POV Isabella

The silver fork almost slipped from my hand just as I was about to confess a secret—I was pregnant with the child of the Romano family's underboss.

However, when I bent down to pick up the fork, my gaze inadvertently landed on my adopted sister's bare foot, which was slowly sliding up his leg under the table.

Julian Romano was a man who absolutely tolerated no offense.

When he stepped into a room, even the most unruly bosses would instinctively put out their cigars and lower their heads, because looking him in the eye for even a second was a challenge to him.

This was a man who would not hesitate to snap someone's neck with his bare hands.

He controlled a bloody and money-laced underground network with cold precision. As long as someone whispered his name, everyone on the street would scatter.

To celebrate our new penthouse, I spent the entire afternoon carefully preparing a traditional Italian feast, including pasta and thick soup.

When I bent down to pick up the fork that dropped on the expensive Persian rug, a smile still hung on my face.

However, that smile soon froze on my lips.

Sophia's toes were curling against Julian's pants.

Her bare foot slowly slid upward, approaching the gun holster at his waist.

I sat back in my chair and looked straight at Julian. He picked up his crystal glass and took a sip of wine, his expression flawlessly calm. He was still the coldly calculating man I had served with loyalty for seven years.

A sourness surged up my throat. I violently pushed back my chair, rushed out of the dining room, hid in the bathroom, and locked the door. I knelt in front of the toilet and dry-heaved, but only spat up bitter stomach acid.

The door opened, and Sophia walked in, sliding the deadbolt locked. Her usual sweet disguise was completely gone.

She stood in front of me with her arms crossed.

She told me they had been sleeping together for months, and in a cold tone, detailed everything to me.

She said how he touched her in the backseat of the armored SUV while the soldiers drove them around the city; she said what he whispered to her when he was inside her.

The doorknob began to rattle, and then the lock was forced open. Julian burst into the bathroom.

He looked at me slumped on the floor, then glared at Sophia.

When he crouched down and tried to grab my shoulders, I violently dodged his hand.

He said he was drunk, it was too dark, and he mistook Sophia for me.

This was completely ridiculous!

This man could memorize the blueprints of enemy buildings; he would never make such a mistake. This was just an arbitrarily fabricated excuse.

I looked straight at him: "In our world, betrayal is a death sentence. You broke absolute loyalty, and it is irretrievable!"

I walked straight back to the dining room, grabbed the silk tablecloth, and gave it a violent yank. Silver forks and bone china plates shattered on the marble floor, and red wine seeped into the Persian rug like fresh blood.

The bulletproof doors locked behind me, shutting out Julian's shouts. I heard Sophia stop him, and he didn't chase after me.

The autumn night's moonlight was somewhat glaring. My high heels stepped on the asphalt road, sending dull aches up my calves.

The spare phone in my pocket vibrated non-stop. It was a series of messages from Sophia, ending with a selfie of her lying naked on the large bed in Julian's master bedroom.

Looking at the huge floor-to-ceiling windows in the background of the photo, it suddenly dawned on me: this twisted sense of exhibitionism was exactly what he wanted. They simply wanted to enhance their kink by torturing me!

The screen lit up, and Julian sent a message: "I'm sorry."

I sneered and simply turned off the phone.

POV Isabella

Early morning, I woke up in another one of my apartments. The faint scent of his expensive cologne lingered on the pillow, like the only trace that he had ever existed.

My hand instinctively reached to the other side of the bed, searching for the weapon and partner I used to hold, but there were only cold sheets.

I couldn't help but force out a bitter laugh from my throat.

I picked up the encrypted phone from the nightstand. The screen was full of messages Julian sent late at night.

His texts were full of pleas, saying he missed me, saying he needed his consigliere.

I casually tossed the phone back onto the bed. My hand fell on my flat abdomen, and my fingertips traced the line of the remaining scar. My body couldn't help but twitch, as if the nerve endings had been severed.

I walked to the front door, pulled back the heavy steel lock, and found a brown paper bag on the doormat.

The bag was full of my handmade pastries, and on top of it was a note personally written by the underboss.

I didn't bother to read his explanation and just kicked the paper bag down the stairs.

I put on a sharp black suit and arrived on time at the Romano & Rossi Law Firm.

This was the massive corporate front we built together to launder the family's dirty money, a towering monument to our shared ambition.

I walked toward the private executive elevator, the crisp sound of my heels striking the marble floor echoing in the lobby.

The elevator doors slid open.

Julian and Sophia stood inside, their fingers tightly intertwined.

A smug smile hung on Sophia's face, while Julian looked panicked.

I maintained a cold posture, took a step back, and turned to leave.

I disdained being in the same room as betrayers.

Just at the moment the elevator doors were about to close, they suddenly popped open.

Julian rushed out and caught up with me in the marble corridor, his composure completely crumbling.

He blocked my path, lowered his voice, and urgently proposed to give me three lucrative illegal territories and a higher percentage of the weapons trade shares.

I looked up straight into his face.

"Can this wealth buy back the Julian from seven years ago?"

"The man I deeply loved was the one who would rather die than betray me!"

He opened his mouth to say something, but not a single word came out.

"I want to take an additional ten percent of the legitimate shares of this company as my immediate severance pay."

He remained noncommittal.

I stared at him, recalling the blood we once shed to build this place.

I remembered those late nights when we quietly treated gunshot wounds, and I remembered the vision we once shared.

But now, looking at the stranger in front of me, I only saw a man I used to know.

Sophia walked up behind him, the triumphant smile still on her face.

I walked past her, not giving her a single reaction.

I stepped into the lobby. Dozens of family members and subordinates stopped talking and lowered their heads, but I knew what they were discussing—nothing more than the romantic scandals surrounding the underboss.

I walked to the reception desk and demanded to take the share documents that belonged to me.

POV Isabella

Julian did something I never imagined he would do during his tenure as underboss.

He issued astronomical bonuses to his men, hosted a lavish banquet on a private yacht, and flaunted his wealth to the entire underground world to celebrate his new marriage to Sophia.

I returned to headquarters to finalize the last details of the share documents, but froze at the door of my office.

My mahogany desk and files had all been cleared out. Sophia was sitting leisurely in the brand-new leather chair, blowing on her freshly painted nails.

My most loyal subordinate, Mia, whispered with red eyes: "He used the name of the underboss to give your office to her."

I didn't let my face show any emotion. I turned and walked down the hallway to a windowless storage room. "Bring my encrypted laptop and secure line here."

In less than an hour, I transformed this long-dusty storage room into a secure tactical command center.

The sharp ring of the phone broke the silence in the room.

The caller was Mrs. Moretti, the widow of a loyal, made family member. Her husband had bled and died for the family. She was crying so violently that she could barely form a complete sentence.

Between intermittent sobs, she told me that her elderly mother had just taken her own life. They had lost their home and all their savings, and it was all because of a gang dispute—a dispute I was supposed to mediate.

I abruptly hung up the phone and immediately bypassed the firewall of the family's encrypted ledgers.

I spent hours digging through digital archives and finally found the key evidence: Julian's digital signature. He had handed the prepared defense materials over to Sophia.

Digging deeper, following the trail of electronic bills, I found a large overseas bank transfer. Sophia had accepted a massive bribe from a rival gang and intentionally botched the mediation.

She sold out a loyal widow for a mere sum of money.

I stood up abruptly, the chair crashing against the wall with a loud bang.

I stormed out of the storage room and kicked open the heavy double doors of the executive suite.

Julian and Sophia remained unmoved; they were casually flipping through a catalog of luxury watches.

I slammed the freshly printed ledger onto the table, shattering their peaceful scene.

"You broke Omertà! Because of your greedy ignorance, you killed a loyal family member!"

Julian calmly blocked Sophia behind him and said lightly, "It's just a rookie mistake." He pulled out a thick stack of cash and threw it on the table. "Give that family some compensation to shut them up."

A deathly silence spread.

"Is this your loyalty to the sacred laws?" My voice was as low as ice. The man I once loved was dead; standing here right now was just a stranger consumed by arrogance. I said nothing more, turned, and left.

I drove for hours, the roaring engine filling the void left by my shattered life. Finally, I drove up a winding mountain road to our former secret base.

It was a hidden cliff overlooking the glittering lights of the city territory.

Julian and I used to come here late at night to settle the accounts of the dock smuggling routes.

I parked the car, walked to the edge of the cliff, and let the biting wind whip against my face. Time seemed to freeze in this moment.

I should have known he would track my encrypted GPS.

The crunch of pine needles let me know Sophia had emerged from the shadows of the woods.

Accumulating years of toxic resentment, her face twisted: "I have always hated you."

"My father was humiliated and lost his position because of your stupid rules. I didn't sleep with Julian out of love. My only motive was to strip away your power and steal your family boss."

I sneered: "You think he's a prize? Julian doesn't deserve that name. He's nothing but a weak, incompetent man who only thinks with his lower half."

The sound of a snapped branch echoed, and Julian walked out of the dark woods, following closely behind her.

"I'm tired of your cold rules." He shamelessly admitted to eavesdropping on our conversation.

He wrapped his arm around Sophia's waist, pulling her tightly to his side. "I prefer her. She's bold and dangerous."

I turned my head away, my gaze falling on the scattered glow of the city lights below, remaining silent.

In that silence, I finally understood that there was an irreconcilable contradiction between our understandings of survival and loyalty. I clearly accepted one fact: this territory no longer belonged to me.

I turned and walked back to the car, leaving them without looking back.