Six Years for Mafia Boss, One Box of Truth

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I spent six years helping the down-and-out mafia boss Ethan Chase build his empire from nothing.

Everyone around me urged me to push for marriage, but he always said to wait---wait until everything was more stable.

Then, the night before my birthday, I saw him talking to an old wooden box with a tenderness I'd never heard before.

"My wife, I made it through another year. Now I have everything, but I've spent less time with you."

"Don't worry. Once everything settles down, I'll make it all up to you."

My heart ached.

That box was a keepsake from his mother. He said he would keep the most important thing in his life inside it.

I thought that after all these years of taking bullets for him and risking my life, he finally felt he owed me something, so he'd bought me an expensive birthday gift.

After he returned to the bedroom, I tiptoed to the study and opened the wooden box.

Inside was only a yellowed wedding invitation. The groom's name was Ethan Chase, and the bride's name was Sophia Hayes.

Beneath the invitation was a birth certificate.

A boy, six years old.

Fighting back tears, I reached for a document at the very bottom.

It was a deed of gift transferring all his assets, signed with his handwriting.

"To my only child in this life, Eric Chase."

I felt like I'd been struck by lightning, frozen in place, unable to move.

So all those times he made me lose our children---it was because he already had one.

And the wife in his heart wasn't me. There had been someone else all along.

My fingers trembled as I carefully placed everything back in the box exactly as I'd found it.

The next second, the butler Zane came running over in a panic.

"Ethan never lets anyone touch that box. You... you didn't touch it, did you?"

His eyes darted away.

"Zane," I looked up at him, "all these years, you've watched me go through hell and high water with him."

"Can you tell me when these things were put in the box?"

Zane's shoulders slumped, his eyes filled with reluctance.

"The old invitation---that was when you helped us escape from New York to Las Vegas six years ago. Before we boarded the ship, he put it in himself."

I laughed, my throat tightening.

Six years ago, the Chase family was framed and went bankrupt overnight.

Ethan insisted on finding the mastermind and ended up being hunted.

I didn't hesitate to cut ties with my family, changed my name to Lily Lynn, got him fake documents, pulled every string I had to arrange passage on a ship to Las Vegas, and fled New York with him and Zane, desperately fighting for our lives.

On the ship, he kept his head down and said nothing, clutching that wooden box tightly to his chest, tears dripping onto it.

I thought he was grieving his mother's death and the cruel reality that had crushed him.

Heartbroken, I held him in my arms. "Ethan, don't be afraid. I'm here."

He buried his head against my chest, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

He said, "Lily, you're all I have now."

It turned out he didn't only have me.

I was just the only one left willing to suffer with him.

His tears were for his first love, Sophia Hayes, who had left him the moment she learned his family went bankrupt.

Zane looked at my pale face and sighed before continuing. "The birth certificate was placed inside six months after we arrived in Las Vegas. Ethan stayed with Sophia until after the child was born before returning to Las Vegas."

Those six months were the most miserable of my entire life.

I stayed with him in the gambling city, calculating cards day and night, winning him his first fortune for his comeback. But in doing so, we offended some dangerous people at the casino. They threatened to kill us.

We had to hide and run from constant attempts on our lives.

That's when I took a bullet for him.

It pierced through the right side of my chest, just one centimeter from my heart.

At that time, I was already carrying our first child.

But the day after I was admitted to the hospital, Zane came to tell me, "Ethan's mother's death anniversary arrived. He secretly went back to New York to pay his respects."

"Also, Ethan says you need to be careful. Things are too chaotic right now."

Then he left. That trip lasted two full months.

During those two months, I was captured by those people and tortured relentlessly. Covered in wounds, they forced me to reveal Ethan's whereabouts and where he'd hidden the money. I gritted my teeth and said nothing.

Because of the severe beatings, I lost the baby.

Now I know---he was with the woman he truly loved and their child.

I was such a fool.

Zane looked at my calm expression, his eyes reddening too.

"The asset transfer contract was signed and placed inside yesterday."

Yesterday.

I laughed until tears streamed down my face.

Yesterday he held me and said, "Lily, if things go smoothly in New York this time, I'll give you a grand wedding and make you the happiest wife."

It turned out the man I loved with my life had been lying to me all along.

Just then, the study door burst open and Ethan rushed in, his eyes full of panic.

He immediately looked at Zane with questioning eyes.

Zane silently shook his head.

Ethan's anxious heart instantly relaxed, and that gentle smile returned to his face.

He walked over quickly and raised his hand to wipe the tears from my face.

"Lily, why are you crying?"

I forced a smile.

"It's nothing. I couldn't sleep tonight, so I was talking with Zane about everything we've been through together. I got a bit emotional."

He pulled me into his arms and said softly, "Those terrible days are over. I'll never let you get hurt again. Never."

With that, he scooped me up and strode toward the bedroom.

As soon as we reached the bed, his kiss pressed down forcefully.

He slowly pulled down my nightgown and kissed the gunshot scar on the right side of my chest over and over with warm lips.

This was something he did every time we were intimate.

I thought he was cherishing my sacrifice.

Now I realize---maybe he was just using that scar to force himself to stay with me, to bind himself with moral obligation.

But that wasn't love.

I wrapped my arms around him and responded passionately.

Perhaps this would be our last time.

Consider it a proper goodbye.

But just then, his phone rang urgently.

When he answered, a childish crying voice immediately came through. "Daddy, I feel terrible. I miss you..."

Then a gentle woman's voice followed, choked with tears.

"Ethan, our son has a high fever. He keeps crying for his daddy. Please come back and see him, okay?"

It was Sophia Hayes.

Ethan's body stiffened. He pushed me away and frantically started getting dressed.

"Lily, there's a problem with the company project. I have to go right away. Don't worry---tomorrow is your birthday, and I'll definitely be back to celebrate with you."

He opened the door and was about to leave.

But after one step, he suddenly stopped.

He realized that from the moment he answered the phone until now, I hadn't said a single word.

Every other time he went on a business trip, I would give him a goodbye kiss and tell him to be careful.

But not this time.

I just looked at him with lifeless eyes.

Guilt flashed across his face as he turned and kissed my forehead.

"What birthday gift do you want? Tell me and I'll buy it for you."

I looked up at him seriously.

"I want a wedding. Can I have that?"

He smiled and ruffled my hair.

"Don't be silly. There's no way to prepare a wedding in one day."

He turned to leave.

Clinging to one last shred of hope, I grabbed his hand, my eyes almost pleading.

"Then can we at least get our marriage license?"

His body froze for a moment.

Then he pulled his hand away and smiled. "Once we move our business back to New York and get married in our hometown---wouldn't that be more meaningful? Lily, just wait a little longer, okay?"

Wait a little longer.

He'd been saying those words for six years.

This time, I wouldn't wait anymore.

"Fine. Go."

I said softly.

He breathed a sigh of relief. As he was leaving, he suddenly remembered something.

He turned back seriously. "Tomorrow afternoon at that auction, you must win that land at any cost. It's our only guarantee for returning to New York. Understand?"

I looked at him expressionlessly.

"Damien Foster is determined to get that land. Have you forgotten what happened when we framed his father Xavier Foster? If I, a woman, outbid him, what do you think will happen to me?"

Back when he disappeared for those two months, I barely escaped from my captors and had nowhere to turn. I went to beg the underground emperor at the time---Xavier Foster.

I knelt at his door for three days and nights before he gave me a chance.

He said he could protect us, but the condition was that we'd give him fifty percent of our company shares and all dividends. And if we didn't make a hundred million in profit within a year, he'd personally deal with us.

A year later, we did it. We even exceeded expectations.

But Ethan started resenting having to split half the profits with Xavier.

So he pulled me into a scheme that sent Xavier to prison.

Where he died from torture.

The year after his death, his son Damien Foster, who'd been studying abroad, returned.

Damien was even more ruthless than his father. He abandoned everything from the underworld and started legitimate businesses from scratch.

In just two years, his empire spread across Las Vegas.

He publicly vowed to avenge his father, to destroy Ethan's reputation, to make him fall back to rock bottom.

But now Ethan was asking me to face such a ruthless enemy alone.

I laughed bitterly. "Ethan, I could die. Don't you care at all?"

He just waved his hand dismissively.

"You've done this kind of thing for me many times over the years, and you've always pulled through. I trust you. This time will be no different."

His words were like an icy blade, shredding my last bit of hope.

The next morning, I'd just changed and was about to leave.

My phone received a message from an unknown number.

I opened it. On the screen was a marriage certificate.

The names were crystal clear. Ethan Chase. Sophia Hayes.

Followed by a text message.

"Lily, I know you've done a lot for him, but we truly love each other, and we have a child together. Please don't interfere with us anymore. Please leave him."

The words "family of three" stabbed at my heart.

I bit my lip hard to keep tears from falling.

With trembling fingers, I replied.

"Okay."

That afternoon, at the auction.

The land started at ten million dollars.

I kept raising my paddle.

But in the end, I lost, letting Damien Foster win the land for eighty million dollars.

After leaving the auction, I called Ethan to tell the result.

He immediately started berating me.

"Lily Lynn! Since when did you become such a coward? Afraid of Damien's revenge, so you hand over our only hope of returning to New York? You've disappointed me!"

Before I could speak, two large bodyguards suddenly appeared behind me and forcibly shoved me into a black SUV.

I was taken to the rooftop of an abandoned building.

I immediately saw Damien Foster sitting in a chair.

He took my phone and video-called Ethan.

The moment the video connected, Ethan's furious voice came through.

"Lily Lynn! You made a mistake and won't let me criticize you? How dare you hang up on me!"

The next second, his voice cut off abruptly.

Because what he saw wasn't my face, but Damien's cold, cruel expression.

Damien sneered. "You're right. She did make a mistake. Her mistake was driving the price up to eighty million before backing down, making me waste all that money."

"So I'm going to punish her."

With that, he raised a finger slightly. A bodyguard beside him swung a club viciously into my back.

I coughed up blood.

Damien spoke again.

"Ethan Chase, if you come back right now to trade places with her, I'll consider sparing her life."

Blood covering my face, I begged the Ethan on screen. "Ethan, save me!"

His face went deathly pale.

"Damien Foster, don't touch her! I'm coming back right now. Wait for me!"

But then Sophia's and Eric's voices came through the video.

"Ethan, today is the day we're getting our marriage license. You promised to celebrate with me. And Eric has been looking forward to this day for so long. Can't you bear to disappoint us?"

"Daddy, Eric doesn't want Daddy to leave. Can't Daddy just stay with us for one day? Please, Daddy..."

Ethan hesitated.

I trembled, pleading desperately. "Ethan Chase, please come back and save me."

Finally, Ethan looked up at me, apology in his eyes.

"Lily, I have something very important here and can't get away right now. I'll head back first thing tomorrow morning. I believe you'll find a way to hold on until then."

"When I get back, we'll have the wedding right away, okay? Just hang in there."

I laughed---laughed wildly, laughed miserably.

Damien immediately grabbed the phone and said to Ethan on screen, "I don't have that much patience to wait for you. New York to Las Vegas---four hours is enough. Ethan Chase, you choose."

Ethan choked.

He turned to look at Sophia and Eric, their eyes full of pleading.

He gritted his teeth. "I'll definitely be there by eight tomorrow morning. Damien Foster, don't touch Lily!"

I gave the screen a desperate smile.

"Ethan Chase, forget it. I'm tired of waiting."

With that, I looked at Damien and said calmly, "If you want revenge, do it."

Damien didn't hesitate for a second. He reached out and shoved me hard.

My body went light as I fell over the edge of the rooftop.

Wind roared past my ears, along with Ethan's hysterical roar from the phone.

"Lily! No!"

I closed my eyes.

Ethan Chase.

I'll never interfere with your family of three again.

Never again.