I Took the Fall, He Took Her Side

I've been in a secret relationship with Luca Alfonso for seven years. I watched his transformation from a fresh graduate to the Don of a famiglia. I know he hates stupid people and bothersome things. So, in the dark of night, I silently clear out traitors within the family and take life-threatening injuries on his behalf. Yet, I never once ask him to disclose the nature of our relationship. I know that doing so will only cause him trouble and paint a target on my back. But later, when his Underboss, Lorenzo Forti, jokingly calls Margherita Vitale his Donna, he simply smiles without refuting it. When I question him about it, his expression darkens. He says, "Her father sacrificed his life for the family. She's suffered enough already. Must you be so suspicious of us?" So, I tell myself that Luca is just such a person. He loathes stupid people and bothersome things, so he's always unwilling to elaborate. It works until the day that Margherita tosses our encrypted list of core family members into the fireplace. With that move, she's burned the list of undercover operatives we've deployed over the past three years to ashes. She falls to her knees in terror. My heart skips a beat. A mistake this serious will, at worst, end with a severed finger and expulsion from the family. I speak up in her defense, "Don Alfonso, I have a backup of the documents." Luca gently helps Margherita to her feet and says, "Don't be afraid. It is what it is." Everyone present exchanges glances, marvelling at his marked difference in attitude today. But in the very next moment, Luca looks at me and asks, "Who gave you permission to make a backup of a top-secret document? Do you know that you've overstepped your authority?" He casts me a glance, then continues, "Go receive your punishment, and don't do anything foolish next time." I watch his retreating figure with growing despair. "Yes, Don Alfonso." It turns out that Luca doesn't actually hate stupid people. He just hates my stupidity. Chapter 1 By the time I was done receiving my punishment, it was already late at night. I waited for Luca Alfonso in the garage with the top-secret documents. He didn't like me asking after his whereabouts. According to him, constantly informing his whereabouts was like placing his weak spot right in someone else's line of fire. It was freezing cold at night. I was shivering, and it took pacing around in several circles for my body to start warming up. I waited from 8:00 pm to 12:00 am without seeing a single glimpse of Luca. When I went upstairs to take a look, his office was dark. I couldn't help but break one of his iron laws and called him on his private number. I'd made three consecutive calls before the fourth call was finally picked up. "Luca, didn't you ask me to wait for you in the garage after work? Where are you?" I asked, my voice shaking from the cold. "Rosa, haven't I taught you not to cross my boundaries during my private hours? Have you become so stupid that you can't even remember the basic rules now?" he retorted accusingly. I wanted to read out the email he'd sent me, but then Margherita Vitale's pitiful sobbing rang out from the other end. She said, "Don Alfonso, I'm so glad for your escort home. I would've been so scared otherwise." The call was then disconnected. I didn't continue explaining myself. It was futile anyway. I recalled how, in the year I graduated, I'd helped Luca deal with a traitor in his family. The traitor had ended up dying in my car. Feeling afraid, I wanted to take Luca's car home, but he rejected my request. "Non va bene. My enemies might misunderstand the nature of our relationship. I'm doing this to protect you. I don't want you to become a target," he'd explained. After wrapping a scarf around my neck, he turned and left while I walked all the way home. Luca came home at 3:30 am. I was sitting on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. Luca heated up some milk from the fridge for me. When he handed the glass to me and came into contact with my cold hands, he frowned and said, "It's late, yet you're still not going to sleep. Look—your hands are practically frozen." I glanced at the clothes stand and noticed that his coat was missing, so I asked softly, "Aren't you cold? You even gave Margherita your coat." Luca pursed his lips, looking displeased. "What do you mean by that? Are you questioning me?" I sneered and replied, "My fiance, whom I'll be marrying next month, came home in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a thin shirt. I don't think it's unreasonable for me to ask after your clothing, right?" Luca, his expression dark and tone overbearing, said, "Rosa, my patience has its limits. I escorted Rita home because today's incident left her terrified. Listen, Rosa—from now on, please focus on your work and keep that foolish, ridiculous possessiveness of yours to yourself." He spoke in a loud voice that made me wrap my arms tightly around myself in reflex. A traitor emerged in the family five years ago. He concluded that there was something between me and Luca simply because we used the same brand of mug. So, he took me hostage in order to threaten Luca into letting him go. However, Luca silently allowed the traitor to tie me to a chair and suspend me over the sea for two days and nights. By the time he shot the traitor dead and I was rescued, I was already out cold. I'd been traumatized ever since. Whenever I was scared, I would reflexively wrap my arms around myself. When Luca saw my shivering frame, a flash of regret crossed his gaze, but it only lasted an instant. He quickly reverted to his condescending, arrogant attitude and said indifferently, "The milk's getting cold. Drink it and go to bed." It suddenly began snowing heavily outside. I abruptly recalled how, during my student days, I'd resolved to also join the mafia after discovering Luca's identity as a mafioso. It wasn't for any particular reason. I just wanted to be with him. The weather had been similar back when I was learning to make counterfeit money and forge documents in the basement for the first time. The entire room was covered in printing ink, which I'd clumsily spilled all over the floor. Luca had originally planned to carry out a mission for the Don that night, but he chose to stay behind with me. He taught me how to compare the film negatives and adjust the ink density for the money printer, though his brows remained tightly knitted throughout the whole half hour and he tossed countless mean remarks my way. "You really are hopelessly stupid." "Do I really have to explain to you just how severe the consequences of printing even a single digit wrong can be?" Despite his terrible attitude, he'd been willing to put a pin in his own tasks to help me clean up my mess. He'd also taught me a great deal. Chapter 2 Luca opened the bathroom door and walked in with his head lowered, looking at his phone. The door was left slightly ajar, so I could hear his voice clearly, but his tone had changed. He sounded like a completely different person from the man who'd been speaking to me just now. "Don't feel guilty about what happened today. It's not a big deal. You're just starting out, so you're allowed to make mistakes. Stupid? Who dared call you that?" He chuckled softly and continued in a gentle voice, "You're only a dummy if you cry so much that your eyes turn puffy. Go get some sleep already. See you tomorrow." I turned and left, not wanting to listen in on them any longer. … Luca and I had made arrangements to sign a core asset joint ownership agreement the next day. It was a representation of the status and trust he'd promised me. Just as we were leaving the house, his phone rang. "You've been locked in your car? Don't be afraid. Your car locks might be faulty. I'll come over and handle it," he said into the phone. He grabbed his keys and made to leave, looking flustered. "Go meet with the lawyer first. I'll be there soon," he said to me. I stopped him and asked, "What urgent business could be more important than us signing the agreement? Can't someone else handle it for you?" Luca brushed my hand away in annoyance, his gaze stern. "Rita's a young lady trapped inside her own car. So what if we sign the agreement a little later?" He swiftly drove away. I went to meet the lawyer—the family's lead attorney, Carlo Marchetti—alone. He read the terms of the agreement to me in detail, every clause dictating the immense wealth and power Luca was providing me with. Most importantly, Luca would make public my status as his Donna. For the past seven years, I'd wanted nothing more than to stand openly by his side. I leaned back against the leather couch, gazing motionlessly at my phone. My fingertips were ice cold. An hour passed, then two. My phone screen remained blank, and Luca didn't show up either. I stared at the agreement's title page, on which was printed the Alfonso family's oldest pledge—"a contract is a lover's lifelong promise". How ironic. How could I expect any lifelong dedication from someone who couldn't even show up to sign an agreement? My phone screen suddenly lit up with a message from Luca. "Sign it first." It was simple and concise without a single unnecessary word. He wasn't even trying to brush me off. "There's no need to wait any longer," I told Carlo. I fed the agreement into a paper shredder, then walked out the door under Carlo's stunned gaze. … Luca came home very late that night. Seemingly drunk, he asked me groggily, "Have you signed the agreement? Let me know if there are any terms you're not happy with." Instead of replying to his question, I asked gently, "Luca, are you happy that you're about to marry me?" He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Of course. Aren't you? You're about to become my Donna, which means sharing in my wealth and authority." My heart sank. It turned out that, in his eyes, those were my goals. It felt like I was the only one giving out love in this relationship. I stood up to leave, but Luca suddenly lifted his hand from where it was hanging over the couch to grab my wrist. "Don't go. Stay with me for a while." When I didn't move, Luca tugged forcefully on my arm, pulling me a step forward. He was mumbling something unintelligible. I leaned in close to listen. "Rita, don't be afraid. I'm here." My last glimmer of hope vanished completely. I pried his hand off of my wrist and turned to leave. Chapter 3 By the next day, Luca had already forgotten his words to me last night. He put on a black shirt and reverted to the usual imperious attitude befitting a Don. He said, "Rosa, there's some place I want to take you to today." I picked up my briefcase and turned him down promptly, "I'm not going. I have work to handle." He said in a rare soothing tone, "It was my bad for missing our appointment yesterday. I'll add my signature to the agreement later. "I remember that you used to love gazing at rings in shop windows back in college. You would say that it didn't matter how simple or lavish a ring was, so long as you could have my family crest openly engraved on it. I've already placed an order for a custom one, so let's go try it on." I'd certainly said such a thing back in college, but now, I no longer wanted it. Still, I did want to see what kind of ring Luca would order. So after some thought, I decided to get into his car. As I did so, I opened the door to the front passenger seat out of habit, but Luca abruptly reached out to stop me. "Sit in the back," he said. My hand froze in midair. In the end, I retracted my hand without asking any questions and silently opened the rear door. Luca started the engine, then glanced through the rearview mirror at me and asked coolly, "Don't you have anything to ask me?" In the past, I would've felt confused and angry, but now, I simply wanted to get some shut-eye. Just then, his phone rang, and he put the call on speakerphone. He said in a voice so soft he didn't sound like himself, "Yes, I'm almost there. I don't have anything in the front passenger seat today. It's very spacious, so you'll fit." While he hung up, my heart plummeted like a rock. It turned out that the seat had been reserved for Margherita today. At the next intersection, Margherita got into the front passenger seat with a coat in her arms. She said cheerfully, "Don Alfonso, thank you for lending me your coat, or I would've frozen to death yesterday. Are we still conducting driving practice today?" Luca smoothly helped Margherita adjust the tightness of her seatbelt, then replied, "I already promised Rosa today that I'm going to take her to see her ring first." Margherita finally noticed me in the back seat and panicked. "Mi dispiace! How could I let the future Donna sit in the back seat? I'll switch with you right away." Luca stopped her and said casually, "Just relax and sit down. The front passenger seat has been adjusted to your height, so there's no need to go to the extra trouble." Margherita looked apologetically at me before turning away to chat with Luca. They chatted with great familiarity, as if they were good friends who'd known each other for years. I leaned back against the cold seat like a mere spectator. It turned out that the reason Luca hadn't shown up at all yesterday was because he was helping Margherita with her driving practice. Luca, the Don Alfonso who hated stupidity and valued rules more than life, was actually answering every one of Margherita's trivial questions with unending patience. His tone was highly indulgent. Not once in the past seven years had I seen such a soft side of Luca. Upon arriving at the high-end jewelry workshop directly operated by the family, a staff member welcomed us respectfully. "Don Alfonso, the custom signet ring you ordered is one step away from completion. Would your Donna perhaps like to try it on first?" The staff member looked at Margherita, who smiled shyly. She tugged on my arm and said, "She's actually our future Donna." The staff member was quite surprised, but he quickly apologized to me. A jeweler brought the ring to us. It was crafted primarily from gold with an extremely rare and flashy emerald inlaid in the center of it. The oval ring face bore the Alfonso family's crest. Overall, the ring seemed to carry a cold, suffocating power. The jeweler placed a silk handkerchief over my hand, but the ring was only made to fit the slender finger of an upper-class woman. Having spent years wielding a gun, my knuckles were on the larger end. The ring wouldn't fit on my finger at all. It was stuck at my middle joint and couldn't slide on any further. The jeweler was sweating with anxiety. "That's not possible. I crafted the ring according to the given specifications, so how could it not fit?" He suddenly caught sight of Margherita and exclaimed, "That lady's finger looks more slender, so it might fit better…" The staff member gave him a shove from behind, looking incredibly awkward. I lowered my head, looking down at my heavily scarred and calloused hands. Then, I looked directly at Luca and took off the ring. "The ring's not my size, so I'm not wearing it." Luca looked rather impatient. "What difference does it make? We can just take down new measurements. Rita can have this ring instead." I sneered. When Margherita made a mistake, I took the fall for her. She was also allowed to ride shotgun in my place. Even now, despite the fact that I was clearly Luca's future Donna, he had the ring crafted according to Margherita's measurements. He knew what the ring represented, but he still went ahead with it anyway. I nodded and replied, "Bene. She can have it, and the title of Donna as well." Margherita looked aggrievedly at Luca. "Has Rosa misunderstood our relationship? I can explain things to her." Luca reassured her gently, "Ignore her. She only misunderstood because she's too stupid. You're not to blame." I simply picked up my pace, all too eager to leave. Chapter 4 When I saw Margherita the next day, she'd made a necklace of the ring and worn it around her neck. Some people had even started calling her Donna. She didn't refute them and simply blushed as she trailed after Luca. I stood a short distance away. Once the crowd had fully dispersed, I opened the door to Luca's office and locked it from the inside. I then asked hoarsely, "Luca, tell me the truth—have you fallen in love with Margherita?" Luca looked incredulous. "Rosa, I told you I'd marry you, so what exactly are you still making a fuss about? I've already placed a new order for a ring. Rita's just a poor, helpless woman. Why are you always so hostile toward her?" I sneered. "She's wearing a signet ring—that's the mark of a Donna." Luca said impatiently, "That's just an unfinished product. If she likes it, let her have her fun with it." His expression told me that it all sounded perfectly natural to him. Before I could say another word, an ear-shattering explosion suddenly rang out from outside the office. The armory on the western side had exploded—there were traitors in the family. Several armed traitors rushed through the thick smoke and made straight for the administrative section. Amid the chaos, Margherita was caught and roughly pinned down in the middle of the hall. The traitors were few in number and at a disadvantage, but they had a hostage. Their leader held a gun to Margherita's forehead. Suddenly, he moved the gun's muzzle toward her neck and hooked out the ring. He laughed villainously. "What an unexpected haul! I actually caught Luca's Donna." He looked back toward the other traitors and yelled, "Guys! Our lives are saved thanks to this woman!" I scoffed inwardly. Their hopes were about to be dashed. Luca didn't fear threats. If someone attempted to control his actions by exploiting his weakness, he would simply retaliate with more ruthlessness than anyone. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been left hanging above the sea for two full days and nights back then. Margherita was so frightened that her face was stark white and she was trembling from head to toe. Luca coldly leveled his gun at the traitors. "Don't hurt her!" he shouted with a rare tremor in his voice. The tension was almost palpable. The traitors dragged Mergherita with them as they retreated. Margherita screamed out of sheer terror, shoved the leader's arm away, and tried to run in Luca's direction. In a fit of desperation, the traitors opened fire, and bullets went flying. Margherita dragged me in front of her in panic. As I was still caught off guard at suddenly being used as a human shield, a bullet pierced cleanly through my left shoulder. The enormous impact sent both me and Margherita flying, whereupon she hit her head and lost consciousness. We were both sent for emergency treatment, but there were too many wounded and only one doctor available to perform surgery. I sat on the cold bench, blood slipping through my fingers and down my arm. My vision was starting to go dark. The doctor said anxiously, "Don Alfonso, Rosa has lost too much blood already. It could be life-threatening to delay her surgery any longer. Margherita appears to only have a concussion, which isn't life-threatening—" Luca cut him off, "Save Rita first." The doctor was stunned. "But Rosa's about to pass out—" Luca commanded harshly, "Save Rita first. Are you so stupid that you can't even understand my words? Her father died while carrying out a mission for me back then. She suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has already fainted from the shock. "If she doesn't wake up, all of you will pay with your lives!" Then, he crouched before me and said in a reassuring voice that simply sounded cruel to my ears, "Rosa, I know you're in a lot of pain, but I also know you're strong. You won't let me down, will you? Hang in there a little longer. "You're the future Donna, so it's only right that you give priority to your family in order to protect them. You're tough and can take your time recovering from your injuries, but Rita's different. You're smart, so I know you understand what I mean." He planted a kiss on my forehead. I didn't even have the strength to push him away anymore. It was the first time in seven years that I'd heard him praise my intellect instead of calling out my stupidity, yet it was only to make me give up my chance at survival. Margherita was wheeled into the operating room while I was moved into the observation room. Seven years' worth of memories flashed through my mind. Every time, I took comfort in telling myself that Luca was a Don who needed to take the interests of the whole into account, so my feelings weren't that important. However, he'd actually acknowledged me as his Donna just now purely for the sake of getting the doctor to treat Margherita first. I could no longer see a reason to lie to myself. I forced myself to stand despite the pain. I didn't want to wear this bloodstained crown that was the title of "Donna" any longer. I silently slipped away despite my useless left arm, avoiding the surveillance cameras in the corridor.