The clearer I saw Dante's true colors, the more I realized how blind I had been during those five long years.
Around us, the other office employees began whispering and pointing at me. Seeing that Dante did absolutely nothing to shut them down, their voices grew bolder and louder.
"Mr. Moretti hid his mafia background just so Elena wouldn't feel insecure. He even ordered all of us to keep his identity a secret. That shows how deeply he cared about her."
"She’s been living in his apartment, and she still has the nerve to throw a fit at him?"
"A nobody trying to gold-dig her way into a mafia family... she needs to look in a mirror. Without Mr. Moretti, she’s absolutely nothing."
The more the crowd gossiped, the more smug Dante's expression became. Nadia kept fueling the fire, piling fabricated accusations onto my head.
"Elena, didn't you fake a car accident just to exploit his kindness and scam him for cash? You love playing the victim even when you're hunting for money."
Her words were like cold water hitting boiling oil. The office erupted. Everyone stared at me with pure disgust, hurling vicious insults one after another.
I looked at Dante. He maintained a perfectly detached, indifferent facade, as if Nadia was merely giving voice to the deep grievances he had suffered.
My lips curled into a grim smile. Before I could speak, Dante reached out and grabbed me, putting on a grand display of playing the peacemaker.
"Alright, alright, let’s drop it. What’s done is done, and I’m not hurting for a few bucks anyway. I didn't lend you the money because I saw right through your lies. I did it to break your bad habits so my family could finally accept you."
The moment Dante spoke, the entire office grew righteously indignant, completely convinced I was an ungrateful monster.
"Exactly! Mr. Moretti is the heir to a powerful mafia clan. If you want cash, just ask! Faking an accident to extort money... that’s completely subhuman."
"A parasite like her deserves to be dumped. She should be blacklisted from the entire city."
I looked at the colleagues who used to be on great terms with me, now eagerly stepping up to trample me down. Then I thought about Dante’s twisted manipulations. Suddenly, trying to defend myself felt entirely pointless. Even if I threw the historical pay stubs directly into his face right now, he and Nadia would just spin some other delusional narrative to keep humiliating me.
Silently, I slipped the pay stubs back into my pocket. I raised my eyes and gave Dante a cold smile.
"We’ve been together for five years, Dante. Why don't you sit down and calculate every single dollar you claim to have spent on me?"
I looked him dead in the eye. "If you can't prove a single penny was actually spent on my behalf, then you better return the tens of thousands of dollars you stole from my account. Otherwise, you and your entire corporate front can expect a massive lawsuit from my lawyers."
A relationship he claimed had to remain entirely untainted by money had, in reality, been completely corrupted by financial theft from day one. This powerful mafia prince, whom everyone viewed as an extravagant spender, had actually been living off the funds I was desperately scraping together.
Dante fell into a tense, frantic silence, a flash of pure panic darting through his eyes. He couldn't recall a single instance where he had actually spent money on me. For a man who insisted on splitting the bill for a pack of convenience store condoms, there was no record to pull.
He opened his mouth to salvage the situation, but I was done listening.
As I turned to walk away, Nadia suddenly lunged forward and shoved me hard from behind. Losing my balance, I crashed heavily onto the floor.
"Elena, stop trying to distort the facts! How could Dante ever owe a parasite like you any money?" she screamed, glaring down at me. "You dare slander his name? Aren't you afraid we'll have you thrown in a cage for extortion?"
"Get on your knees and apologize to Dante right now!"
Nadia genuinely believed she still held leverage over me. But the current me no longer had a single vulnerability left in this world.
Right at that moment, my direct manager happened to pass by. Seeing Dante surrounded by the crowd, she squeezed through the onlookers, holding a physical file in her hands.
"Mr. Moretti, Elena checked out of the hospital early without proper rest after her miscarriage surgery because she couldn't afford to stay. The hospital just called to warn us that she skipped her follow-up exam, and her physical condition is in critical danger."
The manager sighed and shook her head as she looked at Dante. "Also, regarding Elena’s emergency application to advance $1,000 from her salary last week, you ordered me to deny it. It's a real tragedy. She was missing exactly that amount to get the emergency surgery in time to save her baby."
