The news that Angelo Rizzo was becoming the new Don of Brucklin District had spread throughout the entire family.

Everyone knew except me, Lila Bennett, his fiancee.

He had always thought I was childish, like an irritating tail he couldn't shake off, sticking to him wherever he went.

"I've only managed to bag Brucklin District all thanks to Cyrus." The study door was ajar as the scent of cigar smoke drifted out along with his voice.

"Lila? Why bring her up? She's annoying. Like a piece of gum stuck to your hair."

I crouched on the hallway carpet, lost in thought.

Before, it was always Angelo leaving first and me realizing it too late. This time, I wanted to surprise him by going to Brucklin ahead of him. When he saw me there first, he'd realize that I was smart.

But the next day, at the bus station, when the driver asked where I was going, I mixed Brucklin and Mannattan up.

The driver grew impatient. Afraid he'd call me an idiot like Angelo would, I hurriedly shove the money at him.

"To Mannattan! I'm going to Mannattan District!"

Lila's POV

The bus was so crowded it felt suffocating.

I was worried I would be pushed off the carriage, so I shrank to the back of the bus, clutching my canvas bag as if it were a lifeline.

A few men riding with me lounged comfortably in their seats, chatting idly.

"Did you hear? The Don of the Mannattan District still hasn't gotten married. His family is on the verge of losing their minds!"

Another one replied, "What's the rush? He's had a marriage agreement since he was young. The wedding is going to happen soon. I heard that the bride's wedding gift was control over three docks!"

I pursed my lips into a smile, secretly overjoyed.

The person they were talking about surely had to be Angelo Rizzo, while the bride they mentioned was me!

Angelo and I, Lila Bennett, had been promised to each other since we were ten years old.

Angelo truly liked me back then. He always allowed me to wear his favorite baseball caps, or plucking the first ripened cherry from their cherry tree in the backyard for me.

However, when we were ten, the enemies of his family had plotted revenge and poisoned his cup of milk, but I was the one who snatched it over and drank it.

When I woke up, the doctors said that my mental maturity would forever remain a child.

From then onward, I became a burden.

The half-wit.

The Rizzo family was afraid that my family would cause further trouble, so they compensated us with a few casinos and nightclubs. They even promised that Angelo would marry me when we were 20 years old.

Initially, Angelo was still a little guilty. He would often hold my hand and promise me, "We'll get married once we turn twenty."

Thus, I eagerly looked forward to that day, patiently watching the cherry tree bear fruit for ten seasons.

Throughout the ten years, Angelo started to get impatient with me. He would always say that I was as sticky as a chewed-up piece of gum stuck in someone's hair.

Two years ago, I made my own birthday cake and presented it to him excitedly, saying, "Angelo, I'm 20 years old! We can finally get married!"

That day, he was drinking whisky with a group of friends. He merely looked at me with disdain and muttered, "The promise was to wait for 20 years, silly. You've got it mixed up."

Later, another guest entered, so Angelo got up and stopped looking at me from that point onward.

He then said to that person, Cyrus Sullivan, with a sigh, "Cyrus, I truly envy you. You were promised such a beautiful and educated lady, while I…."

I sat on the bench in the back garden for the entire afternoon, thinking to myself. I wanted to tell him that I did not get it mixed up, but it was he who had forgotten about it.

However, I was fine with it. Angelo had to meet a lot of people. He had a lot of work to do.

I did not have any friends, so other than making bracelets, I had nothing else to do. I did not mind waiting another twenty years.

After all, I had all the time in the world to wait for him.

After securing his hold of Brucklin District, Angelo decided to move his entire family there. However, just like he did before every trip, he complained to his men.

"Lila's an idiot and nothing but trouble."

That time, I was going to head over there to wait for him. Would he think that I had gotten smart and that I was not as troublesome as before?

The more I thought about it, the happier I got. However, the bus that I was on at that moment was headed for Mannattan District, not Brucklin District as I had imagined.

The moment the bus came to a halt, a growl of the engine tore into the carriage.

It was not the sound of an ordinary car, but the deep thunderous sound of black stretch limousines with white rose ribbons wound around their gleaming bodies.

The wedding march drifted from its speakers. It was clearly a grand family wedding procession.

The door of the first limousine opened as a woman in formal dress stepped out, lifting her gown with one hand and clutching a bundle of favors in another.

She handed them out eagerly to passersby, proclaiming, "Here, have some! Bask in the Don's happiness."

The entire street was buzzing with commotion, all except the woman in the wedding gown in the limousine.

Her face was covered in a veil as she lowered her head. There were even some tear stains on her dress. She clearly had been crying for a long time.

No one dared to go up to talk to her. After all, she was the Don's bride.

I felt a little sorry for her, so I secretly headed up to her, knocked on the limousine window and asked, "Shouldn't you be happy to get married? Why are you crying?"

She ignored me, but her shoulders were trembling.

I remembered that I still had a bracelet that I made in my bag.

I quickly fished it out and handed it to her. "This is for you. Don't be sad. Put this on. It'll make you feel better."

She sobbed even harder when she saw the bracelet. She said through her sobs, "I don't want to marry him!"

I was stunned. "Oh, no. What should we do?"

She wiped her tears and said, "I'll be honest with you. I'm not the original fiancee of the Don of the Mannattan District. She ran off, so my family forced me to take her place.

"Everyone tells me that he's powerful and wealthy, and that I would be happy to marry him, but no one has ever asked me how I felt! I have someone that I love!"

The Don of the Mannattan District?

Was that not Angelo?

Lila's POV

I suddenly came to my senses.

I grabbed the bride's hand and said, "You're wrong! I'm the one who is going to marry the Don! The fiancee that ran off? That's me!"

She looked at me in a baffled daze.

I quickly added, "We've been promised to each other ever since we were ten years old. I secretly ran off because I wanted to prove to him that I was smart! I wanted to head over to the new place first to wait for him. I liked him so much, so how could I possibly run away?"

She looked at me for a few seconds before breaking into a wide smile.

She pressed a platinum ring into my hand and exclaimed, "That's right! They had a marriage agreement since they were ten! He's supposed to marry you!"

She quickly slipped out of her wedding gown, exchanging clothes with me.

Then, she did my hair and said, "Quickly, get in the car. I have to go! When you see the Don, you have to explain it all to him. I don't want any trouble from him!"

I nodded and got into the limousine. The entire procession continued, much livelier than I imagined.

In the car, I smiled. Who knew that Angelo would hold our wedding in such high esteem. The procession he sent was nothing short of magnificent.

The estate was decorated lavishly for the wedding with white flowy drapes fluttering in the breeze and a tall champagne tower glimmering in the middle of the field.

My gaze, through the veil, was pulled to the man in a black tuxedo at the end of the red carpet, his broad-shouldered back facing me. He seemed taller than the last time I saw him.

I nervously held the hem of my gown. My heart was thumping with anticipation, waiting for him to turn around.

Right at that moment, one of his men in a black suit quickly rushed in and whispered something in his ear.

He stiffened. When he turned around, I was so nervous I lowered my head, not daring to look at him.

Before I could process what was going on, he had already grabbed his coat on the back of the chair and headed for the entrance.

When he walked past me, he stopped in his tracks and said apologetically in his low thundering voice, "I'm sorry. Something came up at the casino. I'll have to deal with it. Why don't you get some rest at home? Don't wait up for me."

I was stunned at first, but I soon quickly replied loudly, "Don't worry! Go quickly!"

I was very used to waiting for Angelo. What was waiting a little while longer?

He paused for a while before replying with a light chuckle. "Alright. I'll be back as soon as I can."

I took off my veil, about to find a room to wait, when a housekeeper walked over and smiled apologetically.

"Ma'am, please don't take it to heart. He has no choice. Someone crossed the line and thrashed the casino. They even hurt two of our men. This matter has to be resolved."

I shook my head. "I don't mind. It would be worse if this matter got out of hand and more people got hurt."

The housekeeper sighed in relief that I was not mad. She took me upstairs to a room.

In the middle of the night, one of his men came saying that he had to bring fresh clothes for the Don to the docks.

I opened the closet and realized that most of his clothes were old, and some even had holes in them. There was one jacket whose shoulder was stained with what seemed to be dried-up blood.

When it was soon dawn, I was so sleepy that I could not take it any longer. I fell asleep on the desk surrounded by a pile of folded clothes.

While I slept, it felt like someone was sitting next to me, watching me for a long time. After gently sweeping my hair back behind my ear, they put a soft woolen blanket over me.

I did not wake up. I could only hear someone gently closing the door and saying to the housekeeper outside, "My mother is coming over tomorrow afternoon. She has quite a bad temper. Please don't let my mother torment her."

Third-Person POV

Lila had gone missing.

When Lucy Martin, the housekeeper, rushed into the study, Angelo was studying the map of Brucklin territories, scribbling furiously on his notebook.

He did not even bother looking at Lucy, asking annoyedly, "What is it now? Is she asking me to see the blossoms on the cherry tree? Or did she make me yet another bracelet? Get her to be quiet and stop bothering me."

He had been terribly busy recently, needing to strike a deal with the someone in Mannattan District while clearing out the traitors of Brucklin District. He also needed to prepare a wedding gift for Cyrus.

After all, Cyrus was his business partner, the Don of Sullivan family who controlled half of Neuyark City's docks.

The gift to him had to suit his prestige. There was no room for mistakes.

When he finished everything at hand, the skies were already dark.

In the dining room, steak, truffles, and red wine covered the dining table. The only person missing was Lila.

Angelo furrowed his brows.

He dropped his cutlery on his plate and grumbled, "If she doesn't want to eat, she can starve. Don't leave any food for her."

The housekeepers did not dare to say anything. That morning, Lucy had an earful from him just because she mentioned that Lila had not eaten. No one was going to poke the bear.

The night breeze carried a chill, rustling the olive tree outside Angelo's study window. He went over to close the window, but something on the branch caught his eye.

It was a cherry ornament that Lila had woven the year before, somehow carried to the tree by the wind.

He suddenly thought about an incident when they were young. He had tried to climb the cherry tree to pluck some cherries for Lila when he fell down from the ladder and his knees bled terribly.

Lila cried when she went over to him. Her tears dripped onto his pants.

He forced a smile as he said, "Lila, don't cry. I fell on purpose. Look, I can still move my feet."

Since when did that love for her turn into annoyance and irritation?

Angelo leaned against the window, subconsciously tracing his fingers on the windowsill.

It was ever since Lila drank the poisoned milk on his behalf.

At first, he was indeed guilty. He would spend all his days with her, buying her ice cream, taking her to the park to fly kites.

However, he got busier each day. He started to meet the other dons of other mafia families. He started learning how to manage a territory and how to navigate family politics.

He had met many capable and intelligent women. When compared to Lila's child-like self, he started to despise her more and more.

He felt that Lila was not good enough for him.

"Fine."

Angelo sighed and yelled at the door, "Lucy, make a cup of hot cocoa and send it to Lila's room."

Lucy suddenly ran in with tears as she exclaimed, "Don Rizzo, I'm sorry! L-Lila has been missing since yesterday!"

Angelo stiffened, thinking he had misheard Lucy. "What did you say?"

"I didn't see her yesterday morning. I thought she was playing in the back garden, but she didn't return at night. We went looking for her the entire day, but no one found her."

Lucy added with a catch in her throat, "The other housekeepers did not dare to tell you because they were afraid you would get mad."

Silence instantly hung thick in the air while Angelo stared at the rug on the floor.

His mind blanked.

A few seconds later, he suddenly grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and said with a trembling voice, "Prepare the car! We'll comb through every bar, casino, and dock of Regina County. If none of you find her, you're all fired!"

All of his men were baffled at Angelo's reaction.

He was usually annoyed at Lila. Why was he going mad looking for her?

One of his men thought that Angelo was just putting on an act.

He muttered softly, "Don Rizzo, I'm sure we don't need to go through all the trouble, right? Lila isn't the only daughter of the Bennett family. With your current standing, you could easily get another bride…"

Before he could finish, Angelo kicked him in the chest and glared at him. "What did you say?"

He was in so much pain he could not say anything. The other men quickly dragged him away.

One of the capos said cautiously, "Don Rizzo, do you think she might have b-been k-kidnapped? There's a gang in Regina County who have been kidnapping young ladies and selling them to the red light district."

Angelo's heart ached as if someone was squeezing it tightly. He thought about an incident two years ago.

He was drinking with Cyrus when Lila ran over to him with a cake in her hands and excitedly exclaimed, "Angelo, I'm twenty years old! We can finally get married!"

He was engrossed in a chat with Cyrus. Annoyed by the interruption, he aloofly replied, "The promise was to wait for twenty years, silly. You've got it mixed up."

Later, he found out that Lila had spent the entire afternoon crying on the bench in the back garden.

Then, an old woman, pretending to sell candy, tried to trick her by saying that she had medicine that could make her smart, and that she wanted to bring her to get it.

Luckily, Cyrus found out about that in time, stopping them right at the red light district.

That night, Angelo gave Lila an earful.

"Are you stupid or something? Why did you believe her? Did you actually go with her just for some candy?"

Lila's tears felt non-stop, but she explained, "It's not because of the candy. She said that there's a cure that would make me smart. I thought that if I became smart, you wouldn't despise me anymore…"

Angelo shut his eyes, trying to suppress those memories.

He had no time for regrets at that moment. He had to look for Lila.

The next few days, he barely got any sleep. He had combed through every single street and warehouse at the docks, yet Lila was nowhere to be found.

At night, when he lay on the couch, he always had the same dream.

In his dreams, Lila sat on the bench in the back garden with a bracelet she was weaving halfway in her hands.

She asked, "Angelo, when are you going to marry me?"

Every time he thought of responding to her, he would wake up.

Early in the morning, one of his men pushed a gift cart in.

"Don Rizzo, the wedding gifts for Don Sullivan have arrived. The jewelry store asked that you have a look at the products."

He handed Angelo a jewelry box. Inside was a blue sapphire necklace and a platinum couple's bracelet. He got it custom-made.

The blue sapphire necklace was the same color as the marble-bead necklace that Lila lost when she was ten years old.

Angelo looked at the necklace and his eyes suddenly burned.

He closed the box swiftly and said icily, "Alright. Looking for Lila is priority. We can talk about the gifts later."

At that moment, another subordinate ran in hurriedly with a canvas bag in his hands. "Don Rizzo, we found this on the streets of Mannattan District. It belongs to Lila!"

Angelo quickly took the bag over and opened it. Inside was a piece of a half-eaten cookie and an unfinished cherry ornament.

Angelo's initials were on the ornament. Lila was clearly going to give it to him.

His heart was suddenly pounding quickly. Even his tone got a little springier.

"Quickly, let's head to Mannattan District! Tell the kitchen to prepare Lila's strawberry waffles for her when she returns."

Tracing the unfinished ornament, he made up his mind. Once he found Lila, he was going to take her to pick out a wedding ring and settle on a date for their wedding.

He was in the wrong in the past, but he was going to make it up to her.