They Chose Her, So I Married the Comatose Don

As the only daughter of the Rossi family, I had three exceptional men handpicked and raised by my mother as potential husbands.Once, they had gone to extraordinary lengths to win my affection. One bought me a centuries-old watchtower on the Sicilian coast. Another presented me with a one-of-a-kind black diamond ring.Then Blair, the daughter of our longtime butler, returned from boarding school, and all three men became obsessed with her.They adored her kindness, her innocence, and her delicate nature. Meanwhile, they condemned me for the coldness and ruthlessness I had developed after growing up in a world of blood and violence.Once they had broken my heart beyond repair, I washed my hands of the three ungrateful bastards and agreed to marry Vito Capello, the Don of the Capello family, who had been left in a vegetative state.The news shattered their pride.What I couldn’t understand was why they still thought I was playing hard to get—even after I became Vito’s Donna.“Have you lo

After Raphael left, the room fell silent except for the faint hum of the IV pump.Before leaving for an emergency business trip overseas, my mother came to sit beside my bed.“Raphael said you slipped and fell into the fountain,” she said, studying my face. “Is that really what happened?”The truth rose to my lips.All I had to do was tell her. She would believe me. She would make all three of them pay.Then I remembered the knife against my throat. I saw my nanny lying dead in some alley and my father’s mausoleum reduced to rubble.I had no way of knowing how long the three of them had had men planted among our guards, or how many people inside the Rossi family were already loyal to them. Until I knew whom I could trust, I had to keep the truth to myself.I dug my nails into my palm beneath the blanket and forced myself to nod.“I slipped.”My mother brushed the damp hair from my forehead. The worry in her eyes nearly broke me.As she turned away, I bit down on my lip and swallowed ev

Vito made his way through the crowd toward me. After years in a vegetative state, he was leaner than the man I had heard about, but the authority in his eyes had not diminished in the slightest.He stopped in the center of the ballroom and swept an indifferent gaze over the crowd.“An engagement party shouldn’t be missing its groom. It seems I arrived just in time.”“I’ll ask you one more time.”His gaze dropped to Raphael’s hand.“Who gave you the nerve to touch my Donna?”Raphael released me on instinct and stepped back, his face tightening.Vito stopped in front of me and lifted my arm to examine the red marks around my wrist.His touch was almost gentle. His eyes were anything but.“You hurt her hand. Yours will pay for it. Fair is fair.”Two bodyguards seized Raphael at once.I gave Vito’s sleeve a light tug. “This is our engagement party.”Vito lowered his eyes to me, and some of the murderous intent surrounding him actually receded.“As you wish.”Raphael’s expression darkened f

Raphael’s POVRaphael had no memory of walking back to his room. All he could see was Vito fastening the silver medal around Alia's neck.After the kidnapping when Alia was seventeen, she had followed Raphael everywhere, telling him again and again that she would never forget what he had done for her.Raphael had never asked why she was so certain it was him.He enjoyed her gratitude and devotion, accepting every bit of her affection as though it belonged to him.No matter how fiercely Raphael denied it, he had feelings for Alia.He simply refused to be seen as a man the Rossi family had raised to marry her. Even more than that, he refused to admit that everything he had came from a woman.So he rejected Alia from his lofty perch, all while remaining certain she would never leave.Blair was delicate and obedient. She looked at him with worship in her eyes and made him feel like a man who could protect someone without relying on the Rossi family.Alia was too strong. So strong that all

Alia's POVOnce my mother learned the full truth, she gave no one another chance to defend themselves.She expelled Blair from the Rossi family and ordered Raphael, Matteo, and Luca out of the estate before dawn.The three men refused the severance money she offered, insisting they would repay the Rossi family for raising them.I found the claim almost laughable.Raphael stopped me at the foot of the stairs, his voice raw.“Alia, I didn’t know...”I looked at him calmly. “You never tried to know.”Raphael’s eyes were bloodshot. It took him a long time to force out the words.“I admit it. I always knew you loved me.”“I knew that if I threatened to call off our engagement, you would give in to Blair. I thought that no matter what I did, you would choose me in the end.”For the first time, he abandoned every trace of pride and pleaded with me. “I’ll send Blair away. I’ll tell everyone the truth. Just don’t marry Vito. Please.”Matteo and Luca stood nearby, their faces equally hollow.Mat