My fiance, Dante de Rossi, is the heir to a mafia family in Manhorne, and he loves me dearly. Yet, a month before our wedding, he says his family has arranged for him to have a baby with his childhood friend, Isobel de Luca.

Despite my refusal to agree to it, he brings it up daily and tries to push me into it.

Half a month before the wedding, I receive a pregnancy report. I find out that Isobel is over a month pregnant.

I have yet to give Dante my permission.

This is when I realize just how fragile our years-long relationship is.

I cancel the wedding and destroy everything he has ever given me. On the day of the wedding, I set off for Etolia to further my medical career. I accept a role with an international medical organization, severing all ties with the mafia.

From that moment onward, he and I no longer have anything to do with each other!

A month before my fiance, Dante de Rossi, and I were supposed to get married, he insisted on having a baby with his childhood friend, Isobel de Luca.

I refused to agree to it, but he kept bringing it up every single day and stubbornly tried to persuade me. It was as if he were presenting a business deal that had to be accepted.

Half a month before the wedding, I received an envelope from an anonymous sender. It contained a pregnancy report from a private hospital in Manhorne.

The report clearly stated that Isobel was five weeks and three days pregnant.

It was then that it finally dawned on me. Dante never truly considered seeking my permission. He'd already made up his mind and was just informing me, his fiancee on paper.

I sat by the apartment window, staring down at the busy streets as a chill sank deep into my bones.

The next day, I canceled our wedding venue reservation. I ripped up our wedding invitations and burned everything I had received from him, including the wedding ring and his handwritten wedding vows.

On what was to be our wedding day, I didn't show up. Instead, I boarded a plane to the city of Laran in Etolia. I joined an international medical center and began my new life as a medical researcher.

From that point onward, I cut off all ties with Dante.

…

"I've explained this to you countless times! Isobel can't hold out much longer. Her myeloma is now in the terminal stage. The doctor says she only has a year at most," Dante de Rossi said.

"Her last wish is to bear a child who can carry on her family name. I owe her my life. In any case, this isn't just about me wanting to repay that debt. This will also ensure the alliance between both our mafia families."

As usual, Dante was standing before me and justifying himself with that calm voice of his, but every word he said felt like a stab in the heart.

Five years ago, on the streets of Chargo, a gunfight broke out between the de Rossis and the druglords of Portshire. Dante claimed that Isobel de Luca had shielded him from a fatal shot, and from then on, she became his savior.

Still, I didn't get it. How was it love if I had to be sacrificed in the process of him repaying his debt of gratitude?

Dante continued his attempts to persuade me. "It's just artificial insemination. Nothing will ever happen between her and me. It's only so that she can have a baby."

After a pause, he looked at me with mixed emotions and said, "You love me, don't you? If you love me, you should be able to understand my position and give me your blessing."

I shot to my feet. My voice quaked with fury as I retorted, "We're getting married next month, Dante, but you got a woman pregnant behind my back! What does that make me?"

Dante remained silent. As he lowered his gaze, I saw a flicker of hesitance in his eyes. Perhaps it was a sign of guilt, or maybe it was just part of his usual manipulative schemes.

The very next second, he regained his composure and said in a low but resolute voice, "Nina, this doesn't just involve Isobel and me. This arrangement involves both our families.

"After much negotiation, the de Rossis and the de Lucas have come to an agreement. As long as Isobel and I have a baby, it'll put an end to the feud between our families that has gone on for the past decade. I can't overturn a decision made by the entire family."

I stared at him, abruptly feeling as though he were a complete stranger to me.

Dante and I had grown up together. I was the one who'd been by his side from the impoverished streets of Brunville to Manhorne School of Medicine. I thought our love was pure and untainted by other worldly things, and that we belonged to each other.

But in reality, he had never truly stood beside me. He merely considered me a "suitable" fiancee. I was well-mannered, thoughtful, intelligent enough, and never caused trouble for him. I was fit to be the wife of the heir of the de Rossi family.

But the real girl from his childhood wasn’t me.

It was her—the one who used to sneak around playing water guns with him when they were five.

The daughter of his family’s greatest enemy.

The girl from a rival mafia clan, the one he kept hidden deep in his heart, even when their families were at war.

Did he love me?

Maybe.

But when confronted with family, power, loyalty, or Isobel, I would always be the first to be sacrificed.

Dante had more to say, but a call interrupted our conversation. He began heading for the balcony as he answered the call, his voice softening and becoming dulcet.

I couldn't hear what the caller said, but I could see the gentle smile on his face. It had been ages since I last saw him smiling at me like that.

I knew it was Isobel who had called Dante.

Turning back, I looked at the pregnancy report on the table. According to the information, Isobel got pregnant a little over five weeks ago.

On the day of conception, Dante had been gone the entire night. He told me that he went to Cassington to deal with an issue with a smuggled shipment at the port. Thinking about it now, I realized that he'd been with her, completing the surgery that was supposedly nothing more than helping her pass down her family bloodline.

This proved that my permission had been considered an unessential part of the plan from the start. They merely waited to "inform" me. They never truly sought my agreement.

All along, I'd been waiting in anticipation for my wedding day. I was eager to take Dante's hand and stand at the altar together. But now, all of my thrill and excitement had vanished into thin air. Not a trace was left behind.

Just then, the buzzing from my phone pulled me out of my thoughts. The voice that rang out through the speaker belonged to Julia Carter, a college senior of mine.

"Nina, I know you're about to get married, but I still wanted to ask you one more time. Are you sure you don't want to consider joining us at the hospital?" Julia urged.

"You're the most talented student Professor Moore has ever taught. He continues to hope that you can join our medical team. Since you're getting married, he has even agreed to let you have a two-week break every two months. That way, you can still spend time with your husband."

William Moore, my former professor, had established a research project at Laran Hospital in Etolia. Six months ago, he called me and invited me to join his medical research team.

However, if I did that, I would have to be cut off from the outside world for extended periods. Such periods of isolation could last anywhere from a month to a year or more.

At the time, I couldn't bear to be apart from Dante for so long, so I rejected Professor Moore's invitation. But now, Dante was already the father to someone else's baby.

Since he never once gave any consideration to our relationship or our prospective marriage before he made his decision, I saw no reason to proceed with the wedding.

"I've decided, Julia. I'm willing to join the hospital, and I won't need the break. I'm fine with sticking to the project timeline," I said.

"That's great news! Professor Moore will be thrilled!" Julia exclaimed in surprise and delight. "When do you plan on coming over? Why not join us a week after the wedding? That way, you can still go on your honeymoon."

"That won't be necessary. I'll fly over on my wedding day," I replied softly.

My eyes fell on the calendar on the table. I had circled the tenth of next month with a red marker. Initially, it was just a reminder for myself—a countdown to my wedding date. It made things easier for me when I had to make all the arrangements.

Now, it was a countdown to when I would leave Dante. In 15 days, Dante and I would no longer have any ties with one another. It would be over between us for good.

Dante didn't come home that night, and I didn't call him to ask where he was either. I'd already seen Isobel's social media updates.

After leaving the hospital that afternoon, Dante and Isobel returned to Isobel's home to inform her family about her pregnancy. I saw a picture of Isobel's grandmother affectionately holding Dante's hand while saying something to him. He had an unusually tender smile on his face as he stroked Isobel's abdomen with his other hand.

In the five years we'd been dating, Dante only agreed to visit my family with me once, after we'd decided to get married.

Even though it was less than a half-hour drive between our houses, he had never taken the initiative to visit my family before that, not even once. He said he didn't like spending time with older people. It made him feel uncomfortable.

During that visit, he merely treated my family politely, unlike the warmth he showed Isobel's family, which I saw through the photos.

I closed my eyes. Doing my best to quash the bitterness I felt, I turned off my phone.

The next day, I reached out to a few friends and told them that the wedding had been called off.

Dante once said that he didn't like wedding ceremonies. He thought they were a meaningless formality. At my insistence, he reluctantly agreed to have a small wedding ceremony with only our closest family and friends invited.

Everyone around me knew how much I loved Dante. My friends were stunned to hear that the wedding had been canceled.

"Haven't you been in love with Dante for ages? Why have you suddenly decided to break it off with him?"

An indescribable sense of heartache washed over me. It wasn't easy to abruptly terminate a bond that had lasted for two decades. However, as it turned out, our relationship didn't start on an equal footing. All along, I was the one who did my best to keep up with him. He had never paused for me.

At first, I didn't care about that. I told myself that if I could wait until he agreed to marry me, then after we were married, I could keep waiting until he truly loved me.

I was willing to wait until he opened up his heart to me.

Alas, it all changed six months ago when Isobel, his so-called savior, showed up.

At last, I realized that Dante wasn't cold and indifferent to everyone. In front of Isobel, he was always gentle and generous with his smiles. As for me, I was never anything more than a side character in his life.

Still, the hardest thing for me to bear was his deceit. While he pretended to seek my approval, he had secretly made Isobel pregnant through artificial insemination.

It was from that moment on that it finally hit me. There was never going to be a future with Dante and me.

I didn't tell my friends the truth. I simply said that I was leaving for work at a different hospital and would get in touch with them sometime later. Feeling apologetic about the suddenness, I hung out with them until late at night before heading home.

When I got back, Dante had only just arrived as well. Smelling the stench of alcohol on me, he frowned and backed away. He covered his nose and impatiently snapped, "Stay away from me. Don't get any of that alcohol odor on me."

I let out a self-deprecating laugh. He was probably just worried that the alcohol might end up affecting Isobel. After all, she was a pregnant woman.

Without saying anything, I went to the bathroom and took a shower. When I came back out, Dante was tapping away on his phone with a smile on his face.

I spared him a glance before deciding to head to the bedroom to sleep, but he stopped me.

"I need to discuss something with you," Dante said.

I paused in my footsteps. He had said the same thing two weeks ago, when he first told me he wanted to have a baby with Isobel. We'd been arguing ever since then.

Isobel was already pregnant, so what else did he have to discuss with me?