On the day of my prenatal checkup, I found out my husband Don had booked me a termination surgery instead of a postpartum care package.

I thought he had placed the wrong order and was about to tease him, but Vincenzo spoke flatly.

"I didn't book it wrong. I need to come clean with you about something."

"I've been keeping another woman. She's a good girl. She doesn't want a title or to take your place as Donna."

"But she got pregnant recently. I've already made her suffer enough. I can't let her child suffer too. I have to give the child the Moretti family name."

I froze on the exam table, my voice shaking uncontrollably.

"Then why did you abort my child?"

He wiped the ultrasound gel off my belly and smiled.

"I just want you to adopt Giuliana's child. I'm having yours terminated because I'm afraid you'll play favorites and treat her kid differently."

He handed me the consent form, calm and composed.

"I promise you will always be Donna. No one will ever take your place."

I gave him a long, hard look, then was wheeled into the operating room.

"Never mind."

"Vincenzo Moretti, you're going to regret this every single day for the rest of your life."

He didn't know it, but I was the only woman in the world who could ever give him a child.

Three days later, I woke up.

The first thing I heard was the family doctor reporting.

"Don Moretti, that was too risky. Forcing a termination at eight months and removing her uterus at the same time... we almost lost the Donna."

Vincenzo's voice was indifferent.

"I promised Giuliana that I would only have one child in this lifetime, and that's hers. The safest way was to have Elena's uterus removed. No more kids, no more risk. "

His eyes swept over and met mine.

Vincenzo didn't panic at all. He reached over and tucked the blanket around me.

"You heard that? I have no choice. Giuliana said the only way she'd agree to an adoption was if you couldn't have kids. So I figured I'd take the uterus out at the same time. Save you another cut."

He saw the tears in my eyes and gently wiped them away.

"I didn't expect a hysterectomy during pregnancy to cause that much bleeding. Lucky for you, the private doctors I hired for Giuliana were all staying at the estate. You should thank Giuliana for saving your life. "

I was shaking all over. I gathered every ounce of strength and swung my hand at his face.

"Vincenzo Moretti, you are not human."

Vincenzo dodged it.

Then a small figure came running in screaming and slapped me across the face.

I fell back onto the bed and looked at the woman in front of me.

A young girl stood in front of Vincenzo, tears in her eyes, shouting at me.

"How dare you! Do you even know he waited outside your room for three whole days? If I hadn't brought him food every day, he would have collapsed."

"This man means everything to me... why should he be your punching bag?"

I didn't miss the flicker of tenderness in Vincenzo's eyes.

I had seen that look before.

The first time was when I got alcohol poisoning covering his drinks and lost our first child.

The second time was when a rival family wanted him dead, and I begged my father to save him.

I had done so much for him.

But in the end, it wasn't worth a single tear from his mistress.

It felt like a dull knife stabbing into my chest, one inch at a time.

I pushed myself up, looked at the two of them being so affectionate, and gave a bitter smile.

"So what? I'm supposed to be grateful? Grateful that he killed my full term baby to make room for yours? That he secretly cut out my uterus and nearly let me die on the table? "

Giuliana's tears fell like a broken string.

She glared at me stubbornly.

"I messed up! Let me make it up to you! "

She shoved Vincenzo aside like a madwoman, grabbed a fruit knife from the table, and stabbed it toward her own stomach.

"I'll cut my child and my uterus out right now to pay you back!"

Vincenzo wrapped his arms around her, one hand gripping the blade. Blood ran through his fingers.

He looked up at me, cold and angry.

"Is this what you wanted, Elena? "

He carefully lifted the unconscious Giuliana into his arms and walked away without looking back.

He left only one sentence behind.

"I guess I've been too good to you. You've started to think you can do whatever you want. Fine. I am taking back my affection for you. "

I watched his back and smiled through my tears.

The man who once promised to spoil me forever and never let me suffer.

He was dead.

Vincenzo's bodyguard coldly grabbed me, dragged me up, and threw me out the door.

"From today, everything the Don gave you will be taken back. If you want to keep staying in this room..."

I gave a bitter smile, turned, and walked out.

"Never mind. I don't want anything that belongs to Vincenzo Moretti."

My phone and wallet were all taken.

Because everything was given to me by Vincenzo.

I stood on the street with nothing. I tried to flag down a car to go home.

But every time a kind person stopped, Vincenzo's bodyguard would dutifully say, "If you're not afraid of crossing the Moretti family, go ahead and let her in."

Those people would shake their heads at me and drive away.

The bodyguard watched my unsteady body and spoke coldly.

"The Don asked me to pass a message. This is what happens when you cross him. If you're willing to apologize to Miss Giuliana and agree to take care of her during her pregnancy, he'll send me to drive you back."

I didn't care. I just started walking. Step by step, toward home.

Blood dripped down my thighs onto the asphalt. People stared.

But I was completely numb.

I walked step by step until dark, until I finally reached the estate gate.

The lit windows pushed back the cold of the late night.

I raised my frozen fingers and typed in the code.

The only response was an error beep.

I typed it in with difficulty, gritting my teeth. Each time, the system told me it was wrong.

Finally the butler got annoyed enough to come open the door. He looked at me coldly.

"Donna, stop. As long as you don't apologize to the Don, you don't get to use the Don's things."

"This estate was bought by the Don. No apology, no entry."

He looked me up and down and let out a sneer.

"If you ask me, just apologize already. There are plenty of women lining up to take your place. Look at you. Your family has fallen. You're not young anymore. You can't have kids."

"He's got a woman on the side who's pregnant, and he still won't divorce you. That's already very generous of him. What more do you want to fight for?"

I interrupted him quietly.

"I'm not coming in. I just want one thing."

The butler was speechless for a second.

"Everything you own was bought by the Don. What could possibly be yours? Don't tell me you're here to steal his jewelry and bags. "

I said calmly, "I just want to pick up my medical report. Is that not allowed?"

The butler rolled his eyes, went inside, and came back with a brown paper envelope. He threw it at me.

I picked up the envelope and looked inside.

It read: Vincenzo Moretti's low sperm count report.

This was the premarital medical report from ten years ago, when we got married.

The moment I received it, my emotions were all over the place. I didn't know how to tell Vincenzo.

How could a proud man like him ever accept that he was incomplete?

And how would the rival families use this against him?

But luckily, the doctor told me a secret. Only a woman like me, with an easy to conceive constitution, could carry a child for a Don with low sperm count.

"Miss Elena, Don Moretti is lucky to have married you. In all my years, I've only ever met one other woman as fertile as you. "

I originally decided to bury this matter deep in my heart. I didn't want Vincenzo to know.

But I never imagined that one day, I would have to make this secret public with my own hands.

I took the last bit of change I had, made a dozen copies of the report, and handed them to a courier.

Each copy went to a different rival family of Vincenzo.

I said softly, "Please deliver these as fast as you can. Just tell them this is a gift from the Donna. I'm sure they'll give you a good tip."

Vincenzo, this is my last gift to you before I leave.

I hope you’ll like it.

After leaving the estate, I went back to the small apartment where we first lived when we got married ten years ago.

Back then, the Moretti family hadn't grown powerful yet. We were crammed into the shabbiest rental in Brooklyn.

The place was a dump, but we were happy back then.

We were so broke we could only afford pasta. Vincenzo would lie and say he already ate at a business dinner, then pour both portions into my bowl.

At midnight, I would see him standing at the sink, drinking glass after glass of tap water to fill his stomach.

We held our wedding in that same rundown apartment.

No banquet. Just a simple silver band that cost less than two hundred dollars.

That place meant everything to me.

So even after we moved into the Long Island estate, I secretly bought that apartment.

I used to dream that we would move back there when we got old.

I never thought that when my marriage with Vincenzo came to an end, I would end up right back where we started.

I turned the knob and opened the door.

The moment I pushed it open, I saw two bodies tangled together on the sofa.

And the old matching pajamas that I had treasured in the closet, the ones we used to wear.

They were now on Vincenzo and Giuliana.

My mind went blank. I couldn't stop myself from demanding, "Vincenzo! How could you bring her here? You know this is where we..."

Before I could finish, Giuliana cut me off.

"Donna, I just wanted to know what Vincenzo's life was like before. I begged him to bring me here."

"If you're upset, I'll get on my knees and apologize. Just please don't hurt him anymore."

Vincenzo looked at Giuliana, his heart aching for her.

Then he gave a cold glance at the bodyguard.

The bodyguard behind me immediately grabbed my arms. He slapped my face.

My ears rang.

I collapsed to the floor. Vincenzo looked down at me, his expression calm.

"Elena, why do you always have to make trouble for yourself? If you're not feeling well, go home and rest. Why follow me here looking for trouble?"

I gave a bitter smile. "Go home? Do I even have a home anymore? Is that still my home?"

My eyes red, I looked at him. Tears mixed with blood from my nose dripped onto the floor.

"Vincenzo Moretti, why did you bring her here?"

"I don't care if you want to have sex with Giuliana. But why dirty this place?"

"The thirty year old Vincenzo is already rotten to the core. Why do you have to destroy the only memory that the twenty year old Vincenzo left for me?"

For a moment, something flickered in Vincenzo's eyes.

Then came the anger.

"I'm dirty? How am I dirty? Don't forget, Elena, without me, you'd still be living in a dump like this. "

"And don't forget, the money you used to buy this apartment came out of my account. This place belongs to me too. I can do whatever I want with it."

His anger turned into a mocking laugh.

"You said I came here to dirty the place? I don't care if I dirty it. I could blow this dump up and it would have nothing to do with you."

He ordered his men to drag me out.

They planted several kilograms of explosives right outside the old apartment.

At his command, the place that held our only good memories from the past was reduced to rubble.

In the light of the massive fire, my tears wouldn't stop falling.

Vincenzo stared at the tears on my face.

His anger faded. His voice turned cold.

"Elena, what do I have to say to make you understand?"

"I gave you the title of Donna. I let you live in the Long Island estate. I put bags worth tens of thousands of dollars on your arm. Even the clothes on your back are haute couture that ordinary people couldn't afford in a lifetime. Isn't that enough for you?"

"You're thirty years old now. You're not young anymore. Do you really expect me to still love someone who's aging and fading? "

"I give you dignity. I give you a luxurious life. All I ask is that you turn a blind eye and make room for Giuliana and her child. Is that too much? "

I met his gaze and said, word by word, "I don't want this kind of life."

"Vincenzo Moretti, you have destroyed everything we had."

"I want a divorce."

Anger and annoyance flickered in Vincenzo's eyes.

He looked at me and spoke calmly.

"Divorce? No way. Even if I don't love you anymore, you'll always be the most important person to me. I'm not letting you go. "

He looked me in the eye and said each word slowly.

"Elena, I've done nothing to you. If I owe anyone, it's Giuliana. I couldn't give her a title. She followed me without a label in the best years of her life. "

"I was going to give you some dignity. But you're so unreasonable you had to make a scene. "

He turned around, got down on one knee, and pulled out a huge diamond ring from his pocket. He looked at Giuliana with deep affection.

"Giuliana, it's my fault I met you too late."

"I can't give you a legal title in this lifetime, but I want to give you the biggest wedding. Let everyone know that you're the one I love the most."

Giuliana covered her mouth, her eyes rimmed red, but she turned her head away and said sadly.

"I can't say yes to you! I love you, so I'm willing to put aside my pride and follow you without a title. But I don't want everyone to know I'm your mistress."

"Unless..."

She turned her head and looked at me.

"Unless the Donna officiates our wedding. Let her admit in front of everyone that the one who isn't loved is the mistress."

I met the malice in her eyes with a blank expression.

Vincenzo saw that I wasn't saying anything, and his voice turned cold.

"Elena, don't forget, your parents' ashes are buried in that cemetery I bought."

"You wouldn't want them to end up like that apartment, would you?"

My heart felt like a knife had cut out a big chunk. Even my breath tasted like blood.

I nodded slowly.

" I'll admit it in front of everyone. "

Giuliana broke into tears of joy and threw herself into Vincenzo's arms.

He took Giuliana to book the wedding dress and the venue.

As he was leaving, he paused.

He explained to me calmly.

"Elena, it's just a wedding. It doesn't threaten your position as Donna."

I didn't say anything.

After a long silence, Vincenzo spoke. "You don't have to take care of Giuliana for a while. Take good care of yourself. Consider it my compensation to you."

I said okay, still calm.

Vincenzo left satisfied.

On the day of the wedding, Vincenzo was afraid I would cause trouble, so he had the bodyguards take me to the dressing room early and keep an eye on me.

Giuliana whined, saying her wedding dress was too heavy and she couldn't put on her shoes.

"Donna, help me, will you?"

Vincenzo frowned and instinctively looked at me.

I lowered my eyes, squatted down, lifted the wedding dress, and helped her put on her shoes.

Vincenzo looked at me with a complicated expression. He pressed his lips as if to say something, but Giuliana pushed him.

"Honey, I'm thirsty. Go get me a glass of orange juice."

Vincenzo smiled, ruffled her hair, and turned to leave.

As soon as he left, Giuliana kicked me in the chest.

She looked at me with contempt.

"Elena, you don't really think I'm the kind of woman who latches onto a rich guy, do you?"

"You don't know, but I've been in a relationship with Vincenzo for ten years too."

Seeing the shock in my eyes, she smiled cruelly.

"Vincenzo said I was too young and shouldn't suffer with him. So he only dated me, but married you."

"He was so afraid of shortchanging me that the first money he made, he told you the rival family stole it, but he actually used it to buy me a designer bag. Every time I was upset, he would have people come to the house pretending to collect debts, putting on a show, and give all that money to me to cheer me up."

"A total of one point eight million dollars. Oh, and a worthless ring. I threw it away."

My whole body wouldn't stop shaking.

One point eight million dollars. That was the money I had saved over the years handling Vincenzo's family business.

At my worst, I collapsed from exhaustion right on the dock and almost got crushed by a shipping container.

When Vincenzo found out, he held me and kept saying he was wrong, his body trembling.

The ridiculous thing was, I patted his back and smiled, telling him it was okay.

Turns out, it was all fake.

He had been lying to me the whole time.

Giuliana kept going on and on. That pulled me back to reality.

"Then you got pregnant. I was so mad I wouldn't let him touch me. So he staged a whole scene with his business partner and got you drunk until you miscarried. You have no idea, when you were passed out in the emergency room from the miscarriage, he called me and begged me not to be mad at him anymore."

Those words hit my head like a sledgehammer. My vision went dark.

Giuliana's face suddenly twisted. She looked at me with pure resentment.

"But even though he loves me that much, he still won't divorce you and marry me."

"You're just riding on the suffering you went through with Vincenzo to keep him for yourself. But so what? He doesn't love you enough."

Then she suddenly smiled.

"Don't you wonder, if Vincenzo finds out you tried to hurt my baby, would he still care about that little bit of history with you?"

I just wanted to stop Giuliana.

Then Giuliana picked up a vase beside her and smashed it hard against her own stomach. Then she screamed.

"Vincenzo! Help me!"

The dressing room door was kicked open.

Vincenzo grabbed my wrist and threw me to the floor.

His eyes blood red, he watched Giuliana fall to the ground, blood spreading from under her dress.

"It wasn't me..."

My words were choked off by Vincenzo's large hand around my throat.

His eyes blazing red, he roared at me.

"Elena! You couldn't even spare a child! You make me sick!"

"You made Giuliana lose her baby. Then don't blame me for going after your dead parents."

Under my terrified and agonized gaze, he gave the order.

"Dig up Elena's parents' grave. Grind their bones to dust and dump them in the sewer."

"No!"

I screamed.

"Vincenzo Moretti! You're insane! There are cameras in the dressing room! Go check! I didn't do it!"

Giuliana staggered to her feet, turned, and ran toward the window.

"My baby is gone. What's the point of living? I might as well die."

"Frame me all you want, Donna. "

Vincenzo panicked. He shoved me aside and rushed to grab Giuliana.

His face cold and stern, he looked at me and said each word slowly.

"Elena, you've used up the last bit of feeling I had for you. You hurt the woman I love and my child. I will not let you get away with this."

He said coldly, "Send her to federal prison. Tell them in there to take good care of her."

"I don't want her to have a single good day in there."

Vincenzo ran every red light and sped to the hospital.

He carried Giuliana into the emergency room.

"Save her! Save my child! Keep my baby alive, and I'll donate ten million dollars to this hospital! "

The attending doctor was startled. He stared at Vincenzo, frozen.

"Don Moretti?"

He frowned, looking at Vincenzo, then at the pale, fragile Giuliana lying on the bed.

Confused, he asked, "Your child? Don Moretti, you have low sperm count. You can't father children. Where did this child come from?"

Vincenzo's face darkened instantly.

He whipped his head toward the doctor, his voice low with anger.

"What did you just say?"

"Low sperm count? Are you looking to die?"

The doctor was terrified and quickly explained.

"Don, I'm not lying. That's what your premarital medical report from back then said!"