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Chapter 4

Penulis: Eternity
The day I planned to fake my death was the seventh anniversary of the truce between the Vescari and Bellandi families.

The estate blazed with light as Five Families members, politicians, and business partners arrived for a commemoration disguised as a charity gala. Tonight, Bianca would reappear as the first Bellandi heir.

I changed into an unadorned white dress and sat in the guest room assigned to me, closing the last ledgers. Nora stood behind me arranging my hair, her tears falling silently onto my shoulder. “Are you ready?”

“Yes.”

I placed the estate access card, the family trust key, Adrian’s jewelry, and the shattered opal pendant in a box. I kept nothing that belonged to the Vescari family.

An old camera lay dust-covered in the deepest drawer. Before our wedding, I carried it everywhere. Adrian and I once walked down an empty Michigan Avenue before dawn, and I once slipped out to photograph the first snow over Lake Michigan.

Then a rival family tracked me. Adrian said he could not risk losing me and that Mrs. Vescari had to be careful. So I put away my camera, managed the estate, cared for his mother, and became the flawless woman everyone expected.

The camera remained untouched for seven years.

I handed it to Nora. “Take it with you.”

She held it tightly. “If you can’t bear to part with it, why not take it yourself?”

I ran my fingers over the worn leather strap. “I can’t even keep my own name. What use would it be?” After a pause, I changed my mind. “Don’t throw it away. If I ever live under my own name again, return it to me.”

Nora cried harder. “I’ll leave Chicago with you.”

“No.” From beneath the box, I took her signed termination papers, a release from her confidentiality agreement, and a bank card holding enough money for a new life. “After tonight, you no longer work for the Vescari family, and you will bear none of the consequences for me.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want any of this. I only want to stay with you.”

“Someone has to meet Dr. Mercer outside the funeral home.” I pressed the papers into her hands. “Take him the camera and the recording. When I wake, they will be everything I have to begin again. Nora, you are not leaving me. You are coming to take me home.”

At last, she wiped away her tears and hugged me tightly. “I’ll be there.”

After she left, I locked the door and put my phone in the bag with the old camera.

The estate manager’s voice came from the hallway. “Mr. Vescari, the gala is ready. Miss Bellandi is waiting downstairs.”

Footsteps stopped outside my door. Adrian knocked twice. “Mara?”

I did not answer.

“Every member of the Commission will be here tonight. Bianca must publicly account for her disappearance before the Bellandi family can restore her inheritance.” His voice carried through the door. “The two of you cannot appear together yet. Give me one hour. When the ceremony is over, I’ll come back to you.”

I looked at the sealed case and faintly smiled. For seven years, I waited for his meetings to end, for family conflicts to be resolved, and for him to admit publicly that I was no one’s substitute.

This time, I would not wait.

“We’ll talk properly after the gala.” His footsteps faded.

I took out the medication Dr. Mercer had given me and sent the agreed signal through the monitor. It was bitter. Even several swallows of water could not wash the taste from my throat.

Applause sounded downstairs. The host’s voice carried through the main house, announcing Bianca Bellandi’s official return to the family and restoration to her trust and shares.

I set fire to the marriage agreement signed in Bianca’s name. The flames slowly consumed the paper and the only proof of the seven years Adrian and I had shared. On the remaining sheet, I wrote one sentence.

Seven misplaced years. Tonight, we are even.

The medicine began to work. My limbs turned cold, and my heartbeat gradually slowed. I lay on the bed and looked out at the glittering Chicago night.

Bianca and I were twins. Everyone had waited for the Bellandis’ first heir to be born. No one had expected another child to arrive minutes later. From birth, I had been the extra one. That was why my parents could erase my name, Bianca could reclaim my life, and Adrian could believe that as long as he still loved me, I should continue to yield.

This time, I would give her nothing else.

As consciousness began to fade, hurried footsteps sounded in the hall. Someone pounded on the door. “Mara?”

It was Adrian. He seemed to have left the gala early.

I no longer had the strength to answer. closed my eyes iand sank completely into darkness.

Silence lasted one second before a violent crash shook the door.
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  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 10

    Bianca’s immunity agreement was formally revoked three months later.She pleaded guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, extortion, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell protected financial records. At sentencing, she insisted that everything had begun because I stole the life meant for her.The judge asked who had forced her to flee on the night of the wedding.Bianca had no answer.She received eighteen years in federal prison.My father was indicted for falsifying my death certificate and misappropriating my trust. The Commission permanently removed him from his seat, while the family’s harbor holdings were divided among its creditors. My mother moved to a guarded house in Switzerland and sent me three letters asking for forgiveness.I returned them unopened.At my identity hearing, their attorneys warned of scandal. I testified anyway. The judge vacated my false death certificate and recognized that my signature had been coerced. At last, my survival existed in public records.Adr

  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 9

    Bianca disappeared two weeks after Adrian revoked her protection.Before leaving Chicago, she stole an encrypted copy of the Vescari financial ledger. It contained shell companies, port payments, and enough evidence to destroy Adrian’s organization.It also contained transactions authorized under her name during the seven years I had lived as Mrs. Vescari.Her lawyer contacted me first.Bianca would give the ledger to federal prosecutors unless I signed a statement accepting responsibility for the accounts. If I cooperated, she would keep my new life out of the investigation.The threat exploited the years when I had managed accounts under Bianca’s legal identity. On paper, separating us looked almost impossible.She had forgotten that I designed the accounting system.I read the demand twice, then forwarded it to Northbridge’s general counsel.Adrian called ten minutes later.“Do not answer her,” he said. “I’ll handle it.”“That is what you always say.”“Mara, those records can implic

  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 8

    Eleven months after leaving Chicago, I stood at the head of a glass conference table in Boston and explained how someone had stolen forty million dollars without moving a cent through an unauthorized account.The executives across from me had spent six weeks blaming hackers. I showed them that their chief financial officer had instead altered ownership records, pledged company assets through shell corporations, and prepared to disappear before the next audit.When I finished, no one spoke for several seconds.Then the chairman closed the report. “How soon can you recover the assets?”“The injunctions were filed this morning. He can no longer move them.”My managing partner smiled. The case had been considered impossible when he assigned it to me. Three hours later, he offered me an equity position at Northbridge Risk Advisory.I accepted under the name Mara Hale.At first, I had joined Northbridge as a temporary analyst because my new identity could not withstand an extensive backgroun

  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 7

    After the funeral, Adrian returned to an estate that no longer felt inhabited.My orchids had been removed, my books were packed in boxes, and the limited-edition camera he had bought me remained unopened on the table. He found a dark stain on the marble where my blood had dried around the broken opal.For the first two days, he blamed Bianca.On the third, he began blaming my parents.By the end of the week, there was no one left to blame without eventually reaching himself.In his mind, the final days replayed without mercy. He remembered asking me to return the necklace, telling me Bianca deserved justice, and leaving me alone because the Commission was waiting downstairs. At every moment, he had believed his love excused the choice he made. He had never considered that love could become another weapon when only one person was expected to endure it.He ordered his men to reconstruct my final days. They traced my car to the Bellandi estate and discovered I had spent almost an hour in

  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 6

    He demanded records from the bank, the household staff, and every security checkpoint on the estate. The answers only made the truth clearer. I had closed my personal accounts, released Nora from her contract, and transferred the last of my money days earlier. Adrian had slept beside me without noticing that I was quietly preparing to die.Dr. Mercer told him the substance in my blood could endanger anyone performing an ordinary autopsy. My body had to be transferred to a controlled facility before the funeral home could receive it.Adrian objected until the other doctors agreed. He followed the medical van through Chicago and remained outside the secured examination room for hours. Shortly before dawn, his consigliere arrived with news that the Commission was demanding an explanation for the chaos at the gala.Adrian refused to leave.It took three senior members of the Vescari family to convince him that failing to appear would expose both my identity and the substitution that had be

  • I Faked My Death To Escape the Don   Chapter 5

    It burst open, and Adrian rushed inside, catching me before I slid from the bed.“Mara!” For the first time, genuine terror filled his voice. “Look at me. What did you take?”I wanted to tell him it was not poison. I would not die. I had simply decided to leave him at last.But my lips could no longer make a sound.Adrian lifted me and repeatedly ordered his guards to call a doctor. His arms held me tightly, but his voice trembled. “You can’t leave me like this. I love you, Mara. Open your eyes. There is still so much I haven’t told you.”What a pity. It had taken me seven years to understand that whether someone loved you was never what mattered most. What mattered was whether, whenever a choice had to be made, he chose to keep you.By the time Dr. Mercer arrived, my heartbeat was too faint to detect. Following the plan, he examined me twice before finally removing his stethoscope.“Mr. Vescari, I’m sorry.”Adrian’s entire body went rigid.I closed my eyes in his arms and sank complet

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