Sacrificed for the Family

I was raised to believe that love meant endurance.

That if I loved him enough, I could survive anything.

For seven years, I was stationed at the border—alone, bleeding, freezing, nearly dying more times than I can count.

Every transfer request I submitted was denied.

Every time I asked why, I was told the same thing: the family needed me. The alliance came first. Others needed protection more than I did.

What I didn’t know was this—

Every sacrifice I made was approved by the man who claimed to love me.

Adrian Holt, the Don who raised me, protected me, promised I would be his Donna one day…

He was the one signing my name away year after year.

He chose widows. He chose alliances. He chose power.

And he chose for me—without ever asking.

Because he was certain of one thing:

That no matter what he did, I would never leave him.

He believed love meant I would understand.

That loyalty meant silence.

That I would forgive anything—as long as he said he loved me.

So when I finally walked away, I didn’t argue.

I didn’t beg.

I disappeared.

And that was the moment his world collapsed.

Now he’s tearing through cities, alliances, and his own sanity trying to find me—

Too late realizing that love is not sacrifice when only one person bleeds.

This is not a story about redemption.

It’s a story about what happens after you lose the woman who endured everything…

And finally chose herself.

I was the junior capo of the Holt family, stationed at one of our family’s remote border outposts for seven long years.

I slept in a half-abandoned safehouse, its walls cracked, pipes leaking, the air thick with dust and the smell of mildew.

I ate whatever rations were left—hard, tasteless bread and canned meat that had lost its flavor years ago.

I patrolled the outskirts under the scorching desert sun, dodging sandstorms that shredded my skin, and in the nights, I crouched behind crumbling walls, listening to distant gunfire echo across the valley.

From the celebrated “Double-Gun Princess” of the family’s military academy—admired by every student for my sharpshooting, fearless tactics, and unmatched skills—I had been reduced to a shadow of myself, thin, worn, and haunted by the weight of years spent in exile from the city and the family I once

But I endured it all.

Because I had a reason—

finish stabilizing the outpost, return to 意大利,

and finally marry the man I’d loved since childhood: Adrian Holt.

So every year, without fail, I submitted a transfer request.

And every year, the answer was the same:

“Denied.”

I thought it was because the territory was unstable.

Because no one else could fill the role.

Because the family needed me there.

…Until this year—when the family finally gave me a short, precious seven-day leave.

I spent three days and two nights on a train, and the moment I arrived in the city, I went straight to headquarters to see