Library
Search
Home / Traded to the Rinaldi Don / Chapter 4

Share

Chapter 4

Author: Eternity
By the end of dinner, I still could not hold anything steadily.

The housekeeper accompanied me through the estate’s private corridor. As we passed Marco’s sitting room, I heard him speaking to Adrian.

“Beyond the handover point, the road belongs to the Rinaldis,” Marco said. “Get her out of the convoy before it crosses.”

“My men are already in position.”

“Make sure she isn’t hurt.”

I stopped outside the door.

After a pause, Marco added, “Put another blanket in her car. She gets cold easily.”

I looked at my reddened hands. He remembered that I disliked the cold, although he had not asked how I was doing on the terrace. Even so, his concern softened something in me for a moment.

When I returned to the Moretti estate, my nightly medicine was waiting in our bedroom.

Marco had arranged it years ago because I sometimes had trouble sleeping. I picked up the glass, but the housekeeper closed the door behind us.

“Please don’t take it tonight, Mrs. Moretti.”

Her face had gone pale.

“Miss Sofia will be living here soon. I meant to keep quiet, but I can’t let you leave without knowing.”

She told me that the medicine did more than help me sleep. On Marco’s instructions, the doctor had included a contraceptive drug.

I had become pregnant the previous autumn. When I lost the baby, the doctor said my body had not been strong enough to carry it. Marco stayed beside me at the hospital, his eyes red, and held my hand while he promised that we would have another child.

For months, I had blamed myself for failing to protect the one we lost.

“What about the medication the doctor gave me last year?” I asked.

The housekeeper could not meet my eyes. “I only know that Mr. Moretti spoke to him privately. Someone collected the prescription afterward.”

She could not tell me what had caused the miscarriage. I would not turn her suspicion into a certainty. But Marco had arranged for medication to be given to me without my knowledge, and I needed to hear him explain it.

I carried the glass into his study. He was reviewing the convoy’s security plans.

“Why haven’t you treated your hands?” he asked.

I set the glass in front of him.

“What have you had the doctor put in my medicine?”

Marco glanced at it and closed the file.

“Who told you?”

“Is it true?”

He said nothing.

“When we lost the baby, you held me and said there would be another. Did you mean that?”

His expression finally changed.

“I grieved for our child,” he said.

“But you were secretly giving me contraceptives.”

The room fell quiet.

“Your father controls the Romano family’s men. Adrian manages the routes along the border,” Marco said at last. “Our alliance was still fragile. If we had a child, your family could have used the heir to demand more power.”

“Sofia is going to live here under my name. My father and Adrian will support her too.”

“She isn’t going to have a child with me.”

The answer came so quickly that he looked away as soon as he heard himself say it.

I had not accused him of wanting Sofia. He had told me what place he intended to give her, and what place he had decided I could keep.

“You should continue the medication after you move,” he said, his voice gentler now. “Your identity has to stay hidden. A child would make that difficult. I’ll arrange for a doctor to look after you.”

He had planned my future in that house down to what I would be allowed to do with my own body.

I did not ask again about last year’s prescription. Whatever had caused the miscarriage, I would never leave that decision in Marco’s hands again.

He reached for my fingers, as he often did.

“Why are your hands so cold?”

I pulled away and poured the medicine into the sink in his study.

“Don’t send it to me again.”

Back in my room, I opened the handover documents. The bride’s arrival date could still be adjusted before the final schedule was confirmed. Under Sofia’s name, I signed the change and sent it to the Commission official managing the transfer.

I moved the arrival forward by one day.

Adrian’s men would wait for me on the original date. By the time they reached the road, I would be beyond the place where they could stop the convoy.

I closed the file. My wedding ring lay beside it.

This time, I had chosen where I was going.
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App
Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Latest chapter

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 10

    ELENA’S POVI accepted the Commission’s independent position.The appointment was based in Philadelphia. I would oversee the settlement between the Romanos and the Rinaldis, report to the Commission, and keep my own residence. Neither family could remove me because I disagreed with them.I told Dante before the final agreement was signed.He listened, then said, “That sounds like the work you wanted.”“It is.”“I hope you’ll still argue with me when my proposals are wrong.”“I expect I will.”He smiled. He did not ask me to reconsider the position or offer a better title to keep me at his estate.The signing took place two days later. My father represented the Romanos, while Dante signed for his family. The agreement divided the disputed business holdings, required independent audits, and ended the marriage arrangement that had brought me to Dante’s door.My father read the final page twice.“When you’re ready,” he said quietly, “you can come home.”I looked at him across the table. He

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 9

    ELENA’S POVMarco waited in the same meeting room where I had asked for a divorce.He stood when I entered. The papers lay on the table between us, beside a letter from his attorney. Dante had offered to have a Commission representative present, but I had asked my own attorney to attend instead.Marco did not come toward me.“I’ve signed what I can sign now,” he said. “My attorney will cooperate with yours on the remaining filings.”I sat down and read the first page. The documents acknowledged that I had entered the marriage as Elena Romano and that Sofia’s recent use of my name had no standing. They also separated my accounts and property from Marco’s.He had begun undoing the arrangements that would have erased me.“I received the medical records,” I said.His face tightened. “I should have told you the truth years ago.”“You should have asked me before arranging the medication.”“I know.”He did not say he had been trying to protect us. Perhaps he had finally heard how little that

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 8

    MARCO’S POVMarco heard Elena ask for a divorce in front of the Commission representative.His first impulse was to tell her they could discuss it at home. Then he remembered her question: Which home?He had no answer.Adrian argued that the original plan had been meant to protect both sisters. The representative asked him to describe exactly how Elena would have lived after the staged attack. Adrian listed the house, the guards, and the arrangements for keeping her identity secret.Each detail sounded reasonable on its own. Together, they described a life Elena had never chosen.Dante requested a recess so the representative could review the handover documents. Elena left the room with her. Marco started after them, but Adrian caught his arm.“Let her calm down.”Marco pulled free. “Stop saying that.”He went back to New York without Elena.Sofia was waiting at the Moretti estate. She still wore Elena’s coat. When she saw him come in alone, she looked past him toward the driveway.“Wh

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 7

    ELENA’S POV“Yes,” I told Dante. “I want to stay.”He gave a small nod and asked his representative to show me to a guest room. No one took my phone or told me where I was permitted to go. A guard stood outside the main entrance, but he was there before I arrived and remained there after I passed him.I slept for a few hours. When I woke, my phone showed twelve missed calls from Marco and five from Adrian.His latest message came after my reply: I read what you said. We need to talk in person. Don’t sign anything before I get there.I set the phone aside.By morning, a Commission representative had arrived to hear my account. Dante had arranged for the meeting to take place in a room near the entrance so that neither family could claim he was keeping me hidden.I told her my real name, then explained the planned interception and false report of Sofia’s death. She wrote down the details and asked whether I had come to the estate willingly.“Yes,” I said. “The change to the convoy’s sche

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 6

    ELENA’S POVI silenced my phone and followed the Commission coordinator toward the house.At the steps, he glanced at my veil.“Before we complete the handover, is there anything I should know?”“Yes. But I need to tell Dante myself.”He studied me for a moment, then led me to the entrance.The man who had offered me his coat at the neutral estate met us there. He noticed my bare hands and asked someone to bring me a warmer coat. This time, no one stopped him.We followed him into a study where Dante Rinaldi stood beside a table covered with documents.He was younger than I had expected. When we entered, he put down the file he was reading and looked from the coordinator to me.“Was there trouble on the road?”“No,” I said.The coordinator set down the signed handover papers. Dante read the revised arrival time and lifted his eyes to mine.“You changed the schedule.”“Yes.”“Your family knew?”“No.”The coordinator shifted beside me. Dante dismissed him and his own representative with

  • Traded to the Rinaldi Don   Chapter 5

    Two rows of cars waited outside the Moretti estate on the morning I left.Sofia stood beside Marco in the coat I had helped her choose the day before. Her eyes filled when she saw me.“Be careful,” she said.Marco adjusted her collar, then came to my car. He reached toward my reddened fingers but stopped before touching them.“I’ll visit once you’re settled.”“All right.”My mother leaned toward the window. “Don’t be afraid. You’ll see your brother tomorrow.”Father was speaking to the convoy coordinator. He had instructed everyone to leave my veil in place and keep the bride’s movements private until the handover.I raised the window without looking back.The convoy left New York on schedule. Marco had put a blanket in my car. I folded it and set it aside. I ate when food was offered and asked no questions about Adrian’s plans.His two guards watched me closely at first. By evening, they seemed reassured that I had made no attempt to call home or leave the convoy.We stopped at the pl

More Chapters

You May Also Like

Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status