All Chapters of He Chose Childhood Sweetheart, I Married the Don: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I was still holding the half-eaten almond cream roll, not sure what to do with my hands.Luca had stepped in front of Lila, shielding her, his eyes cutting into me like a drawn knife."I've told you, Lila is like a sister to me. Why do you keep coming at her like this?""She can't even have a pastry without you taking it from her. What kind of person does something like that?"Lila was crying behind him, big theatrical tears, but she still managed to put in a good word for me:"It's all my fault. Sofia has loved Luca since they were children. Seeing him care for me must be hard, and anyone would feel the same.""I just ask that once Sofia becomes the Galvani Donna next month, she'll be kind to everyone on the estate. If she's angry, she can take it out on me."Luca shook his head with that familiar look of disappointment. "With a personality like that, how could she possibly run this family?"My throat tightened. I opened my mouth and nothing came out.I had bled for that position. I h

Chapter 2

My mind snapped back to the present.Luca was rubbing Lila's back, patient and coaxing. There was a time when that kind of gentleness was only ever for me.He turned to look at me, jaw tight, eyes hard."Sofia. You've completely lost it."I almost laughed. The bitterness rose slowly and settled at the corner of my mouth.Lila bit her lip and looked at Luca, just once — shy, red-eyed — then started in:"It's my fault. I'm the reason things went wrong between the two of you. I'll leave today. I won't bother you anymore."She pulled herself free from Luca's arm and started toward the door.She made it two steps before he pulled her back."And go where, exactly?" he said, low and sharp. "The roads around here are rough. You run into the wrong people out there and they won't stop to ask questions."It was meant to scare her, and it did. She shrank back like a startled bird.I stood there watching the two of them wrapped up in each other and felt like I was the one who didn't belong.I let o

Chapter 3

Luca took Lila to the village doctor and didn't come back for three days. Three days of peace — I was grateful for it.I dug out the letter from the bottom of my suitcase, thoughts turning it over from every angle.The truth was, a month after Lila arrived, the Ferrara family had sent someone.The messenger was Donato's chief counsel, a woman with a face that didn't invite argument and a voice that meant every word. She read me the letter start to finish, not missing a syllable.I stared at her. "You want me to... marry Donato Ferrara?""Miss Caldwell," she said, crisp and precise, "it would be Don Ferrara now."That's when it clicked.The previous Don had been killed last month, betrayed by someone inside his own organization and found dead in the basement of his own estate. Donato Ferrara had stepped into control of the most powerful crime network on the island.Lila had probably run when the power shift happened. The Caldwell family's network of outside connections had collapsed ove

Chapter 4

The cellar was damp and dim, but it was quiet, and that was enough.After a few days, Luca had my things sent down anyway.I arranged everything neatly, then lay down and drifted off.In the dream I was back at the Ferrara estate.There was a time someone had accused me of stealing a ring — an heirloom — from Elena, the Don's third daughter. Elena had me kneel on the courtyard stone in the middle of winter for two hours straight, then had someone beat my palms with a belt strap until they bled.Luca came by chance, black coat moving through the dark. He crouched down and pulled me up."Elena, you don't have the authority to do this," he said. "The Don doesn't allow that kind of thing here. You need to watch yourself."Even with Elena furious at him for it, he brought me somewhere warm. He found liquor to clean my palms and wrapped them carefully himself.In the candlelight, his eyes were steady."Don't be scared. I'll look out for you from now on.""Okay," I said.The dream ended.Stil

Chapter 5

It took close to two months of travel before we reached a private villa on the outskirts of Naples.I had a wide-brimmed hat pulled low and Carmen beside me as I came through the door.A familiar voice came from behind me."Excuse me, miss, you remind me very much of someone I know. Have we met somewhere?"I stopped walking. That voice. No question it was Luca.When I didn't respond, Carmen stepped in front of him and shoved him back."Back off. Do you have any idea who you're bothering right now? You couldn't afford to find out."Carmen was the maid I had chosen myself, quick and decisive, with the kind of calm that comes from having seen a lot of the world. She knew how to handle things.Luca's smile went stiff. He apologized awkwardly and retreated.As he walked away, he murmured to the woman beside him: "You must have been seeing things. Sofia's probably still sitting in that cellar. Besides, did you see the way that woman carries herself? Nothing like that washed-out mess."The wo

Chapter 6

The morning after we arrived in Naples was the Ferrara family's oath ceremony, the largest transfer of power the southern mob network had seen in decades.Armed guards lined every street in the city. Nobody was getting in or out without a reason.I wore a deep-red dress fitted to order and accepted the family's signet ring with both hands.The ceremony required Don Donato and me to stand together before every representative of every allied family and swear the pact — a formal transfer of power, a binding.Luca and Lila had no standing here. They were in the outer ring with everyone else, heads bowed.Donato took my hand and leaned in. "Focus."I looked up at him. My eyes were clear. "Yes, Don."He hesitated for a moment.The morning after the ceremony, Donato and I were hosting a banquet for the heads of the allied families.Two glasses in and I was already lightheaded. I'm not much of a drinker.I slipped away, changed into something plain, and went out to the garden in the inner cour

Chapter 7

The next morning, Luca showed up at the estate's front hall asking for a meeting.I had just finished adjusting Donato's jacket when I looked up and saw the Don watching me with a slight smile."Why are you looking at me like that?"He touched the top of my head, voice softer than usual. "It just feels like something I used to think would never happen."I didn't know what to make of that.Then he said: "The young man from the Galvani family sent word this morning. He wants to ask me for something. He's probably in the front hall by now. Come with me."I nodded.When we walked in, Luca was waiting. Without Donato's permission, he didn't dare look up."I present myself to the Don, and to..."The words stopped. His head lifted slowly. He was looking at me, standing at Donato's side.Donato's face gave nothing away. His voice landed like weight. "You had something to ask me. Ask."Luca stared at the floor for a long moment, then he said. "Don, could you give me Sophia Caldwell as a kept wo

Chapter 8

Rocco worked Luca over with the iron gloves until he was barely standing, then the men dragged him back and left him at the Galvani gate.Lila ran out when she heard the commotion. Her smile died the moment she saw him."What happened? What happened to him?"Luca had been holding on through sheer stubbornness. When he saw her face, he coughed up blood and passed out.The estate went into chaos.By evening, Lila came in with medicine. Luca was lying on his back, staring at the ceiling, still muttering: "It's not real. It's fake. It has to be fake."She got the story out of him eventually, and the bowl of medicine slipped from her hands."How? She sneaked in on her own. How does a woman like that end up as the Don's woman?"She stared in the direction of Naples, and something cold and calculating passed through her eyes.Impossible. She ran off with a man, threw everything away. Donato Ferrara would never put a woman like that beside him.Then something occurred to her, and her mouth cur

Chapter 9

In the end, Donato carried out the sentence.The night before it was done, I went down to see Luca one last time.He was in a dim, wet cell, stretched out on the floor with empty eyes. The guard unlocked the door and stepped back.When Luca saw me come in, he forced himself up. I could see then that there was blood on the ground beneath him — Rocco's work, most likely.He managed a stiff, broken smile. "Fia. You came. You're actually here." A beat. "I heard it's raining outside again. How's your back?"I looked at his bloodshot eyes and let out a slow breath. "Tomorrow they'll carry out the sentence. I came because there are things I need to ask you."A short, empty laugh. "I figured. Go ahead."I kept my voice flat. "I don't believe I ever gave you a reason to treat me the way you did. So why."He laughed quietly, bitterly, and closed his eyes. A long stretch of silence.Then, finally: "Because I loved you too much. Too completely."I almost laughed. I couldn't imagine those words com

Chapter 10

Luca had lost his mind entirely. In the cell, he screamed and threw himself at the walls until he wasn't recognizable anymore.Donato wasn't willing to let it drag on. He gave the order that night.They took Luca out and it was done. His body was dropped at a pauper's grave on the outskirts of the city — no name, no marker. That was the family's last destination for traitors and men who made themselves into problems.Lila survived, barely. The doctors worked through the night and managed to pull her through. But the child was gone. She cried for three days and three nights.On the fourth day, she came to find me to say goodbye.She had decided to leave Sicily. There was a small convent in the north, near Milan. She was going there and she wouldn't be coming back.Before she left, she looked at me for a long time, and I couldn't read what was in her face."Sofia. Thank you for not turning your back on me completely."I kept my expression neutral. "Go. And don't come back."Had I forgive

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