Itself

My father was critically ill. I begged my fiancé to keep his post-wedding promise—to withdraw emergency funds from the medical trust fund he had sworn to protect me forever. He refused. The next day, he announced his engagement to Pera. Overnight, I became the laughingstock of everyone. In my deepest despair, my childhood friend Seamus— The heir to a long-established Mafia family— Knelt down in the park and proposed to me in front of everyone. That night, he transferred a large sum of money to my account. I said yes without hesitation and rushed to the hospital to pay for my father's treatment. But he never woke up again. The hospital said he had suffered "unexpected complications." Everything after that—the lawyers, the funeral, all the arrangements—was handled by Seamus. Under the Mafia family's protection, everything went smoothly, and my father was able to be quietly buried. The wedding proceeded as planned. Years later, I overheard a conversation between him and the doctor who treated my father. “Seamus,” the doctor said in a low voice, “You tampered with the organ allocation priority list. You delayed Shirley’s father’s transplant so that Pera’s father could receive an organ transplant in time. You falsified the urgency level. Do you know what will happen if this is exposed?” “The list itself was legal,” Seamus replied after a pause. “I just…adjusted the urgency level.” “You committed medical fraud,” the doctor said sharply. “You ruined his only chance to live. All for Pera. Don’t you regret it?” “I don’t regret it,” Seamus answered without hesitation. “I would do anything for her. Even my life, even the honor of the Mafia family.” “Throughout our marriage, I’ve been trying to make up for everything I owed Shirley. That should be enough.” My vision blurred. Only then did I finally understand— The woman he truly loved was always Pera. "If that's really the case," I thought numbly,"Then I should leave."

In my eighth year of simping for Darcy Lemche, I finally got a chance to become his Luna. That night, standing by Spirit Fall in Dusk Forest, he took off the wolf-tooth necklace he'd worn for years and casually tossed it into the deep pool. “Ginger, jump in and retrieve it, and I'll make you my Luna someday soon.” He knew perfectly well that I couldn't swim—and that jumping in could kill me. But he thought I was simping for him just because he was the heir to the Alpha King. He believed I wouldn't jump, because surely, to me, life meant more than love. But I jumped. For the first time ever, he lost his temper in public. “Ginger, you're insane! Why did you do it? Don't ever do that again!” From that moment on, he began treating me like his Luna. He even declared to the pack that only I could ever be his mate. He truly believed I was his fated one. But what he didn't realize was—my heart had already died the moment I jumped into that pool. That night, I saw the truth clearly: how little I truly meant to him back then. I was just a game, a test. And even when I passed it, it didn't feel like love. It felt like pity... or guilt. While he was planning our bonding ceremony, thinking he could finally make me his Luna, I suddenly said: “Darcy Lemche, I'm rejecting you as my mate.” He was stunned—completely blindsided. He had never imagined that the she-wolf who once loved him more than life itself would walk away. It was well known in the pack how deeply I loved him. But until that very day, I finally realized—I didn't love him anymore. So I turned away in front of everyone, without a single word. No matter how he begged or pleaded, I walked away without hesitation.