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Autor: Shawn
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."

Three years earlier, at this same table, Victor had announced that no one in the Rinaldi family would ever look down on his wife.

Today, he was the one stripping me of every one of those roles.

"And the clearance," Irene said softly.

Victor looked at me.

"Transfer the permanent South Port clearance to Irene."

"South Port belongs to my family. Personal clearance isn't transferable."

"Then keep guaranteeing her access in your name."

"For how long?"

"Until she doesn't need you anymore."

Someone in the hall gave a quiet laugh.

He didn't just want my seat. He wanted me to stand behind Irene and take all the risks for her.

I asked, "And if I refuse?"

Victor raised a hand.

Two enforcers stepped up behind me and put their hands on the back of my chair, ready to carry out the order the Don had given his wife.

"You'll lose estate access, your personal security detail, and internal comms," Victor said. "And you won't leave the basement archives until you learn to cooperate."

He spoke to me like I was one of his men.

Irene touched the brooch and said softly, "It's just one authorization. You're already the Donna. Why do you have to fight me over it?"

She reached for the documents and lowered her voice so only I could hear. "Once the clearance is transferred, nobody at this table will remember you."

I looked up at her. "You won't have to wait."

That stopped her.

I turned to Victor.

"I'm not apologizing to her, and I'm not giving her South Port."

His face went cold. "That's an order."

I smiled. "In a few minutes, your orders won't reach me."

It didn't register with him. He thought I was threatening him again.

"Adriana, don't turn this into a mess no one can clean up."

"I'm not the one who'll be left to clean it up."

I picked up the internal handover form and signed only the section relinquishing my position. I left the access transfer section unsigned.

Irene placed the black diamond brooch on the reader. The screen lit up as the device scanned the chip inside the brooch.

[Temporary authorization: ten seconds remaining.]

Irene panicked.

"Where's the permanent authorization?"

Victor looked at me, angry now. "Give Irene the authorization."

I didn't respond.

Ten. Nine. Eight.

The two enforcers took a step forward.

Victor had stripped me of my position, my guards, and my freedom in front of everyone, yet he still believed I would sign off on access for him in the end.

Three. Two. One.

The screen turned red.

[Temporary authorization expired.]

Irene put the brooch on the reader again.

[Access denied.]

She wouldn't accept it. She tried a second time, then a third, and the system blocked the black diamond's serial number entirely.

[Holder identity invalid.]

Victor stood up and loomed over me. "Restore her access."

That was the Don's order.

In the past, a sentence like that would set the whole estate in motion.

This time everybody was waiting for me to speak.

I said, "Not happening."

The doors of the hall opened at the same moment.

My lawyer and South Port's counsel walked in. They placed a notice in front of him confirming that the agreement had taken effect.

"Mr. Rinaldi, the seven-day cooling-off period has ended. The Rinaldi-Vitale marriage contract has been formally dissolved, and the South Port special authorization has been withdrawn with it."

Victor's face changed. "I never agreed to dissolve the marriage contract."

My lawyer turned to the last page.

"That is your own signature."

Every eye in the room went to the same spot.

Victor Rinaldi.

A few days earlier, while talking to Irene, he had only asked whether I'd checked the documents before personally signing the one that ended our marriage.

Victor looked up at me, and the confidence of a man who controlled everything had vanished from his face.

I dropped the box containing my wedding ring in front of him.

"As of now, I am no longer the Donna of the Rinaldi family."

I looked at Irene. Her lips had gone pale. Smiling, I pushed the unsigned access authorization across to her.

Without my name on it, Victor, Irene, and the entire Rinaldi family would never gain access to South Port's core zone.
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  • 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

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