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After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don
After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don
Author: Sterling

Chapter 1

Author: Sterling
"Three days from now is Elena's welcome ball.

"You're going to be there, on time."

That was the first thing Marco said when he walked in early the next morning.

His tie was gone, his collar was loose, and there was a fresh red mark on his collarbone.

When he saw me, he didn't look the least bit guilty.

I stared at the marks on his skin and felt foolish for what I'd done the night before.

"I'm not going."

He stopped and turned to look at me.

The next second, a black velvet box landed on the table.

My breath caught.

Inside was the emerald ring my mother left me.

On our wedding day, he'd said the ring was too valuable and would be safer in the family vault.

I believed him.

And now he was using my mother's keepsake to force me to accept another woman.

"After the ball, you'll get the ring back."

"My mother left me that ring."

"Which is exactly why you should go."

Marco's voice was flat.

"Elena's not well. She just got back to Marseille.

"Don't embarrass her at the ball."

I looked at him.

"You want me to tell everyone, in my own words, that I accept her as your woman?"

"Watch what you say."

"Am I wrong?

"She called you away on our anniversary, and you came home the next day with her marks on you..."

Marco's face went cold, and he cut me off.

"Elena just needs a place to stay right now.

"The Ferrante estate is huge. Are you saying there's no room for her?"

"I don't have room for her."

I turned to leave.

Marco grabbed my wrist and yanked me back.

"Lia, don't be childish."

"I told you, I'm not going."

He gripped my chin and forced me to look up.

"Ever since what happened a year ago, the Moretti family has been finished."

My fingers went cold.

"There's no one left to stand up for you.

"Lia, don't push me."

I went rigid.

"Are you threatening me?"

"I'm reminding you to face reality."

His grip kept tightening.

Before everything fell apart a year earlier, I'd cut my finger while slicing fruit, and he'd chased me halfway across the estate with a first-aid kit.

Back then, he'd frowned and said, "Lia, when are you ever going to learn to take care of yourself?"

That one sentence had made me happy for so long.

After everything happened to the Moretti family, it all changed.

Now all he did was complain that I didn't do as I was told.

Marco let go.

"The night of the ball, I'd better see you there."

He turned and left.

At the end of the hallway, Marco’s brother Nico was leaning against the wall, smoking.

He wore a floral shirt with the collar hanging open, as if he'd just walked out of a private room at a casino.

When he saw Marco, he smiled.

"Did your wife upset you again, Marco?"

Marco shot him a cold look.

"Mind your own business."

Nico stepped aside to let him pass.

Once Marco was gone, Nico walked up to me, picked up a napkin, and gently dabbed at the red mark on my chin.

I turned my face away.

"Don't touch me."

He looked down at me and gave me a flirty smile.

"I just don't want people to see that and think the men of the Ferrante family can't even take care of their own wives."

I met his gaze, stone-faced.

Nico took a silver lighter out of the inside pocket of his jacket and pressed it into my palm.

"For you."

"What for?"

He leaned in, his lips barely brushing my earlobe.

"If you ever feel like burning this place down, you'll need a light."

I glared at him.

"You're insane."

Nico laughed and stepped back, like nothing had happened.

Late that night, I took the brass whistle out from the very bottom of my jewelry box.

When I was 12, I saved an injured boy at the old docks.

He was covered in blood, but he was still holding on tight to a blue-gray homing pigeon.

Before he left, he pressed the whistle into my hand.

"If you ever have nowhere left to turn, blow three short blasts and one long one.

"I'll come save you."

I blew the whistle.

Half an hour later, the blue-gray pigeon landed on my windowsill.

I tied a note to the band on its leg.

On it, I'd written, "Get me out of the Ferrante estate."

Just before dawn, the pigeon flew back.

There was a new note on its leg band.

It read, "Wait for me."
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  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 10

    A year later.The Moretti family business kept growing, and I was busy from dawn to dusk.My father stood beside me, watching one cargo ship after another slowly head out to sea.He asked out of nowhere, "Are you tired?"I smiled."It's a lot easier than waiting around for someone who doesn't love me."My father smiled too.But his eyes were a little red.That year, Marco was stripped of all his power.All of Damian's gunrunning routes had been dismantled.And Elena paid the price for everything she'd done.They'd once tried to destroy the Moretti family.But in the end, what really destroyed them was their own greed.The day Nico officially became Don, the old Church of San Michele was packed.He stood at the front in a black suit.Robert stood behind him.The heads of the great families bowed and pledged their loyalty to the new Don.I sat in the front row.My mother's emerald ring was on my finger.It had been stolen from me, but now it was back where it belonged.After the ceremony

  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 9

    The Sanmicheli family made all the evidence public.The charges against the Moretti family were dropped.My father signed a ten-year trade deal with Nico.One by one, the partners who'd walked away returned to the Moretti family.Moretti Shipping got a fresh start.I had the hidden storage compartments Damian had left behind torn out.I told every worker, "From now on, Moretti Shipping doesn't touch weapons."Nico's shoulder hadn't even healed yet, but he still spent every day with me at the port.I kept telling him to go home and rest.He leaned against my office doorway with an annoyingly smug grin."I worry about you.""What are you so worried about?"Nico looked at me."You're always charging into danger alone."I looked away."Not anymore.""Really?""At least I'll bring you along."Nico laughed.As for Marco, he was locked up in the interrogation room in the basement.I took the divorce papers to him.Two years of marriage. It was time to end it.Marco sat in an iron chair with s

  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 8

    My father's study had been smashed to pieces.There was only one sheet of paper left on the desk.It was in Marco's handwriting.The note read, "If you want your father alive, come to Warehouse Seven at Port Saint-Louis."Nico read it and tore it in half."It's a trap.""I know.""I'm going with you."I looked up at him.Nico looked at me for a long time. Finally, he took my hand. "Stay close to me."We slipped in along the narrow path on the west side of the port.It was dark and damp there. When I was little, my father wouldn't let me anywhere near it.But I'd always sneak in to catch crabs when the workers weren't looking.I never imagined that years later, I'd take this path to rescue my father.In the abandoned warehouse, my father was tied up next to a crane with a rag stuffed in his mouth.Marco had a gun pressed to his temple.When he saw me, he smiled."Lia, I knew you'd come.""Let my father go.""Sure."He swung the gun toward me."Get me a cargo ship and 20 million.""You d

  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 7

    When the door was kicked open, Marco was sitting in front of the fireplace.Elena was curled up in the corner of the couch, pale.When Marco saw me, he froze for a second, then his face went cold."Lia, you finally decided to come back?"He looked at Nico, and his eyes turned dark."Nico, now you're meddling in my family business too?"I laughed."You had Elena take me away to be killed. Wasn't that family business too?"Marco's face changed.Elena immediately threw herself down in front of him, crying."No, Marco, Damian forced me to do it."Nico lifted his hand.Damian's right-hand man was brought in.The man knelt on the floor and didn't dare look at Elena."Ms. Vidal and Damian have been together for a long time."All those years she was abroad, she was living in Damian's house."Elena shuddered."You're lying!"The man didn't dare look up."She also said that once she got her hands on the Ferrante family fortune, she'd kill Mr. Ferrante."The room went dead silent.Marco slowly tu

  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 6

    Nico didn't take me back to the Ferrante estate.He settled me at a seaside estate owned by the Sanmicheli family.By the time the doctor finished treating my wounds, the sun was up.Outside the window was the blue-gray sea.Waves slapped against the rocks, one after another.Nico stood outside the door the whole time and didn't come in.It wasn't until the doctor left that I called his name."Nico."The door opened softly.I looked at him."Why is there a Moretti family warehouse in that ledger?""Get dressed."I'm taking you to see someone."In the interrogation room in the basement, Damian's right-hand man was tied to a chair.When he saw Nico walk in, he went deathly pale.Nico threw the ledger on the table."Talk."The man gritted his teeth, hesitated, then told us what had happened a year earlier."A year ago, Marco and Damian stole a Sanmicheli family shipment!"They wanted to sell it to a rival family, but the Sanmicheli men tracked it the whole way."Mr. Moretti caught them mo

  • After Dumping My Rich Ex, I Married the Don   Chapter 5

    The man standing in the doorway was Nico.He was still wearing that old suit, far too loud for the occasion.But his shoulders were soaked through, his hair was dripping, and there was blood on his face.Damian was stunned for a second, then laughed."So Robert Ferrante's bastard son came to join the fun?"Nico didn't even look at him.He walked straight toward me.I wanted him to get out of there.He shouldn't have put himself in danger for me.But my throat locked up. I barely managed to raise a hand and catch the hem of his jacket.Nico looked down and saw the blood on my wrist.The smile slowly left his face."Lia."He reached up and wiped the blood and dirt from my face. "I'm taking you home."The next second, gunfire erupted outside.Damian spun around.The heavy door burst open, and dozens of men in black poured in.Each one wore the black-and-gold Sanmicheli crest on his cuff.Damian's men didn't even have time to raise their guns before they were disarmed and pinned to the gro

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