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The Don’s Runaway Substitute

The Don’s Runaway Substitute

Oleh:  MichelleTamat
Bahasa: English
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Sinopsis

Sweet Pampering

Plot Twists

Melodramatic

Mafia

Substitute

Marriage Escape

Golden Finger

I had always needed too much reassurance, and for three years, Dante Romano had given it to me. Whenever he came home late or failed to answer his phone, I imagined the worst. And whenever I couldn’t sleep, I made him leave whatever he was doing and come home to me. During one of those needy episodes, strange lines of text appeared before my eyes. 【The Don of the Romano family is handling family business. You really think he has time to put you to bed?】 【She’s only an ordinary woman he kept because she looks like Bianca DeLuca.】 【The real Bianca is coming back from Europe. Once she does, this substitute is finished.】 Suddenly, Dante’s patience no longer felt like love. It felt like tolerance. When he came home and reached for me, I pulled away. “You didn’t do anything wrong. I finally understand.” “Understand what?” “That real love means giving each other freedom.” From that night on, he no longer had to report his schedule, answer every call, or come home because I couldn’t sleep. If I stopped clinging to him and quietly disappeared when Bianca returned, maybe Dante would let me leave safely. But before I could step away, he pulled me hard against his chest. “Baby,” he said softly, “did I do something to upset you?”

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10 Bab
Chapter 1
“Say that again.”Dante slowly straightened. A few seconds ago, he had been sitting beside me on the sofa, asking why I looked upset. Now his expression had gone completely still.I shifted toward the other end of the couch as the lines only I could see continued floating across my vision.【Finally scared?】【She doesn’t actually think Dante has been spoiling her for three years, does she? She’s an ordinary woman living with the Don of the Romano family. If she didn’t look a little like Bianca, he would’ve gotten rid of her long ago.】【Bianca comes back to New York next month. That’s when the real show starts.】My fingertips went cold. Dante watched me. “What did you just say?”“I said I won’t check your phone anymore, and I won’t ask you to keep your location on all the time.” I avoided his eyes.“You don’t have to tell me where you’re going or who you’re meeting. If you’re busy at night, you don’t need to come home just because of me.” The room went quiet.“And what brought this on?”
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Chapter 2
“What are you doing?”Dante’s voice dropped. He stepped into the living room, his gaze settling on the cardboard box at my feet. I stopped what I was doing and tried to keep my tone casual.“Just clearing a few things out. The room was starting to feel cluttered.”I reached to close the box, but Dante was already in front of me. He picked up the Coney Island photo.In it, he wore the ridiculous paper crown I had forced onto his head while I leaned against his shoulder, laughing so hard I could barely keep my eyes open. Dante looked at the picture.“You’re putting this away too?”“It’s been there for two years.” I reached for it. “And it’s not even a good photo.”He didn’t hand it back. The floating comments drifted across my vision.【At least she finally has some self-awareness. Bianca is coming back. Of course she needs to clear out all this evidence first.】【Imagine Bianca seeing how comfortable this substitute got playing future Mrs. Romano. Dante would only be more disgusted.】I lo
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Chapter 3
Dante looked at me as if no one had ever used that word on him before.“Free?”His voice was low. I nodded. “You don’t have to worry about me anymore.” He was quiet for a few seconds before picking up his car keys from the console.“Fine.” At the door, he glanced back once.“Then you’d better remember what you said today.”Only after the door closed did I slowly unclench my hands. The floating comments appeared at once.【She’s doing a pretty good job pretending to be generous.】【Dante has already gone to pick up Bianca. She doesn’t seriously think she still has a chance, does she?】【Now that Bianca is back, she’d better figure out when to leave. Waiting until Dante gets tired of her would be a mistake.】I stopped reading. If those words were telling the truth, I needed to make sure I still had a way out. I went upstairs to the study and pulled out an old laptop I hadn’t used in a long time.For the past three years, almost every part of my life had been tied to Dante. The driver came f
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Chapter 4
After I blocked the unknown number, I didn’t call Dante. I didn’t ask when the welcome dinner ended or when he planned to come home.Over the next few days, the way we lived together changed completely. Dante sometimes came back late, and I no longer went downstairs to ask where he had been.If I saw him leaving in the morning, I kept drinking my coffee and said nothing beyond the occasional reminder that it was cold outside. At first, he didn’t react. But the quieter I became, the worse his mood seemed to get.One night, he came home close to eleven. I was watching a movie on the sofa. When the door opened, I only glanced over.“You’re back?” Dante paused while taking off his coat.“Yeah.”“There’s food in the kitchen if you’re hungry.”I turned back to the television. He stayed by the door. A few seconds later, he asked, “You don’t want to know where I was?”My fingers tightened around the remote. A week ago, he would never have needed to ask. If he was ten minutes late, I would alre
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Chapter 5
When I woke up, my head still felt heavy. Everything from the night before came rushing back: the airport, the Romano security men, and Dante standing in front of me with my boarding pass in his hand.Going somewhere, baby? My eyes flew open.The ceiling above me wasn’t the familiar one from the apartment. I was at the Romano estate, the private property outside the city that Dante rarely brought me to.I threw back the covers and got out of bed, reaching for my phone. Gone. My passport, wallet, and the prepaid phone I had bought were gone too. I hurried to the door and twisted the handle. Locked. The blood drained from my face.“Awake?”A low voice came from the other side of the room. I spun around. Dante sat in an armchair by the window, the sleeves of his black shirt rolled to his elbows.An extinguished cigarette rested in the ashtray beside him. My suitcase stood near his chair, while my passport, bank card, new phone, and plane ticket were arranged neatly on the table.The comme
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Chapter 6
The next morning, I was still at the Romano estate. My passport, phone, and bank cards were sitting exactly where Dante had left them on the table.The bedroom door opened normally, and no one stopped me when I went downstairs for coffee.Even so, I didn’t leave. Dante’s words from the night before kept circling in my head.He said he had been coming home late on purpose because he was waiting for me to ask where he had been.He had expected me to check his location, call him, and get angry the way I always used to. That was completely different from what the floating comments had been telling me.According to them, Dante had spent three years tolerating me because I resembled Bianca.According to Dante, my sudden indifference had been driving him insane. For the first time, I had no idea which version of reality I was supposed to trust.Dante spent most of the day downstairs handling work. Men came and went from his office, and I heard Marco’s voice several times from the hall.Dante
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Chapter 7
“What exactly do you think I’m going to do to you?” Dante waited while the comments slid across my vision.【Don’t tell him. He’ll think you’re insane.】【Bianca is back. The real story has only started.】I curled my fingers into my palm. “If I tell you, you probably won’t believe me.”“Try me.”After a long pause, I pointed toward the empty space behind him.“I can see words. Comments. They just appear, and I’m the only one who can see them.” Dante glanced at the blank wall. “What do they say?”“They know who you are. They knew Bianca was coming back. They said you’ve spent three years putting up with me because I look like her, and once she returned, you’d get tired of me and make me disappear.”My voice dropped.“That’s why I tried to leave first.” I expected him to look at me like I had lost my mind.He studied my face and asked, “What else?”“They said you hate how controlling I am.They said every time you shared your location, told me your schedule, or came home because I couldn’t
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Chapter 8
I could still see the comments. They kept insisting that Bianca would eventually find her way back to Dante, but I no longer believed every line the moment it appeared.On Saturday evening, someone knocked on my door. When I opened it, Marco was standing outside with a black gift box in his hands.“Don Romano asked me to bring this up.”“What is it?”“Your dress for tonight.” I blinked. “Tonight?”“The car leaves at eight.”After he left, I carried the box inside and opened it. A sleek black evening gown lay inside, simple but sharply tailored, with clean lines at the waist and skirt.Beside it sat a small jewelry case holding a pair of diamond earrings. I was still looking at them when Dante walked in.He had already changed into a suit and looked every inch like the man the rest of New York knew: controlled, polished, and difficult to approach.“Put it on.” I looked up. “Where are we going?”“The DeLuca Foundation is holding a charity gala tonight.” I understood immediately. “Bianca
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Chapter 9
Bianca’s composed smile finally cracked.“Dante, are you really going to damage years of history between our families because of her?”Several people nearby quietly moved aside. No one in New York wanted to challenge the Don of the Romano family for the sake of gossip. The floating comments immediately changed direction.【Wait. Dante actually acknowledged Ivy in public?】【So she really isn’t a substitute?】【Who kept saying Bianca was the real one?】I almost laughed. A few days ago, those same voices had predicted Dante would throw me away when Bianca returned. Now they were scrambling for a new story. Bianca still wasn’t ready to give up.“I never tried to interfere in your relationship.”Dante gave her a cool look. “Really?” He held out a hand toward Marco, who immediately passed him a phone. Dante opened several screenshots and turned the screen toward Bianca.“Several New York gossip accounts have been pushing stories about an engagement between you and me. The trail ends with the D
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Chapter 10
When I woke the next morning, Dante was already gone. A glass of water sat on the nightstand beside a dark gray folder.I opened it and stopped on the first page. There was a deed for a Manhattan apartment, documents for an independent investment account, and a trust granting me a small share of the income from Romano Holdings’ legitimate businesses.Every page carried my name. Ivy Bennett. The assets were separate from the Romano family’s operating accounts and placed under my control. Dante came in with coffee while I was still reading.“What is all this?”“You’ve seen it.”“I’m asking why.”He sat beside me. “Because I saw what you had to do just to prepare to leave.” I went quiet.“For three years, you lived in my home, used my cards, had drivers and security arranged by my people. I thought I was making your life easier.” His eyes stayed on mine.“Then I realized how trapped that could make you feel.”I remembered sitting alone with a list of cash, prepaid phones, temporary rental
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