His Heir Dies While He Watches

In Chicago, Lorenzo "Enzo" Castello, the heir to the Castello crime family, and I were the city's most notorious couple.

He hated me, convinced I had sabotaged his sister Bianca’s life-saving medication just to secure my place in the family.

And I loathed him for doing nothing when my younger brother was murdered in a street conflict.

When he heard the news, he just sneered and spoke to me for the first time in four years. "This is what you deserve."

I was three months pregnant with his child when I was kidnapped by a rival family.

The torture left me bleeding uncontrollably, the life in my womb hanging by a thread. The enemy demanded he trade a key shipping route for my life.

But he just scoffed. "Enough of her act. Tell Cora I'm not falling for it. She's not making a fool out of me."

In the end, I lost everything. It was the fate he had always wished for me.

So why, then, did he come to regret it?

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1

When the Castello family found me, I was a broken, bleeding wreck.

The doctor who arrived recoiled at the sight of me. As he quickly administered emergency treatment, he whispered, "Hang on! We're getting you out of this."

Days of torture had left me too weak to speak.

I could only hear the shocked, stifled gasps of the family's soldati around me.

I struggled to grab the doctor's sleeve, wanting to tell him to save my baby first.

But when I opened my mouth, no sound came out. My throat was in agony, as if a wire had been tightened around it.

Oh, right. I’d almost forgotten.

After Enzo refused the ransom, the kidnappers had roared, tightening a rope around my neck. "You useless bitch, can't even keep your man on a leash? He won't trade a single shipping route for you. You're worthless!"

The searing pain in my throat lingered, and my whole body trembled uncontrollably.

On the way to the family's private hospital, Enzo's Consigliere, Nico, sat beside me.

He took a call, his expression grim, then turned to me. "Cora, at the family dinner last night, one of the Capos asked about you..."

I looked at him. Nico's voice was soft, but it cut like a cold knife. "In front of everyone, Enzo said that he has no fiancée."

I was thunderstruck. The physical agony and the shattering of my heart collided, stealing the air from my lungs.

Disowned me... ha.

Before this, no matter how we tortured each other, I had told myself this resentment was just part of our twisted love. I thought we still loved each other.

No matter how he ignored me, I kept trying to atone for my supposed crime.

I thought that if I gave my all, he would eventually come around.

Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking.

His hatred for me ran bone-deep. He had once wished me dead—how could a man like that possibly love me?

It was time to wake up.

I closed my eyes, tears mixing with blood as they streamed down my face.

As the sedative was injected, a burning sting spread through my veins, and I passed out.

Just before my consciousness faded, I thought I heard Nico's voice again.

He seemed to be reporting to someone.

"...Yes, he was praising Juliana to the elders, calling her the family's future."

Juliana... Enzo's new favorite. And my former assistant.

In my daze, fragments of memory flashed past.

Back then, Juliana was a fresh-faced graduate, a medical assistant assigned to me.

Her theoretical knowledge was a mess, and her practical skills were a disaster. She was more of a hindrance than a help.

Because of her, I often worked late in the lab. Whenever Enzo came to pick me up and saw how exhausted I was, he would glare at Juliana with contempt. "You've got no business playing doctor. Pack your things and get out."

He clearly despised her.

But now, he was publicly praising her, calling her the future of the family.