Chapter 5

Their shrill laughter stirred up memories of my passionate past with Oliver.

Fifteen years ago, he was just the most insignificant underling working for my father, while I was an unloved, spoiled girl raised in the countryside.

We fell in love in secret. For the sake of his business, my father arranged my marriage to a mentally unstable tycoon.

On my wedding day, Oliver came to steal me away, trying to elope with me in his car. I cursed him as foolish, “Oliver, let me out! My father will have you beaten to death.”

He refused to listen. “Even if it means dying, I won’t stand by and watch you be thrown into a pit of fire.”

We evaded wave after wave of assassins my father dispatched. Oliver shielded me, taking three bullets meant for me.

One scarred half his face, one shattered his thigh and the third grazed his heart. Kneeling at my father’s feet, I begged him to let us go.

After puffing several cigar rings into the air, my father finally spoke, “I’ve seen men like him before. He’ll use you as a stepping stone. Once he’s got the power, money and fame he craves, you’ll just be trash in his way.”

“By then, he’ll have countless women at his beck and call. What will you be to him?”

I only said, “Dad, that’s what you did to Mom, not Oliver. I believe he won’t be as ruthless as you.”

In the end, my father took all his men away, leaving me with only the sentence, “Paula, this is the path you chose. Don’t you dare turn back, even if it means death.”

My father issued a kill order for me to everyone in the underworld. If I divorced Oliver, I would be killed.

Later, Oliver learned about the kill order. He threw himself into the fight, risking his life to battle for territory with the New York Gang.

On our wedding day, he stubbornly splurged tens of millions to buy out every headline to broadcast our ceremony live.

As if swearing an oath to my father, he shouted, “I, Oliver Cerano, will love only Paula Frassinetti for the rest of my life! She staked her heart on me and I won’t let her lose! Don’t you dare harm her!”

Yet even the most faithful heart could be lost in the intoxicating glamour of hedonism and neon lights.

Oliver pleaded with me, “Paula, if you divorce me, you’ll lose everything, even your life. Why risk it?”

“Besides not being able to give you loyalty, I can give you all the prestige and enjoyment of being my wife. Isn’t that good enough?”

He bought countless luxury brands, filling my entire walk-in closet. He believed he’d won my understanding and affection.

But he never knew that from the very beginning, all I ever wanted was to leave. At the end of last year, my kill order was quietly withdrawn.

My father’s children, in the ups and downs of the business world over the past few years, have either died or been crippled. Now, only I remain as the heir. He gave me a chance to reconsider.

Now that my grandmother has passed and I’ve found my mother’s bracelet, everything that could bind me has vanished. It was the right time for me to go.

Oliver learned of my injury and hospitalization a week later. At that moment, he was preparing a press conference to grant official recognition to Quina and her unborn child.

Upon hearing my news, he immediately abandoned his affairs and rushed over. When I woke up, he had just entered my room.

“Honey, how are you feeling? I’ve already had the bracelet paid for and sent home. Don’t worry.”

“Looks like Christie’s can shut down now. They can’t even recognize my own wife. What a bunch of useless fools.”

Oliver examined my wounds with a cold expression, then addressed his assistant beside him.