Invalid Pact, Irresistible Pull

My marriage to Tommaso Volpe, Don of the Volpe family, is part of a five-year contract. We each have someone we love, and we stay out of each other's way.

He loves his adopted sister, Gelsomina Volpe, who needs his protection. My heart belongs only to my deceased fiancé, Marco Damiano.

For five years, I play the perfect Signora Volpe, enduring Gelsomina's provocations and cruelty again and again.

She forces caustic substances down my throat that nearly destroy my esophagus. He tells me to let it go for his sake.

She stages her own kidnapping and forces Tommaso to choose between saving her and me. He doesn't hesitate, choosing to save her while I sink to the bottom of that freezing lake.

On the last day of our contract, I calmly pack my things and leave the signed divorce papers behind. I need to find a young man who looks just like Marco. He's all I have left to hold onto.

But after I leave, Tommaso loses his mind searching for me, saying he's fallen in love with me.

He threatens me with the entire city's underworld just to stay by my side. He watches me grow close to my new "replacement" and goes mad with jealousy.

He thinks he still has a chance, but he has already lost this game from the very beginning.

"I'm starting now."

Tommaso Volpe's voice pierced through the darkness. His tone was icy, as if this were a formal business meeting. I closed my eyes and let his hands roam freely against my skin.

It had been like this for five years now. Each time was no different from the other, like a mechanical clockwork sans emotion.

Moonlight filtered through the blinds onto the Eralian marble floors of the bedroom. Even the air felt suffocating.

"Is this okay?" He asked for consent like this was official business, and I nodded, just like I had on countless nights before. This was our routine, our obligation—a clause clearly outlined in our contract. Tommaso began, and my mind had already drifted elsewhere.

At tonight's family dinner, he sat at the head of the table as always, and I sat beside him like we were the perfect couple. Everyone envied us, for the marriage between the Don of the Volpe family and the daughter of the Gallo family created the most powerful mafia alliance.

However, they didn't know that this marriage had only been a transaction from the very beginning. We signed the five-year contract with mutual consent. Tommaso needed the Gallo family's influence at the docks to solidify his position, and my family needed the Volpe family's protection to expand our territory.

Tommaso's breathing grew heavier, and I simply endured it in silence.

I thought of Marco Damiano. His gentle kisses, his promise to give me the most beautiful love in the world… If he were still alive, we would have children by now.

But Marco was dead. He died on that bloody, violent night five years