Chapter 2

Bruno's men always said that the well-respected Don of Scricia never told lies and that he truly loved me. But now, all of it only made me feel sick. Expressionlessly, I helped him into the bulletproof car. Bruno laid his head down on my lap, and his furrowed brows finally relaxed, making him look like a harmless child. "Lilah, why… Why couldn't it be me…" I was finally able to clearly hear the name he had murmured countless times in his sleep. Lilah Biatchi—the woman who had caused me to lose everything—was the woman he had hidden deep inside his heart. As it turned out, Bruno had never forgotten her. He had even put on this show of being with me just for her. I had been too naive, underestimating how deep his obsession with Lilah was. His satellite phone with a golden lion emblem slipped out from his custom-made suit pocket. As I leaned down to pick it up, an encrypted message popped up on the screen. "Don Zedano, thank you for stepping in tonight and settling the feud with the three major families on my behalf. But I can't accept that underground territory of Scricia that you promised. It's just too much!" Immediately after, Lilah updated her private social media account—"Only a true queen deserves to wear a crown." Accompanying the caption was a photo of a ruby-encrusted antique ring. Allegedly, the ring was an emblem representing the oldest underground family in Scricia, symbolizing ultimate underworld power. I knew Lilah was showing it to me on purpose. Earlier this week, during a fight between families, a bullet had torn through Bruno's chest and gravely injured him. Yet the moment he was barely able to stand on his own two feet, he flew abroad. I was both furious and worried sick, thinking he was risking his life for his family's honor. But in reality, he had gone to attend a family's succession ceremony. Even while recovering from a gunshot wound, he still fought to have that ring that symbolized ultimate power and gifted it to his true love. As if something had come over me, I entered his passcode. The moment the final digit was keyed in, the screen lit up. The passcode was Lilah's birthday. Bruno had never let me touch his personal phone, saying that it was a rule of a Don. After unlocking it, the first thing that caught my eye was a photo of Lilah smiling in a lavish gown. No wonder his gaze always softened unconsciously whenever he turned on his phone. Then, I opened some folders and found photo albums named after her. "Lilah–Opera House". "Lilah–Vineyard". "Lilah–Coronation". There was a sea of photos there, all of which were of Lilah at the banquets of various major families. There wasn't one photo of me in those thousands of photos. Even he himself wasn't in them. Only Lilah could be found. Just like how his heart had always—and would always—belonged to her. The car pulled into the castle. I stared in the direction of the empty basement, my whole body cold. That room once held my father's badge and the evidence he had collected while he was undercover. It was proof that he had gone undercover for 20 years in order to infiltrate the underground families. Every time I saw those items, I felt like my father was still out there, finishing the mission he never got to complete. However, one morning, all that evidence that could've turned all the underground families on their heads suddenly disappeared. The police said that it had been anonymously destroyed. I was completely shattered, and Bruno held me for three sleepless days. Now, I understood. It had been him. He had destroyed the last piece of my father that I had been holding on to with his own two hands. Another encrypted message suddenly popped up. "Don, the will has been finalized per your request. All the Scrician underground power under your name and the succession rights will be transferred to Ms. Biatchi. We're just awaiting your final confirmation and signature." Through my tear-filled eyes, I seemed to see the scene from so many years ago. Bruno, formally dressed in mourning attire, had sworn to me at my father's funeral—"Amy, I swear on my honor as a Don that I'll give you a home. Everything I have will be yours."