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Chapter 2

Penulis: liroa
My face went hot and I had no idea what to do with it.

My father had wanted a marriage alliance between me and the Corvino Family from the start, and Ulysses had been equally willing to make it happen.

I was the one who had stubbornly insisted on marrying Alvin instead.

The screen lit up again with another text from Alvin.

"Still sulking? I bought you that chocolate cake you love. I'm waiting at home."

I took a long breath. Home? From the moment Alvin abandoned me for Hannah again, we no longer had a home!

And the house was mine. I would be taking that back too!

I drove back to the mansion. The moment I opened the door, I saw Hannah wearing my nightgown from a matching pajama set, curled against Alvin's chest as they watched TV.

The coffee table was littered with the remains of a late-night snack, and only one mangled slice remained of the cake he'd bought as an apology.

Alvin heard the door and frowned at me. "Lillian, why are you slamming it like that? Hannah is emotionally fragile. You'll scare her."

Hannah flinched and burrowed further into him, looking up at me with big timid eyes. "Alvin, don't. Lillian will get upset."

I stared coldly at the two of them, grabbed the water glass from the table, and flung the water straight at them.

"That set came out of a Sotheby's auction. Neither of you deserves to drink from it."

Alvin shoved Hannah behind him. "Lillian, what is wrong with you!"

"You're angry the wedding was canceled, fine. Take it out on me. Bullying Hannah proves nothing!"

I laughed, furious. "Fine. Then I'll take it out on you. Alvin, you have twenty minutes to take your precious Hannah and your things and get out of my house."

Alvin froze, staring at me like he hadn't heard right.

"You're throwing me out? Lillian, we've been together seven years, and you're throwing me out over something this small?"

"Something this small?" I took a step closer and looked him in the eye. "You abandoned your bride at the altar and you brought another woman into the house we were supposed to live in."

"Alvin, did you really think I, Lillian Wharton, would never lose my temper?"

He didn't have a word to say.

I summoned the maid and ordered her to throw Alvin's things out.

When he saw I meant it, his tone softened. "Lillian, don't be rash. Hannah isn't well. I only brought her home because I was worried about her."

"I promise, first thing in the morning I'll take her back. All right, sweetheart?"

He took my hand, lifted it to his mouth, and kissed the back of it.

"I already picked the date. Next month, your birthday. We'll do the wedding again, and this time I swear I won't miss it."

Every single time I got angry, he begged for forgiveness exactly like this.

Seven years was seven years. I'd be lying if I said none of it moved me.

Then, a second later, came a soft, fragile cry of pain. "Alvin, my head hurts so much..."

The man who had just sworn he would make everything up to me dropped my hand and rushed to Hannah's side.

I looked down at my empty palm and thought how ridiculous it was that I had still been expecting something from a man like this.

"Ms. Wharton! Something's wrong! Come quick!"

The maid came running out, white with panic.

My heart lurched, and I ran for the bedroom.

I pushed the door open. The room was in ruins.

The portrait my grandmother painted of me herself had been torn in two, and the heirlooms engraved with my parents' names lay in pieces everywhere.

Even the couture gowns from my closet had been dragged out and dumped on the floor, covered in dirty shoe prints.

Alvin followed, wary, hovering protectively in front of Hannah.

"Hannah had an episode and did it by accident. Don't blame her over a few things, Lillian. As my future wife, I'd like you to be the bigger person."
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  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 12

    That pet name stopped me cold. Only one person had ever called me that. I looked up into his rare ice-blue eyes.A long-buried memory broke open.Twelve years ago, under the crumbling walkway of St. Peter's orphanage, a boy covered in injuries and still unbroken had the same defiant blue eyes.The orphan I had casually sponsored back then was the man the whole underworld now feared."Don't be afraid. You have me."He rested his forehead against mine, his voice steady and certain.The panicked hammering in my chest steadied in a way I couldn't explain.I nodded hard and closed my hand around his warm palm.In the end, the fight to the death I had braced for never happened.Ulysses' elite team swept in like ghosts and tore through the factory's defenses with overwhelming force.A few muffled shots rang out, and every thug Alvin had hired through the black market was disarmed and taken down, left sprawled across the floor and groaning."Ms. Wharton!"The elderly butler hurried out of the

  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 11

    Alvin muttered it to himself, gray in the face."Loves you? Look how much of her love you burned through!"Howard jabbed a finger at his nose. "The Wharton family dragged this company back from the dead, and you, you ungrateful disaster, destroyed all of it!""Get out! Take your junk and get out of this house!"His parents shoved him out the door, and the slam behind him was deafening.Alvin sat down hard in the hallway, dazed.The pride he once carried like a crown had been ground into the mud in a single day.Hannah hurried up with two oversized suitcases, her hair a mess and fury in every step."Alvin! What the hell have you been doing?"Hannah grabbed him by the collar and screamed at him, her eyes red."The bank seized the ocean-view apartment I live in!"And every credit card you gave me is frozen. I just tried to use one!"Howard jabbed a finger in his face and laid into him. "The Wharton family dragged this company back from the dead, and you, you ungrateful disaster, destroyed

  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 10

    I heard my father's pained cough and muffled groan on the other end, and my throat closed."If I don't see you in ten minutes, I'll gift-wrap your old man and hand him to the Moretti Family. Ulysses' worst enemies will show him a good time!"The Moretti Family was Ulysses' most brutal, bloodthirsty rival in the underworld. No one handed over to them came out alive.My arm dropped to my side, my palm slick with cold sweat."Fine."I gripped the phone, and my voice had no warmth left in it at all."Don't touch my father. I'm coming now."A few days earlier, after Alvin was thrown out of the Wharton Group, he had driven straight to the mansion west of the city, planning to wait there until Lillian came home.He had bought a box of Lillian's favorite fresh fig tarts and tossed it onto the passenger seat.The way he saw it, all he ever had to do was offer a small apology. Lillian's eyes would fill with tears, and she'd forgive him.So he had canceled six weddings. So what?Lillian was alway

  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 9

    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

  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 8

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  • I Married the Don Instead, and My Ex Came Crawling Back   Chapter 7

    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

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