Semua Bab Beyond Betrayal: Marry His Brother: Bab 161 - Bab 170

“Gianna!” Felix grabbed my arm, rough and urgent. His eyes were narrowed with anger. I glanced around nervously. No one here knew the real me, and I intended to keep it that way. I came to medical school to escape, not to stir up more trouble. “What the hell are you doing? Let go of me!” I snapped, trying to pull my arm free. “Is it true?” His voice cracked slightly. “You’re with someone else now?” “Yes, it’s true. So what?” His jaw tightened. “You can’t. We were supposed to get married. How could you, Gianna?” I stared at him, incredulous. “How could I? How could you?” I pulled him toward the garden area, away from the main walkway and beside the apartment building, needing space to face him without drawing attention. Dante would be finishing his shift at the hospital soon, and I couldn’t bear the thought of him seeing me like this—seeing me still tangled up in Felix’s chaos. “You’ve always done things that went against me,” he said bitterly. “Really?” I almost laughed, the

Choosing to follow my heart meant cutting ties with my family. They searched for me and tried to reach out, but my decision to stay away never wavered. I told Royal I didn’t want to hear anything about them. I didn’t want to open the door to doubt or second-guessing. I could feel their resentment toward me, and that knowledge was a burden enough. Nothing could undo what I had done. For years, I lived as Gianna in the North, numb to most things. But as time passed, I found strength. My confidence grew through work and training. I buried myself in my job, letting it consume me. There were a few times I tried to open my heart again, but nothing ever felt right. What I had with Dante had been too good, too real, that anything after him felt like a half-hearted effort. Eventually, I stopped trying to enter relationships altogether. Then, one day, I don’t even remember how many years had passed, and I saw Dante’s face in the newspaper. He remained as handsome as ever: a respected surgeon

“Our family owes the Doyles a great debt, Gianna…” Mateo muttered, his voice hard. “When you severed your ties with us, the bond between our families disappeared.” I gasped, but what he said next struck me even harder. “Felix got into a car accident. It triggered his parents badly. And when they realized you weren’t coming back, they pulled everything: the funding, the contracts, the partnership that kept Dad afloat in the company... There was a contract, Gianna. The marriage alliance between you and Felix was why they lent Dad the money to keep his position in the company.” I stared at him, frozen. My throat closed. I tried to speak, but he wasn’t finished. “They hold you responsible for what happened to Felix. He couldn’t walk for years. Stuck in a wheelchair, broken. Your disappearance destroyed him.” Mateo’s composure finally shattered. His eyes burned with resentment. “Dad lost everything. Mom’s living in some rundown house. And me?” He let out a bitter laugh. “I’m stuck in

The villa means everything to my parents. I can’t just walk away from this. “I’m willing to pay for it—just tell me how much it’ll take to get it back.” During my years working with Ballinger’s research team, I saved a substantial amount. But I couldn’t drag Royal’s name into this—it would break the rules of the world we live in, and worse, it might put her in danger. She had already risked enough, hiding me for years without the Doyles ever finding out. Felix exhaled slowly, then retreated behind his imposing desk. “I gotta say, I appreciate the direct offer—just buying it outright. But you know that’s not what my family really wants. It’s not that simple, Gianna.” My lips compressed into a thin line. I know where this is going. The silence stretched between us until our eyes met. We both knew what he was about to bring up. The inevitable. The marriage alliance. “You know how much I despised you, Gianna,” he said, though there was something in his eyes—pain he couldn’t hide.

I did try. I reached out to Felix, hoping we could fix what was broken between us. I opened my heart to the possibility of marriage, clinging to the memory of how we used to be—how we once blurred the line between friendship and something more, giving in to desire and pretending it meant something deeper. We used our bodies to fill the silence between us. But everything shifted when I recognized the resentment simmering beneath Felix’s surface. Maybe he was bitter that our families treated us like pawns, or perhaps he never forgave me for leaving him back then. Whatever it was, the truth was clear: our marriage had no chance. During our first year together, he brought Alice back into our lives. Felix and I worked in the same building, which meant I became an unwilling audience to the office gossip that followed her arrival. “Vice President Doyle has a visitor. She’s stunning!” I overheard one colleague whisper. “Shhh,” another warned quickly, glancing nervously in my direction.