The Past Is a Wound That Won't Heal

On our third year wedding anniversary, Ricardo Gambino finds me in the estate located far beyond the city's boundaries.

As he clutches a pregnancy report, he finds it difficult to suppress the smile on his face.

"I have good news for you, Isabella!" Ricardo exclaims excitedly. "Lucia is pregnant! It so happens that you're infertile, we'll have her give birth to the baby, and you can raise them! After that, I'll make sure to send Lucia away. You, on the other hand, shall remain as my wife!"

Ricardo's tone is starting to drift. He sounds like he's done something amazing for me and wants me to compliment him.

But I merely look at him as though he were a jester.

What Ricardo doesn't know is that he's the infertile one. Also, we've already gotten divorced from each other.

At that moment, I receive a new text on my phone. Then, I see a photo of an ultrasound report regarding the first trimester of a pregnancy.

"Isabella, we're having triplets."

The next text pops up immediately. "I shall marry you in three days."

Isabella's POV

When I didn't respond, Ricardo frowned at me.

"Isabella, did you hear what I said?"

I jerked my head up, the sunlight sharp in my eyes.

The man in front of me—Ricardo Gambino—was the man I had "loved" for 11 years. Staring at the impossibly familiar face, memories came flooding back.

I remembered the day he knelt on one knee and proposed to me, his eyes full of love and affection.

I remembered him at our wedding, eyes red, swearing on the honor of the Gambino Famiglia that he would love me for the rest of his life.

But somewhere along the way, he started staying out all night. He always brushed me off by saying he was busy with Famiglia matters, yet he took another woman with him to all kinds of banquets, leaving me sitting alone on the balcony of the family estate until dawn.

He believed that he was continuing the Gambino bloodline by letting Lucia bear his child, while also preserving the dignity of his "legitimate but infertile wife". What he didn't know was that this so-called goodwill actually cut deeper than any knife ever could.

Shaking off my thoughts, I stood and looked him straight in the eyes.

"Ricardo," I started, my tone calm. "We're divorced. I'm no longer Mrs. Gambino."

He froze.

As I turned to leave, my eyes caught the wedding ring on his finger. I had personally designed the ring back then. It was engraved with the family crest, and only this single pair existed in all of Slatilli.

"Also," I added, pointing at his hand with a small smile. "I've already thrown my ring away. You should take yours off too."

Ricardo stared at me wide-eyed, his face darkening. After confirming that I really wasn't wearing the ring, his gaze hardened even more. But I didn't care in the slightest.

"The divorce papers were signed a month