Pustaka
Cari
Beranda / The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them / 2

Share

2

Penulis: Shawn
Victor didn't come back to the bedroom until dawn. I could smell Irene's perfume on him.

I was sealing the last South Port contract in an envelope. He walked through the door, and his first words were, "Are you going through the South Port files again?"

He didn't sound concerned. It sounded more like an accusation.

"Yes," I said.

He frowned. "I told you last night. You need to hand South Port over to Irene first."

My hands kept moving. "That's why I'm organizing my original documents."

There was a knock at the door.

The maid said quietly, "Don, Ms. Costa is here to return the necklace to the Donna."

Victor's expression softened immediately.

"Let her in."

Irene came in wearing a pale gray wrap. Her eyes were red as she held the necklace out to me.

"Adriana, I'm so sorry. I had no idea it was this fragile."

I took the necklace, and my fingers stilled.

The old silver clasp at the back had been shortened, and a corner of the Vitale crest my mother had engraved into the clasp was worn away.

Irene said quietly, "The staff said it would sit better with my dress. I really didn't mean to."

I looked up at Victor.

He looked away.

"I'll have the jeweler repair it."

"My mother left it to me."

"I know."

"She put it in my hand herself before she died. You were there."

Victor was quiet for a second.

"Adriana, I said I'll have it repaired."

I forced down the emotion rising in my chest and put the necklace back in its box. "You can't."

Not the necklace or what used to be between us. Neither could ever be the same again.

Tears welled in Irene's eyes at once.

"I'm sorry. It's all my fault. I'll move out right now."

Victor steadied her. "Nobody is asking you to go."

Then he turned to me, and his voice went cold. "I'll buy you more jewelry to make up for it. This ends here. You are the Donna of this family. Don't make a fuss over something so small."

This ends here.

He gave her my seat. He gave her my plan. He gave her what my mother left me. And then he wanted me quiet about it.

I closed the jewelry box and scoffed. "All right."

I was leaving sooner or later. There was no point wasting my breath on him.

That made him pause.

He thought I had finally taken his advice and learned to be a gracious, forgiving wife.

"I'm glad you see it."

Then he pushed a document across to me.

"Sign this and spend a few days in the archives cooling off."

The first page was headed Role Reassignment.

Irene would take over as the South Port negotiator. I would be temporarily reassigned to the basement archives.

I turned to the last page and signed my name.

Adriana Vitale.

Victor saw it, and his expression froze. "Why did you sign your maiden name?"

I set the pen down. "Easier to file."

He looked at me for a few seconds and didn't push it.

He believed I wouldn't leave, and he believed my silence was surrender.

At nine that morning, my lawyer sent over the dissolution agreement.

It wasn't an ordinary divorce filing with the court.

It was an agreement to terminate the marriage contract between the Rinaldi and Vitale families.

Once Victor signed it, the Vitale family would withdraw the South Port special authorization after a seven-day cooling-off period.

The civil divorce could take its time. The contract between the two families would lapse first.

I printed the dissolution and slid it under the South Port agreements.

Those agreements also needed his signature, and Irene wanted to claim credit for getting them signed before her celebration dinner that night.

That afternoon, Irene came down to the archives for some files.

She was wearing a new dress, and she was glowing.

"Victor says I can wear the necklace once the jeweler fixes it. If I like something, he makes sure I get it."

She smiled sweetly, but her eyes were full of malice.

"Sorry. I shouldn't say things you don't need to hear. Just give me the files. You won't be using them, will you?"

I pushed the box toward her. "You're right. I don't need to hear it. I hope you know when to keep your mouth shut during negotiations with the other families."

Her face stiffened for a moment. Then she smiled, pleased with herself. "So what? Victor will back me either way."

She swayed out of the room.

There was a time when that would have hurt.

Now I was numb enough that it felt like calm.

That evening, I pulled my suitcase from the back of the closet.

There wasn't much that was actually mine. Everything fit into one suitcase.

I left the wedding ring on the nightstand with our wedding photograph under it.

On the back of the photo, I'd written one line.

[May we always stand on the same side.]

I picked up a pen and crossed out the entire line.

Three days later, Victor sent a bodyguard to collect the handover documents.

"The Don says he's at tonight's celebration with Ms. Costa. He'd like you to bring the documents over, Donna."

When I got there with the documents, people were congratulating Irene on her first successful negotiation.

Victor had one arm around her waist and didn't try to hide how pleased he was.

When he saw me, he let go of her as casually as he could. "You've checked these, haven't you?"

"I've checked them."

He flipped through the pages too quickly to have read even the second page.

I took the signed documents back, and all at once I felt light.

"Anything else?" He looked up, uncertain. I shook my head and walked out with the divorce papers tucked into the stack.

Irene's voice came from behind me. "Victor, can I sit next to you tonight?"

Victor laughed under his breath. "From now on that's where you sit."

Not long after I sent the divorce agreement to my lawyer, a message from the firm came through on my phone.

[Execution complete. In seven days the Rinaldi-Vitale marriage contract terminates. The South Port special authorization is withdrawn at the same time.]

At almost the same moment, a bodyguard delivered another order from Victor.

[Next Wednesday, lend Irene the brooch again. She's receiving clients at South Port on behalf of the Rinaldi family.]

I just found it funny.

Giving Irene the brooch didn't give her the respect or standing I had.

Victor seemed to have forgotten that the clients had worked well with me all those years because I was good at what I did, not because I wore the brooch that marked me as the Donna.

Outside, the estate was lit from end to end.

The celebration had only just started.

So had the Rinaldi family's countdown.
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab sebelumnya Bab selanjutnya

Bab terbaru

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   8

    A week later, I walked into the law office.Victor was already there.He was wearing the black suit he had worn on our wedding day, with the final divorce documents in front of him.Three things sat beside them.My wedding ring. The old silver clasp from the necklace, now shortened. And a necklace the jeweler had made to look very much like the one my mother left me.My lawyer asked whether we could begin.Victor nodded, and my lawyer slid the documents across to him.He paused for a long time when he reached the attached dissolution agreement.That was the same document he had signed fifteen days earlier.He lingered on that page, pressing a deep crease into the paper."Mr. Rinaldi, the cooling-off period for that document has ended," my lawyer said quietly. "Today, we're only confirming the divorce."He opened his mouth and nothing came out.When he reached the South Port independence clause, he paused again."The Vitale family will no longer provide any private guarantees for the Ri

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   7

    Victor stopped in the doorway.A few minutes later, the enforcers brought Irene to the meeting room door.She was wearing the black diamond brooch and clutching a rejected authorization document she'd crumpled in her hand.All the clients waiting to sign in the corridor saw that she'd been stopped outside the core zone.The moment Irene saw Victor, her eyes turned red."You can't sign her contract. The terms are too harsh."She slapped the document down on the table."If you just say the divorce isn't valid, Adriana has to continue acting as guarantor for the Rinaldi family."Victor said nothing.In the past, all she had to do was cry, and he would step in front of her.This time, he looked at me instead, without even meaning to.I turned to South Port's counsel. "Read the reason for the rejection."He opened the file. "Ms. Costa's application for permanent authorization used a scan of Ms. Vitale's old signature."Irene went white. "I didn't know. My assistant prepared it."Someone in

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   6

    The next afternoon, Victor came to South Port's central building.He didn't have an appointment, so the receptionist stopped him in the lobby.Everyone here used to let him walk straight in because I had once registered him as a guarantor for the Vitale family.Now the receptionist handed him a white visitor badge.The badge read, "Mr. Rinaldi. Temporary Visitor. Third Floor."He looked at it for a few seconds before he clipped it to his coat.Forty minutes later, they showed him into a standard meeting room.No seat at the head of the table. No private elevator. No hot coffee waiting.He put a three-year-old guarantee agreement on the table.That day had been my birthday.He had promised to come home and have dinner with me, but he left after Irene called him about a fever.I worked alone in the study until three in the morning and signed the Rinaldi family's first South Port guarantee.The next day all he asked was when the guarantee took effect.Victor looked as though he had finall

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   5

    Victor grabbed the agreement and flipped back through it, page by page."I thought this was the South Port partnership agreement."His grip tightened when he finally saw the heading at the top of the first page.[Dissolution of the Marriage Contract Between the Rinaldi and Vitale families]Minutes earlier, he had taken my seat from me in public and handed the South Port liaison role to Irene.Now he turned to the advisor, his expression grim."Restore Adriana's seat on the council. Give her back her estate access and her security detail."The advisor opened his file and said quietly, "Don, her seat on the council can be restored."Victor's expression eased slightly. "And the Rinaldi family's special access at South Port?"The advisor didn't answer.South Port's counsel answered instead. "Mr. Rinaldi, core zone access, route guarantees, and priority berthing at South Port all depend on Vitale authorization."With the marriage contract dissolved, that authorization has been withdrawn. Th

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   4

    Two days later, the Rinaldi family held its public handover meeting.There were fifteen minutes left on the temporary clearance.The Rinaldi family advisor, the district captains, and the South Port clients filled the hall.Victor sat at the head of the table. Irene sat to his right.She still wore the brooch, and the South Port handover documents lay beside her.My nameplate had been moved to the far end of the long table, next to the note-taker.I wasn't wearing my wedding ring or anything else that marked me as a Rinaldi.Victor saw my bare left hand, and his gaze lingered for a second.But he looked away quickly.He thought I'd taken the ring off in a fit of anger to make him give in.He pushed the handover documents across to me.The advisor read out the decisions. "Irene Costa formally takes over as South Port liaison. Adriana Vitale leaves core management and moves to the basement archives. As of today, she has no authority to contact any partner on behalf of the Rinaldi family.

  • The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them   3

    Five days after Victor signed the agreement, the South Port manager called me."Ms. Vitale, members of the Rinaldi family have arrived at the central building with Ms. Costa and a group of clients. The invitation was signed in your name."I said, "Send them through the visitor entrance."He lowered his voice. "Ms. Costa refuses to take the clients through the visitor entrance, but she isn't cleared to use any other entrance... The clients all think you changed your mind at the last minute to embarrass the Rinaldi family."Irene had invited them in my name, then blamed me when she couldn't open the door.Victor let her do it.Once that was clear, I left for South Port.I wasn't going to clean up after them. I was going to protect both my name and the Vitale family name.I got there half an hour later.The lobby was full of people. The nameplate on my office door had been removed and replaced with Irene's name.She stood beneath it, wearing Victor's coat as if she already owned the place

Bab Lainnya

Anda juga akan menyukai

Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status