Chapter 4

When I rushed out of the meeting room, a cold rain had already begun to fall.

Raindrops struck my face, and I could no longer tell whether what slid down my cheeks was rain or something else.

Lucca’s faint laughter, delivered through an encrypted line to the head of the Balsamo family, continued to echo in my ears like the cold muzzle of a gun pressed directly against my heart.

“Eliana? She was the sharpest blade in my hand, but now I have a stronger alliance.

“Trading her and the lives of those subordinates you hate most for your trust is a very worthwhile deal.”

I sat in the muddy water of an alley, my mind completely blank.

After an unknown stretch of time, a pair of polished leather shoes stopped in front of me.

He stood beneath a black umbrella, impeccably dressed. His composed elegance formed a world entirely separate from my disheveled state in the mud.

“Lucca, why did you do this?”

He looked down at me from above, his eyes filled with unyielding indifference.

“Eliana, don’t be naïve. We were never walking the same path.

“Today it’s Victoria. Tomorrow, it could be someone else. But that person was never going to be you.”

I suddenly laughed, my whole body trembling.

“But Lucca, I obtained evidence that could destroy them.”

Even then, I still held onto a faint trace of hope, wanting to prove my value. I had hoped he might reconsider for the sake of everything that once existed between us.

However, his expression turned instantly cold.

“Eliana, I didn’t expect you to understand the rules so poorly.

“You think you can use something like this to threaten me and change my decision?”

He crouched down, gripping my chin, his voice heavy with warning.

“Eliana, take your men and clear out the warehouse in the west district. Handle everything cleanly.

“Otherwise…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but I understood perfectly what it meant.

I resisted stubbornly through the entire night until Lucca finally lost all patience.

The next day, he sent me the operational route to the warehouse.

On one side were the few loyal men I had left; on the other was the death order he had given that I could not refuse.

He was forcing me to offer my men’s lives as the final sacrifice for his political marriage.

In the end, I still led my men there.

At the designated location, we were met with an ambush backed by firepower several times greater than ours.

My loyalty and love were buried together with the men who fell, swallowed by the flames of that inferno.

When I reported the mission’s failure to Lucca, he finally responded to my communication.

His voice carried no emotion as he said, “Understood. Be cleaner next time.”

From that day on, I became quieter and more efficient, and he seemed satisfied with this newfound obedience.

I began quietly liquidating every asset he had given me, secretly preparing an escape route for myself and my surviving men.

Just as I was about to slip beyond his control, his engagement ceremony with Victoria shook the entire city.

It should have had nothing to do with me, yet Victoria personally named me to attend and offer my blessings.

The incident happened at that very moment.

The massive screen that was meant to display the story of their relationship suddenly began playing intimate footage of Lucca and me instead.

In the video, my face flushed as my arms wrapped around his neck.

“Lucca, do you love me?”

Victoria’s shocked cry and sobbing echoed through the hall.

Every guest present turned to look at me with horror and disgust.

I didn’t understand why that video had appeared there either.

Lucca said nothing, only watching me with cold eyes.

“It wasn’t me. I didn’t…”

Just as I stood on the verge of freedom, Victoria used a borrowed blade to turn everyone against me.

“Eliana, what fantasy are you still clinging to?”

“You think filthy tricks like this can scare Victoria away? How pathetic.

“If you want me to spare them, then confess before all the families that you leaked the footage deliberately to sabotage the alliance.”

I had no choice.

Later on, I thought countless times if, given another chance, seventeen-year-old Eliana would never have followed that man out of the storage room.

I kneeled before representatives of every family, humiliating myself as I confessed to ambition and betrayal.

However, my surrender did not buy my men their lives.

That very night, after my confession, they were secretly executed as traitors.

“Eliana, who do you think you are?!”

Victoria’s sharp voice dragged me back to the present.

I lifted my head and met Lucca’s gaze.

His expression was complicated.

“Eliana, you weren’t like this before. Are you still angry with me?”

Victoria shot me a venomous glare and deliberately raised her voice.

“Today’s summit will decide the balance of power for the next decade. When did trash like you get the nerve to come here and cause trouble?

“Guards, drag this madwoman out!”

The next second, a steady, cold voice sounded from behind me.

“Let’s see who dares lay a hand on my fiancée.”