Chapter 1

My husband, Damon Rovelli, stared at my older sister, Aurora Moretti, and removed his tuxedo jacket that smelled faintly of my perfume.

I calmly set down my glass of champagne and turned to leave the banquet hall, but Damon immediately caught my hand.

"Where are you going, Liliana?"

I paused, thinking he just wanted back the heirloom signet ring that belonged only to the Donna of the Rovelli family. So, I held out my hand and deftly slipped it off my finger.

"Here. It can go back to its rightful owner now," I said, lowering my eyes as I placed the ruby ring into the palm of his hand, trying to avoid his gaze.

But no matter how much I tried to hide it, my voice still carried bitterness and exhaustion.

"Don't worry. I'm very clear that the Donna position never truly belonged to me in the first place. And since Aurora has now returned, I will leave tonight."

This was a promise that I'd made to Damon seven years ago. But even though I knew and expected this day to come, I still felt the unbearable pain in my heart when it finally did.

Seven years ago, Damon, the sole heir to the Rovelli family, officially became the Don. The first thing he did after becoming the Don was to propose a marriage alliance with the Moretti family. He wanted Aurora, the woman he loved, to be his Donna.

The Rovelli family was the oldest and most powerful Mafia family in Sivilly. They were a family of immense heritage, prestige, and wealth. Papa readily agreed to the marriage proposal.

However, on the very day of the wedding, Aurora ran away.

In a panic, my Papa, Giovanni Moretti, hurriedly ushered me into the car that the Rovellis had sent to bring Aurora to the Rovelli estate.

The wedding was an event everyone in Sivilly was looking forward to. At the wedding, Damon forced himself to suppress his pain and disappointment by sliding the ring onto my finger instead.

He couldn't afford to embarrass or humiliate the family by going back on his word.

Over the next seven years, I gave him everything I possibly could. The role of a Donna might appear prestigious and dignified to the public, but in reality, it entailed an endless stream of troublesome issues, one after another.

Aurora lived a life of unbridled extravagance and pleasure after running away from the marriage alliance and arming herself with a fortune taken from our family.

On the other hand, I was tethered to Damon's side, accompanying him as he navigated the treacherous politics between rival factions, never daring to take a single wrong step.

His enemies once kidnapped and brutally tortured me in a bid to force me to reveal Damon's whereabouts, but I never uttered a single word.

Five years ago, when he was ambushed during an arms deal, I led his men to carve a bloody path through the enemy lines and rescued him at the risk of my own life. Damon managed to escape unscathed, but I was left severely injured and rendered infertile for the rest of my life.

The path to Damon's consolidating power and status was a very grueling one. A single wrong step would land us in hot boiling water, in the hands of our enemies.

Now, Damon had finally cleared away all the obstacles and firmly secured his position as the Don of the Rovelli family—but Aurora chose to return now.

After seven years of living a life of decadence and luxury, she came back intent on snatching away everything that I'd risked my life to secure.

I was very reluctant to just accept it and let it go.

Damon held the ruby signet ring I'd removed from my finger with a hesitant expression on his face. He took another step closer to me, wanting to speak.

"Liliana, listen to me. I—"

But before he could get another word out, a sultry figure threw herself into his arms. Aurora then cupped his face and stared into his eyes, her own filled with emotion.

"My dear, darling Damon! I heard from the family that you still don't have any children of your own—is that true?

"I remember that you always wanted to have children. Didn't you tell me before that your only wish was for me to bear you the heir to the Rovelli family?"

She then leaned into his embrace, her face beaming with a look of pure, blissful happiness.

"Aurora! Stop it!" Mama hissed in a warning tone, hurrying over to us and grabbing her by the arm. "You shouldn't be saying this here. Come with me right now!"

I listened to Aurora's words in a daze, a sorrowful smile tugging at the corners of my mouth.

Mama was visibly unsettled, and Damon's expression had darkened too. They both knew all too well that the permanent loss of my ability to bear children was the greatest pain of my life.

After all, I was critically injured in the attack when Damon was ambushed by his enemies, making me lose the ability to bear him any children. But before the attack, he and I were inseparable.

He indulged my every whim, and we seemed for all the world like a loving married couple. He would soothe me with gentle tenderness during the day and unleash a burning and frenzied passion upon me every night. For a time, I truly believed that we would soon have a child together.

Then came the day I lay bloodied on the cold, hard ground, and the family doctor told us that I would never be able to conceive anymore.

Damon was devastated. He couldn't bear to see me refuse to eat, so he took it upon himself to care for me, even cooking every meal by himself.

Even more than that, he never used to be religious, and yet he stepped into a church and prayed to the gods, asking that we never have to suffer losing each other.

He then wiped out all his enemies overnight, sending those who had harmed me straight to hell, bathing the entire Sivilly in their blood. In the aftermath, he cemented his power in Sivilly decisively and ruthlessly. He eventually became the youngest Don in the history of the Rovelli family.

Damon never forgot the part I played in his rise to power. Everyone in the Rovelli family treated me with the utmost respect and obeyed my every command without question.

Just last night, he had personally placed the family heirloom signet ring on my finger, the one that symbolized my position as the Donna.

But today, Aurora returned.