I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back

Every head turned in the direction of my gaze. A collective gasp swept through the room.

It was Ulysses Corvino.

The man who controlled Europe's criminal underworld. The current Don of the Corvino Family.

He sat with his legs crossed, turning a lighter over in his fingers without much interest.

At my words, he looked up. Shock flashed in his eyes, then gave way to keen interest.

"Ms. Wharton, are you sure?"

I straightened my spine and met his gaze without giving an inch.

"Mr. Corvino, if you're willing to do me this favor, the development rights to the West Coast port are yours."

He laughed under his breath and slid the lighter into his pocket.

"Deal."

He walked through the stunned, gasping crowd and stopped directly in front of me.

Alvin's parents, Howard and Diane Mercer, sat in the front row, both of them slick with nervous sweat.

Diane rose to intervene.

"Lillian, don't do something this rash! Alvin just lost his head for a minute. You can't treat a marriage like a game!"

I turned a cold look on her.

"The moment he left me at the altar to run to Hannah, whatever Alvin and I had was over.

"Father, please continue."

The priest wiped the sweat off his forehead and opened his Bible again.

We hit the exchange of rings and everything stalled, because Alvin had taken the wedding bands with him.

I remembered picking those rings out with him, but they came back sized for Hannah. I sent him to have them corrected three times, and every time they came back exactly the same...

While I stood there lost in thought, Ulysses slipped an antique signet ring from his right pinkie. It was a symbol of his Family's power.

He went down on one knee and slid it onto my ring finger. "Happy wedding day, Mrs. Corvino."

It fit perfectly.

The reception went ahead as scheduled, except there was a different groom. The toasts were painfully awkward.

Nobody dared try to get Ulysses drunk.

Drink in hand, he moved effortlessly among the guests and deflected every awkward encounter before it reached me.

I sat in the bridal suite rubbing my aching ankles. My phone buzzed on the table without stopping, the screen lighting up over and over, every message from Alvin.

"Lillian, Hannah has finally calmed down."

"I know today was hard on you. I booked that French place you love. I'll take you tomorrow."

"I'm sorry about the wedding. Let's pick a good date next month and do it again."

"Why aren't you answering? Stop sulking. Hannah is sick. Can't you be a little more understanding?"

I was the heir to the Wharton Group. Alvin and I had been together for seven years, and when the Mercer family teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, I begged my father to invest and pull them back from the brink.

When Alvin took over the company and ran into setback after setback, I used my father's connections to open doors for him.

But everything changed when Hannah, his childhood sweetheart, returned from abroad a year ago struggling with depression.

The first wedding, Hannah called to say the power was out at her place and she was scared, so he left me standing there and ran.

The second wedding, Hannah said she was lost somewhere downtown, so he turned the car around to go get her.

Then there was a third, and a fourth...

Out of loyalty to our seven years together, I gave him chance after chance. He wasted every one.

My love had made him far too sure of himself. It had also made him forget that, with a single word, I could decide whether the Mercer family survived.

The handle turned and Ulysses came in. His eyes went to my lit-up screen, then moved away.

"Darling, I'm aware there's no real feeling between us yet.

"But as my wife, I never want to see the faintest sign of cheating."

I kept my face calm and met his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll deal with it. When I throw out the trash, I don't go back for it."

Ulysses nodded and adjusted a cufflink.

"I need to go out to the West Coast for a couple of days. Family business. I should be back the day after tomorrow."

He was almost out the door when he stopped and looked back at me with a smile so indulgent it startled me.

"Wait for me, Mrs. Corvino."