Share

Chapter 2

Author: Chelsea
The following evening, Jonathan held a welcome party for Leonora at the estate.

By the time I came downstairs, the hall was already crowded with guests. Leonora stood beside Jonathan in a white dress while Anthony clung to his arm, chattering away without pause. Jonathan, unusually patient, listened to him as I stood on the staircase and stared at the three of them for a moment longer than I meant to.

“Adele.”

I turned and found Luca Ferretti, the youngest son of the Ferretti family and a notorious womanizer, approaching with two glasses of wine.

I was about to step away when he suddenly reached out and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. My first instinct was to move back, but out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of the intimate way Jonathan and Leonora stood together, and my body went still.

Then I realized Jonathan was looking at us too.

His gaze settled on Luca’s hand, and the air around him seemed to turn instantly dangerous.

A sharp crack split through the room as the glass in Jonathan’s hand shattered.

The music stopped, and every head turned.

Wine streamed between his fingers from the broken glass while Leonora immediately reached for him.

“Jonathan, you’re hurt.”

“I’m fine.”

He didn’t even glance at his hand. His eyes were still fixed on me.

A moment later, he dropped the bloodstained shards onto a passing tray.

“The party is over.”

The room fell into stunned silence, and even Leonora looked taken aback.

“But it’s only nine. You said…”

“I said it’s over.”

Jonathan didn’t raise his voice, but no one dared question him again.

The servants immediately began seeing the guests out, and sometime in the commotion, Jonathan had come up behind me. Before I could react, his arm tightened around my waist and he pulled me out of the ballroom.

He dragged me straight to the bedroom, opened the door, and pushed me inside.

Jonathan followed without giving me a chance to speak. He crossed the room, caught my wrist, and pressed me back against the pillows.

“Where did he touch you tonight?”

I stared at him for a second.

“What does it matter to you?”

“Adele.”

His hand tightened around my waist.

“Don’t make me ask again.”

I turned my face away.

“I don’t remember.”

Jonathan watched me for several seconds before suddenly lowering his head and kissing me, hard and impatient.

I had barely lifted my hands to push him away when he caught both wrists and pinned them above my head. His mouth moved along my jaw and down the side of my neck.

“Here?”

My breathing faltered, and he bit my shoulder.

“Or here?”

“Jonathan!”

“He dared to touch you. Why shouldn’t I?”

His hand slid down my waist before he pulled me firmly against him again.

I gritted my teeth.

“You spent tonight throwing a welcome party for Leonora, so why are you in here acting like a madman?”

Jonathan stilled for the briefest moment.

Then he kissed me again, even harder than before.

By the time I woke the next morning, he was already gone.

I looked at the rumpled sheets and remembered the way he had acted like a madman the night before. For a moment, I felt shaken.

Then I forced myself to calm down.

When I opened the bedside drawer, the new identification documents I had prepared were still inside.

This time, I was leaving for good.
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 10

    In the end, my father refused to let Leonora set foot inside the Vitale home again.She moved into an ordinary apartment with Anthony, while the Alberti family took back everything they had given her over the previous three months. The servants who had helped spread rumors for Leonora were also expelled from Sicily.A month later, the Vitale family held a funeral for me despite there being no body to bury.Jonathan came, but my two brothers stopped him outside the cemetery gates.“You can’t go in.”His expression changed.“I’m her husband.”One of my brothers looked at him coldly.“Her death certificate has already been filed with the court, and Father is taking the necessary steps to formally end the marriage.”“From today onward, you have nothing to do with her.”Jonathan’s hands clenched into fists.“I don’t agree.”“No one asked whether you did.”My brother turned and walked away, leaving Jonathan outside the cemetery, where he remained for the entire day.Only after everyone had g

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 9

    That evening, Jonathan went into my room alone.At the Vitale family’s request, the servants had already packed away everything that could be taken, leaving the room bare and strangely empty. Jonathan walked slowly toward the bed, where the wedding photograph still stood on the bedside table, and picked it up.Seven years ago, I had stood beside him in that photograph without the slightest hint of a smile, something that had clearly annoyed him at the time. When the photographer was finished, Jonathan had even leaned closer and muttered, “You could at least pretend to be happy.”I had responded by stepping hard on his foot.Yet when the photograph was delivered later, for reasons even he could not explain, Jonathan had ordered someone to place it beside the bed.It stayed there for seven years.The butler’s quiet voice came from the doorway.“Sir, there’s one more thing.”He held out a package that had never been sent, with Jonathan’s name written across the top.“One of the maids foun

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 8

    On the tenth day after my “death,” the Vitale family came to the estate.My father looked as though he had aged years overnight, and the moment he stepped inside, he asked, “Where are Adele’s things?”Jonathan came downstairs with dark shadows beneath his eyes, noticeably thinner than he had been ten days earlier.“We still haven’t found her.”My father’s head snapped up.“How much longer are you planning to keep searching?”“Until I find her.”“She’s dead!”Jonathan’s expression changed at once.“She’s not dead.”My father stared at him for a moment, then drove his fist straight into Jonathan’s face.The guards around them immediately drew their guns, but Jonathan raised a hand to stop them. My father had already seized him by the collar.“She was married to you for seven years. Seven years!”His voice shook with fury.“I entrusted my daughter to you, and this is how you took care of her?”Blood appeared at the corner of Jonathan’s mouth, and a bitter smile crossed his face as his eye

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 7

    By the time Lucia was dragged into the basement, her legs were already shaking so badly she could barely stand.Jonathan sat across from her with the surveillance footage playing on the tablet in front of him. He wasted no time on questions he did not need to ask.“Talk.”Lucia dropped to her knees.“Sir, I don’t know what you mean…”Jonathan lifted one hand, and the guard behind her immediately kicked her to the floor.Lucia screamed as she went down, but Jonathan only watched her coldly.“Who taught Anthony to say those things?”“It was… Miss Leonora. She said Mrs. Alberti had taken her place for seven years.”Lucia swallowed hard before continuing.“She said that if she hadn’t run away seven years ago, the estate would have been hers, and so would the position of Mrs. Alberti.”Jonathan’s jaw tightened.“Keep going.”“Miss Leonora told me to bring it up around Anthony whenever I could. She wanted him to believe that you were supposed to be his father, and that once Mrs. Alberti was

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 6

    The investigation report was delivered to Jonathan the following afternoon.It was a thick stack of documents, and his expression changed the moment he turned to the first page.“What does this mean?”His right-hand man lowered his voice.“Mrs. Alberti started putting her affairs in order last week. The two cars registered in her name have already been sold, and the money in her premarital account was transferred out in several separate transactions.”He hesitated before continuing.“As for the jewelry you’ve given her over the years…”Jonathan looked up sharply.“What about it?”“Most of it was sent to Miss Leonora.”The study fell silent, and the scene from that day immediately returned to Jonathan’s mind: several servants carrying jewelry boxes into the guesthouse while I stood nearby, perfectly calm.“I don’t want them.”At the time, he had only frowned and asked, “What are you doing now?”Jonathan’s fingers tightened around the report.“Go on.”His right-hand man handed him anothe

  • He Chose My Sister, So I Disappeared   Chapter 5

    Jonathan stared at the man in front of him as though the words had failed to register, his expression blank and his lips parting twice before any sound came out.“What did you say?”The man lowered his head.“The Coast Guard has recovered the car. There was a large amount of blood on the driver’s seat, and one of the doors was torn off in the crash.”“After a fall from that height, with the car in the sea and Mrs. Alberti nowhere inside, they believe she…”“I asked where she is!”Jonathan’s roar cut him off, and the entire corridor fell silent. Even Leonora, who had just stepped out of Anthony’s room, stopped where she was.The man’s face turned white.“She still hasn’t been found.”“If they haven’t found her, how dare you tell me she’s dead?”Jonathan seized him by the collar, his grip tightening violently.“Who gave you permission to say she was dead?”He shoved the man away.“Go find her. Now.”Without waiting for another word, he stormed out of the estate.Half an hour later, the c

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status