My fiancé, Elio Santoro, is the Don of the Santoro family, one of the five major mafia families in Castellano. During a gang attack, he is shot and loses his memory, causing him to completely forget me.

I try again and again to help him recover his memory, but every attempt fails.

One day, I go to find him with the contract after finalizing a major drug transport deal with a foreign group on his behalf. By chance, I overhear his conversation with his first love, Sofia Rossi.

"Elio, according to our bet, you've already reached level 98 in this game. Two more levels, and I will become the true Donna of the Santoro family."

I feel like I've been tossed into an icy lake.

So his amnesia is fake, and our seven years together are all a lie. Since the beginning, this is just a cruel game he is playing to amuse his first love, and I am nothing but a toy.

Later, I get into a car accident on my way to meet Sofia.

Elio rushes into the fire like a madman. The moment he sees my burned corpse, he loses his mind.

Through the narrow gap of the half-closed door, I heard a familiar female voice. "Elio, we're already at level 98. Just two more, and I'm yours."

Sofia Rossi's voice was saccharine sweet.

Elio Santoro lifted a brow and spoke lazily. "I told you from the start that finishing it was only a matter of time. If anyone's to blame, it's Isolde. She had the nerve to take the dress you picked out."

That was all it took for the people around him to pile on.

"She had it coming. Sofia's a rising designer. That dress actually means something when it's on her. What's the point of Isolde wearing something that expensive?"

My blood ran cold, and for a moment, I couldn't even think.

"Don Santoro has got patience, though. He spent seven years pretending to be in love with someone that dull."

Someone laughed. "Or maybe he just got tired of looking at her and came up with the amnesia excuse. Do you know what level 99 is? He's making her deliver condoms to the hotel. Do you think she'll actually show up?"

"She's obsessed with him. She even handed over her own blueprint. What wouldn't she do?"

"She practically throws herself at him. She's one step away from ripping her heart out and handing it over."

I bit down hard on my lip, forcing myself to stay silent.

Back then, when Sofia left for Calvarro, Elio fell apart. He drank himself senseless at the base and couldn't even be bothered with the family's core business proposals.

To secure his position as the future Don, I handed over the proposal I had spent three months completing. At the same time, I told the Consigliere our enemies had destroyed it.

The Consigliere valued my work and gave me seven days to redo it.

For those seven days, I slept barely two hours a night, fainted more than once from low blood sugar, and still managed to turn it in on time.

"What's a proposal worth?" someone scoffed. "When Elio needed money to expand his territory, Isolde sold off her Papa's estate without even blinking."

That estate held every memory I had of Papa.

It was the only thing he left me, and the only thing I had left of him. But when Elio looked troubled, I sold it for far below market value without hesitation.

Sofia continued smoothly, "Remember the time she got pregnant and wanted to surprise him? Elio pretended not to know, leaked her location, and let enemies come after her so she could take the hit for him.

"The baby didn't survive, and she still stood there with tears in her eyes, comforting him and blaming herself for not telling him sooner."

Elio let out a quiet laugh. "The way she clings to me is honestly pathetic. So this time, we'll have her go buy condoms."

Just then, my encrypted phone buzzed with a message. "Isolde, bring a box of condoms to Carnaby Hotel right now."

My hand trembled as I let go of the doorknob.

Every single word I had just heard felt like it had turned into a blade and was slowly being driven into my chest.

Terrified they would notice me, I fled in a panic.

But for some reason, Elio withdrew the message, and I didn't ask why. There had been too many moments like this, and I had already started to notice.

Last year, he proposed to me by the sea, only to say he forgot the ring and leave in a hurry.

The next day, he came back with reddened eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Isolde. There was a last-minute meeting. I'll make it up to you. I'll book an entire island and do it right."

I stood in the cold wind all night and ended up with a fever, but I still smiled and told him it was fine.

He then pulled out the ring from his trench coat and realized it didn't fit. "I must've gotten the size wrong. You're not upset, are you?"

But while he was in the shower, I saw his messages with Sofia.

"You should've seen her face when the ring didn't fit. She was trying so hard not to lose it. It was in your size, size 12. I'll put it on your finger once the game's over."

It wasn't that he remembered wrong, but that he had never been thinking of me in the first place.

I pulled out my phone and called Mamma, someone I hadn't reached out to in a long time.

"Mamma, I'm coming back to Valdoria," I said.

Mamma was the Principessa of an old mafia family in Calvarro. After Papa's death, she sold off everything and bought an estate in Valdoria, where she settled.

She had asked me to leave more than once, and I had always stayed for Elio. I thought that once he secured his position, he would finally see everything I had done for him.

Now, I realized that my devotion had only ever been seen as entertainment for his true love.

Upon hearing this, Mamma sounded so relieved that she almost cried. "You should've come back a long time ago. I can only breathe when I know you'll be here with me."

My eyes stung, and I tried my best to hold back tears. "Mamma, before I leave, I need you to help me stage a car accident."

I would fake my death and put an end to this seven-year relationship.

The name Isolde Genovese would be something Elio remembered for the rest of his life.

Mamma went silent for a moment, though she didn't ask why. She just agreed.

After the call, I deleted every post about Elio from my social media.

When I went home to pack, I found my design drafts and a locked journal in Elio's safe. They were the blueprints I had spent years working on for Astryx Tower, a landmark for Castellano.

It was also Papa's final wish. He had been one of the top architects in the country before he was killed in a feud between rival families.

I didn't expect Elio to have kept them so carefully.

There was even a sticky note on them. "She looks so cute when she messes up her hair while sketching."

Back then, when I stayed up late working, he would sit beside me and sometimes rub my shoulders while reminding me to rest my eyes.

"If you go blind, don't blame me for going behind your back."

Elio claimed the past seven years had been nothing but a game of revenge.

But when I mentioned wanting dessert, he would drive across half of Castellano in the middle of the night just to get it.

Even I wouldn't believe it if he claimed he had truly felt nothing for me.

That night, I lay in bed and heard him come home. I pretended to be asleep for the first time.

In the past, no matter how late he returned, I always left a light on for him. If he came back drunk, I would prepare medicine in advance.

This time, when he opened the door, all that greeted him was a dark and quiet living room.

Before long, a strong scent of jasmine drifted in.

Elio wrapped his arms around me from behind, his voice soft and coaxing. "Why didn't you wait up? Are you mad at me? The doctor already told you the memory loss was an accident and that it'll take time to resolve. I've already agreed to rebuild things with you. What more do you want from me?"

I didn't respond. He didn't know I had already learned the truth.

Even when I didn't respond, he wasn't mad and kept talking anyway, his voice low against my ear.

I pushed him away in disgust. "It's late. Go shower."

The smell of Sofia's signature jasmine scent clinging to him made me nauseous.

Elio froze where he stood, but I had already turned over and closed my eyes.

The next morning, Elio asked me to go to a party with him.

"Isolde, didn't you say you want to rebuild our relationship? In that case, you should come with me."

But the moment I stepped into the party, the hostility hit me all at once. Every gaze directed at me was filled with malice.

"Isolde, Don Santoro likes women who can hold their liquor. Here, have one."

Elio sat at the head of the table, a cigarette between his fingers, his face hidden behind smoke. It was impossible to read his expression.

As soon as the words landed, his friends grabbed me and held me in place.

I had been allergic to alcohol since I was a child. The moment it hit my throat, my face went pale, and a sharp pain spread through my chest.

I struggled to prop myself up and tried to reach for water, but Sofia grabbed me and forced the rest of the whiskey down my throat.

"Elio, everyone's here to celebrate my Best Actress win today, but your fiancée barely drank. That's kind of rude, don't you think? I know she doesn't like me, and that's why I invited her to patch things up. I didn't think she'd humiliate me out of jealousy."

Breathing grew harder with each passing second, and a rash spread across my skin.

The guests around me, however, were all smirking at me.

They always felt Elio was out of my league and treated me like nothing more than a laughingstock. Some of them even pulled out their phones to record me.

Just then, Elio finally made a move and handed me a glass of water.

I grabbed it and drank it immediately, only to hear laughter break out again.

"Don't blame him, Isolde. He saw how pale you looked and was trying to help."

That was when I realized it wasn't water but a concentrated sports drink.

My body started to convulse, the rash spreading up my neck, while my chest tightened with a suffocating pain.

Out of sheer instinct and desperation, I reached out and clutched Elio's sleeve. "Please… take me to the hospital…"

For a moment, his expression wavered, but Sofia quickly cut in, "No one dies from a drink, Isolde. You just don't want to celebrate with me."

The moment she finished speaking, Elio yanked his sleeve out of my grasp. His voice turned cold as he said, "Isolde, you're staying until this party is over. You're not going anywhere without my permission!"

I closed my eyes in despair and let the darkness swallow me whole.

…

When I woke up again, I was lying in a hospital bed.

Voices drifted in from outside the door.

"The doctor already said she's fine after getting her stomach pumped, so why is she still pretending to be unconscious? She's so pretentious," Sofia said.

Their friends echoed her words. "Only Elio could stay with someone like her because he loves Sofia. If it were me, I wouldn't last a single day."

After a long silence, Elio spoke. "The game's almost over. Don't let any accidents happen."

Sofia's voice rose sharply, her tone harsh and vicious. "As long as I'm happy, what does it matter if something happens to a bitch like her? Or what, Elio? Are you starting to care about her now? Have you fallen in love with her?"

I kept my eyes closed and waited for the answer I already knew was coming.

"I love you. I've loved you for ten years."

Laughter broke out again outside the room.

They were already excitedly discussing how to destroy me at level 100.

I pulled the blanket tighter around myself and curled into it, not wanting to hear another word.

Just as I was about to call Mamma, Elio walked in.

The moment he saw that I was awake, a flicker of panic crossed his face.

He quickly composed himself, sat by the bed, and took my hand as he apologized, "I'm sorry, Isolde. I didn't know they switched the water to an energy drink."

The apology was real, but the excuse was not.

After all, Elio was the architect of all my suffering.

On the day I was discharged, Elio said everyone wanted to apologize and invited me to go camping in Sereno Bay.

I looked at his flawless, pretentious expression, and as if I needed to see everything through to the end, I nodded.

When we arrived at the beach, Sofia and her friends waited until Elio was gone before grabbing me and throwing me straight into the freezing water.

I hadn't fully recovered, and the tide had just come in. Before I could even react, something cold and slick wrapped tightly around my ankle.

It was a sea snake.

Fear gripped me instantly.

I called for help at the top of my lungs, but the people on the shore stood there with their arms crossed, laughing as they watched.

"You can swim. Stop acting like you're helpless."

My struggle startled the sea snake, and it tightened its coils around me before biting down hard.

"Did she actually think Elio would love her? That's ridiculous!"

"Elio already sold off everything she got from selling her estate and transferred all the money to Sofia just to make her happy."

"He said it himself. She's just a simp whose world revolves around him."

Their grating voices crushed what little feelings I had left.

Everything I had given over the past seven years, every bit of my sincerity, meant nothing to him. From the beginning to the end, I had been nothing but a fool.

The moment my heart gave out, I stopped struggling.

Seawater rushed into my nose as the venom spread through my veins, and my consciousness slowly faded into darkness.

I thought I was going to die there in that freezing ocean.

But in the next second, a strong arm pulled me out of the water and dragged me back to shore.

Elio held me tightly, his voice trembling with the perfect amount of panic and heartache, as he said, "Isolde, don't be afraid. I'm here now. I'm right here."

I used the last bit of strength I had left to look at him and asked weakly, "Why… do you keep hurting me like this?"

His body stiffened for a brief moment before he answered, "I didn't know they would just stand there and do nothing. I thought they were just fooling around like before…"

Like before?

As it turned out, in Elio's eyes, every time I had been hurt before had only ever been them having a bit of fun with me.

When I opened my eyes again, the sharp smell of disinfectant hit me so hard that it made my stomach turn.

Elio was sitting by my bedside, his eyes bloodshot and his face so haggard that it was as if he had aged overnight.

He held my hand tightly, his voice breaking as he said, "Don't move. The doctor said the venom was deadly. If you had been brought in any later, I would've lost you. Isolde, I'm sorry. I was wrong. From now on, I won't leave your side. I won't let you get hurt again."

Tears streamed down his face as if he were truly distraught.

I simply closed my eyes and didn't respond. I couldn't be bothered to give him even the slightest reaction.

A nurse came in to change my dressing and sighed in admiration. "Your fiancé is so good to you. He stayed here for two days and two nights straight, and no one could get him to leave. His friends told him to go home and rest, but he wouldn't even listen."

I lowered my gaze and said nothing.

She would never know that the man crying like his heart was being ripped to shreds was the one who had started the game that nearly killed me.

In Elio's world, I had always been nothing more than a loyal pet, a tool used to please his true love.

As long as I didn't die, nothing else mattered.

This was already the 100th level, and he and Sofia were finally supposed to end up together. I didn't want to stand there and watch as they trampled all over my dignity to get there.

Thus, the moment Elio stepped out to pay the bill, I immediately called Mamma. "Mamma, send someone to pick me up, and set up the scene for the accident."

While I waited, a message from Sofia popped up on my phone, each word laced with venom.

"Isolde, I've got all the Astryx Tower blueprints now. Elio already destroyed the original files on your computer, and not a single copy was left. I'll finish your Papa's project under my name, and you'll never get credit for it."

Astryx Tower was Papa's lifelong dream and the result of countless sleepless nights I had poured into it. Elio knew better than anyone what it meant to me, and he still chose to destroy it himself.

I stared at the screen, then let out a laugh out of sheer anger before replying, "Sofia, let's meet up and settle this once and for all."

She agreed almost immediately. "Fine. I'd like to see you lose everything with my own eyes."

At that moment, the people Mamma had arranged arrived right on time.

I left my phone behind in the ward, the screen still showing my conversation with Sofia, and followed them out without hesitation.

The moment I stepped downstairs, I caught sight of Elio, who was holding a box of chocolates, the kind I used to love.

Unfortunately, I didn't love them anymore.

I didn't love him anymore either.

Mamma and I had it all planned out.

Elio had trampled on my sincerity and wasted seven years of my life, so I would fake my death and teach him a lesson he would never be able to forget.

A heart betrayed was a debt that could never be forgiven.