest wedding. Let everyone know that you're the one I love the most."

Giuliana covered her mouth, her eyes rimmed red, but she turned her head away and said sadly.

"I can't say yes to you! I love you, so I'm willing to put aside my pride and follow you without a title. But I don't want everyone to know I'm your mistress."

"Unless..."

She turned her head and looked at me.

"Unless the Donna officiates our wedding. Let her admit in front of everyone that the one who isn't loved is the mistress."

I met the malice in her eyes with a blank expression.

Vincenzo saw that I wasn't saying anything, and his voice turned cold.

"Elena, don't forget, your parents' ashes are buried in that cemetery I bought."

"You wouldn't want them to end up like that apartment, would you?"

My heart felt like a knife had cut out a big chunk. Even my breath tasted like blood.

I nodded slowly.

" I'll admit it in front of everyone. "

Giuliana broke into tears of joy and threw herself into Vincenzo's arms.

He took Giuliana to book the wedding dress and the venue.

As he was leaving, he paused.

He explained to me calmly.

"Elena, it's just a wedding. It doesn't threaten your position as Donna."

I didn't say anything.

After a long silence, Vincenzo spoke. "You don't have to take care of Giuliana for a while. Take good care of yourself. Consider it my compensation to you."

I said okay, still calm.

Vincenzo left satisfied.

On the day of the wedding, Vincenzo was afraid I would cause trouble, so he had the bodyguards take me to the dressing room early and keep an eye on me.

Giuliana whined, saying her wedding dress was too heavy and she couldn't put on her shoes.

"Donna, help me, will you?"

Vincenzo frowned and instinctively looked at me.

I lowered my eyes, squatted down, lifted the wedding dress, and helped her put on her shoes.

Vincenzo looked at me with a complicated expression. He pressed his lips as if to say something, but Giuliana pushed him.

"Honey, I'm thirsty. Go get me a glass of orange juice."

Vincenzo smiled, ruffled her hair, and turned to leave.

As soon as he left, Giuliana kicked me in the chest.

She looked at me with contempt.

"Elena, you don't really think I'm the kind of woman who latches onto a rich guy, do you?"

"You don't know, but I've been in a relationship with Vincenzo for ten years too."

Seeing the shock in my eyes, she smiled cruelly.

"Vincenzo said I was too young and shouldn't suffer with him. So he only dated me, but married you."

"He was so afraid of shortchanging me that the first money he made, he told you the rival family stole it, but he actually used it to buy me a designer bag. Every time I was upset, he would have people come to the house pretending to collect debts, putting on a show, and give all that money to me to cheer me up."

"A total of one point eight million dollars. Oh, and a worthless ring. I threw it away."

My whole body wouldn't stop shaking.

One point eight million dollars. That was the money I had saved over the years handling Vincenzo's family business.

At my worst, I collapsed from exhaustion right on the dock and almost got crushed by a shipping container.

When Vincenzo found out, he held me and kept saying he was wrong, his body trembling.

The ridiculous thing was, I patted his back and smiled, telling him it was okay.

Turns out, it was all fake.

He had been lying to me the whole time.

Giuliana kept going on and on. That pulled me back to reality.

"Then you got pregnant. I was so mad I wouldn't let him touch me. So he staged a whole scene with his business partner and got you drunk until you miscarried. You have no idea, when you were passed out in the emergency room from the miscarriage, he called me and begged me not to be mad at him anymore."

Those words hit my head like a sledgehammer. My vision went dark.

Giuliana's face suddenly twisted. She looked at me with pure resentment.

"But even though he loves me that much, he still won't divorce you and marry me."

"You're just riding on the suffering you went through with Vincenzo to keep him for yourself. But so what? He doesn't love you enough."

Then she suddenly smiled.

"Don't you wonder, if Vincenzo finds out you tried to hurt my baby, would he still care about that little bit of history with you?"

I just wanted to stop Giuliana.

Then Giuliana picked up a vase beside her and smashed it hard against her own stomach. Then she screamed.

"Vincenzo! Help me!"

The dressing room door was kicked open.

Vincenzo grabbed my wrist and threw me to the floor.

His eyes blood red, he watched Giuliana fall to the ground, blood spreading from under her dress.

"It wasn't me..."

My words were choked off by Vincenzo's large hand around my throat.

His eyes blazing red, he roared at me.

"Elena! You couldn't even spare a child! You make me sick!"

"You made Giuliana lose her baby. Then don't blame me for going after your dead parents."

Under my terrified and agonized gaze, he gave the order.

"Dig up Elena's parents' grave. Grind their bones to dust and dump them in the sewer."

"No!"

I screamed.

"Vincenzo Moretti! You're insane! There are cameras in the dressing room! Go check! I didn't do it!"

Giuliana staggered to her feet, turned, and ran toward the window.

"My baby is gone. What's the point of living? I might as well die."

"Frame me all you want, Donna. "

Vincenzo panicked. He shoved me aside and rushed to grab Giuliana.

His face cold and stern, he looked at me and said each word slowly.

"Elena, you've used up the last bit of feeling I had for you. You hurt the woman I love and my child. I will not let you get away with this."

He said coldly, "Send her to federal prison. Tell them in there to take good care of her."

"I don't want her to have a single good day in there."

Vincenzo ran every red light and sped to the hospital.

He carried Giuliana into the emergency room.

"Save her! Save my child! Keep my baby alive, and I'll donate ten million dollars to this hospital! "

The attending doctor was startled. He stared at Vincenzo, frozen.

"Don Moretti?"

He frowned, looking at Vincenzo, then at the pale, fragile Giuliana lying on the bed.

Confused, he asked, "Your child? Don Moretti, you have low sperm count. You can't father children. Where did this child come from?"

Vincenzo's face darkened instantly.

He whipped his head toward the doctor, his voice low with anger.

"What did you just say?"

"Low sperm count? Are you looking to die?"

The doctor was terrified and quickly explained.

"Don, I'm not lying. That's what your premarital medical report from back then said!"