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

The pieces of the necklace on the floor caught the light. My mother gave me that necklace when I turned eighteen.I crouched down and reached for the shattered bits of it."Lillian, let me help you."A red stiletto came down on my hand, its heel grinding my knuckles into the broken glass.A dull, bone-deep pain tore a muffled groan from me.Hannah bent close to my ear and dropped her voice until it was barely there. "Lillian, Alvin's whole heart belongs to me. However angry you get, what exactly can you do to me?"Something in me caught fire. I seized her ankle to flip her off her feet.Before I could apply any force, Hannah toppled backward and let out a piercing scream."My right hand! Alvin, help me! My hand is broken!"Hannah curled up on the floor clutching her wrist, sobbing like her heart was tearing open."Lillian, I only wanted to help you. Why would you do this to me?"Alvin rushed over and slapped me across the face.I hit the shelf beside me and tasted blood."You vicious b

"My CFO says the Wharton Group pulled $21 million in credit guarantees. Partners on several of my core projects are threatening to walk! Do you have any idea what this will do to everything I've built?"Alvin was out of his mind, and I could hear the frenzy through the phone. "I never thought you could be this vicious! All because Hannah knocked over a few of your things? You had to go nuclear?"I sat back on the sofa and listened to him bark, and my heart felt numb and cold.The gentle, well-mannered young man who couldn't stand to raise his voice at me was now throwing the ugliest words he had at me, for another woman.There was a time when a fever put tears in his eyes and he swore he would keep me safe for the rest of my life.Now, one tear from Hannah was enough to make his world end, while the things I treasured could be destroyed and still mean nothing to him."Alvin. Stop playing dumb."I gripped the phone, my voice cold as a blade. "Did you really think you could siphon tens o

Alvin spun around, slapped the card from Hannah's hand, and roared, all control gone.Hannah stood there stunned, her eyes going red in an instant."You... you yelled at me? You yelled at me over a few million dollars?"She pressed a hand to her chest and started to sob. "You don't care about me at all! Is Lillian the only one in your head now, that stuck-up little heiress?"Any other day, Alvin would have pulled her into his arms and coaxed her gently until she calmed down.Now, as he watched Hannah sob in front of him, he felt nothing but endless irritation and disgust.An image of me surfaced in his mind, unbidden.As the sole heir to the Wharton Group, I had never made a public scene over jewelry like some fishwife brawling in a market, much less humiliated him in front of a crowd over a few million dollars.Hannah's tears stopped moving him. All they revealed was the greed beneath her delicate act."Get out! Stop embarrassing yourself here!"Alvin ground the words out through his

The afternoon sun slanted low. Ulysses left the castle to deal with the Corvino Family's covert network, and I wandered the long corridor alone.Without meaning to, I ended up at the far west end of the third floor.A heavy black-walnut door stood unlocked and slightly ajar.I pushed it open, and dust drifted quietly through the shafts of light coming in from the stained glass.I looked around the room and went rigid in front of a display case.On the velvet lining lay a rare 1960s vinyl record, long out of print.Beside it sat a one-of-a-kind wind-up music box carved with silver roses.Seven years ago, on my birthday during sophomore year, I tugged at Alvin's sleeve and told him how badly I wanted that discontinued music box.Alvin had eagerly agreed, only to give Hannah an expensive strand of pearls the next day and forget my request entirely.The record, too. I had mentioned wanting it only once, in an old bookstore when I was twenty-two, and written it off as a regret.Even the dis