All Chapters of Once They Chose Her, I Chose Myself: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

The wind sweeping through New Catella in early March still carried the biting cold from the Alantico Ocean.My surgery had just ended. My phone started ringing when I stepped out of the hospital.Antonio Corleone's voice echoed from the receiver. He didn't ask about my condition. Instead, he immediately started interrogating me."Where the hell are you, Elena Zanelli? Do you think that you can shirk your responsibilities by pulling a disappearing act? Come back right now and apologize to Sophia."I could hear Matteo Corleone's voice in the background."You made Sophia cry for the whole night by pretending to be sick. She grew up in the slums, and she has a weak constitution. She couldn't stomach any food for the last few days because of you."I stood on the steps outside the hospital. I lowered my head and looked at my reflection on the glass door.I was currently 91 pounds, having lost eight pounds after being hospitalized. My complexion was pallid, and I was extremely thin, re

I thought that I would need a long time to pack my belongings, but when I opened my suitcase, I realized that I didn't have anything to take with me.Nearly all the clothes I had were given to me by Antonio."You're the Principessa of the Corleone family, Elena. Of course, you have to dress in the finest clothes."Those same clothes were soiled and stained at that moment, emitting a foul scent.Instead of a Principessa, I had turned into a useless piece of trash in Antonio's heart.I moved the clothes aside and looked at the scattered photos on the ground.Matteo loved taking pictures of me when we were younger, saying that he wanted to record my image during every moment of my life.Every time we took pictures, Antonio and Matteo would fight over who got to stand next to me.However, at that moment, someone had drawn a red cross over my face in all of our photos.Unwilling to look at them any longer, I stuffed everything into a trash bag.Antonio happened to see what I was d

I returned to the Corleone family, wanting to bid farewell to some of the members with whom I had built a good rapport.A Soldato shot a strange look at me before asking, "What are you doing here, Ms. Zanelli?""Why shouldn't I be here?" I asked."Mr. Antonio ordered us not to let you participate in the family business."He hesitated for a moment before adding in a low voice, "Also, the family members who were close to you were sent abroad by Ms. Volpe. The ones who were left behind are too scared to talk to you now.""Where's Antonio? Tell him that I'm here to see him.""Please wait a moment."I ended up waiting at the entrance for four hours before they finally informed me that Antonio and Sophia had gone to Moramo.Everyone looked at me strangely as I muttered to myself.It turned out that they had gone to the beach that I had brought up countless times in the past.I had always wanted to visit Solena Beach, but I never got the chance.I dropped my gaze. I had been worryi

"Are you really getting married, Elena?" Antonio asked in a trembling voice that reminded me of the first time he told me he loved me.His voice also had been shaking at the time. "My biggest wish is to marry you, Elena," he had said under the starry sky. "You don't need to give me an answer right now. I'll wait for you forever."We ended up waiting for two decades, but we didn't end up with each other.Matteo was more direct in his words because of his short temper."Drop the act, Elena! I don't believe that you'll marry someone else. You're just an orphan without a family. The Rossi family will never approve of you. You're just using a different tactic to catch our attention, aren't you? I won't fall for your tricks!"Although his words were harsh, his eyes had already reddened.I was reminded of the past when we played together. Antonio and Matteo had argued over who would be my groom after I put on the white dress Maria had just bought for me, pretending it was a wedding

At first, the Rossi family wanted to force Antonio and Matteo to answer for harassing me.But after taking Maria's feelings into consideration, Mamma stopped them before they could proceed further. However, they kept a closer eye on the Corleone brothers, refusing to let them approach me again.Peace was restored to our lives, and we continued preparing for the wedding ceremony.Unfortunately, despite all the preventive measures put in place, we forgot to take Sophia into account.None of us knew how she managed to find us.Marco and I were on our way home after taking wedding photos when someone suddenly dashed onto the road and fell to their knees in front of the car.It was Sophia.Her face was tear-streaked, and her hair was a mess. She had totally lost her past luster."I've learned my lesson, Elena! Please have mercy on me! I know now that I shouldn't have tried to oppose you. I shouldn't have driven a wedge into your relationship with the Corleone brothers…"I managed