Ten Years Loving the Wrong One

Everyone in Ieplad knows Leopoldo Vece, the Don of the Vece family, loves guns but not women—until me.

Ten years into our marriage, my adoptive father, Raffaello Conti, lies dying of kidney failure. Leopoldo launches a global hunt for a donor, sparing no expense to save him.

He finds her—a young, fragile woman—and spends millions solving her every problem to ensure she is ready for the transplant.

On the day of the surgery, she vanishes.

I rush to her home in a panic, only to find my husband holding her gently in his arms, soothing her in a soft voice.

"If you're afraid of the pain, don't donate then. I'll find another donor."

"Is there time?" she asks quietly. "I heard Lucia's adoptive father is at death's door."

Leopoldo brushes his hand over her hair, his voice indulgent. "I'll search the world again if I have to. You're still young; this burden isn't yours to carry."

As my heart shatters, my phone rings. I answer numbly.

The person on the other end of the line says, "Signora Conti, we regret to inform you that Raffaello Conti just passed away. We waited as long as we could for the donor, but his body gave out five minutes ago."

I return to the hospital and handle the funeral arrangements alone.

After that, I call Marianna D'Andrea, the Don's mother, and say, "I agree to divorce Leopoldo. Please help me disappear."

Marianna D'Andrea moved quickly. By the time I got home, the divorce papers were already waiting for me.

She said, "Sign them. I'll handle Leopoldo's side. In one month, you'll receive the finalized divorce decree. Once you leave, don't ever come back. The Madre of the Vece family was never meant to be a nobody like you."

"Okay," I replied calmly.

After that, I handled my adoptive father, Raffaello Conti's funeral alone.

He had once been the director of a local orphanage, and I was the last child raised there.

After the orphanage shut down, he used his own savings to raise me. I had promised that I would take care of him in his old age and see him through to the end. I never imagined that, in the end, I would be the reason he died.

On the day of the funeral, people who heard the news came carrying flowers.

"Why isn't Don Vece here? Doesn't he know yet?" someone whispered.

The question spread through the crowd like a spark landing on dry grass.

At the same time, my phone buzzed.

"Elena isn't emotionally stable right now, so the transplant is postponed. I've contacted the best specialists worldwide to help Raffaello stabilize. We'll schedule the operation in a month. These next few days, I'll stay with Elena so she can relax and recover."

I stared at the screen and suddenly laughed.

He still didn't know Raffaello was already dead. He also had no idea that I had seen everything with my own eyes in Elena Granucci's house.

I didn't reply.