Lahat ng Kabanata ng After I Took Three Bullets for Him, He Said He Was Just My Uncle: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 10

My heart leaped into my throat. I dug my nails into my leather clutch to keep my expression calm.I took half a step back, putting distance between us. My voice was polite and detached. "A wedding surprise for you and Ava. I asked Madre to help me keep it secret."The surprise was my permanent disappearance from his life. Lorenzo's brow tightened, catching the defensiveness in my posture.After a long silence, he loosened his tie in frustration."It's for the best that you've figured it out. I'm ten years older than you and, in name, your uncle. Enough of this childish talk about marrying me. You're still young. Go meet some men your own age."The air in front of me warped again as the comments reappeared.[Isabella, yell at him! This old man is going crazy because you're avoiding him. He's just saying the opposite of what he means! He's been convinced since the day you kissed him on your 18th birthday.][The ten-year age gap, the titles, he doesn't care about any of it. He's just afra

"Don't!"Something inside me snapped. I lunged for the case but was held back by two bodyguards.When struggling proved futile, I threw myself at Lorenzo's feet and grabbed his pant leg, my voice trembling."Uncle, I was wrong, I'm sorry, I'll apologize to her right now… Please, don't burn my parents' things… They're all I have left of them…"When he showed no reaction, I lunged for a silver candlestick from the fireplace, its flame still burning, and raised my hand to bring it down on my own arm.The hot bronze handle seared my flesh, but I couldn't stop.I was that helpless thirteen-year-old girl again, kneeling in the mourning hall as fear and despair burned my last shred of reason to ash."Burn me instead! I'll break my own leg for Ava, I'll break both of them! Just don't touch my parents' things. Lorenzo, I'm begging you..."Lorenzo's face changed. He lunged forward, snatched the candlestick from my hand, and pinned me in a tight grip. His Adam's apple bobbed, but he did not back

The next morning, just as I was leaving the consulate after getting my exit visa, my phone blew up with messages from Cici:"Bella! Look at the headlines!"Confused, I opened my phone. When I saw the news, I felt like I'd been plunged into ice water.Last night, dozens of people who bought seafood from the market run by Ava's foster parents suffered heavy metal poisoning. The seafood, it turned out, came from industrially polluted waters.But instead of a photo of Ava's foster parents, the headshots they used were of my mom and dad.I immediately called the paper's editor and demanded he remove my parents' photos.But the editor hemmed and hawed, refusing. It wasn't until I threatened to have our family lawyers pay him a visit that he finally coughed up the truth."These photos... Miss Ava's assistant paid us a huge sum to keep quiet and specifically requested the change. The assistant also hinted that this was a PR move to protect the family's reputation, one personally approved by th

Marco slammed his hand on the table and stood up."Go find out the truth. We all know Ava is the long-lost daughter of the man who saved your life. His dying wish was for her to be reunited with her family. That's why you agreed to marry her, to use your position as Don to protect her.""But you can't torture Isabella over that debt! She was an orphan too, her parents dead, a girl you yourself brought back from a church!"Every word was a lead bullet, striking Lorenzo in the chest.A sudden, suffocating tightness seized his chest. He reached into a drawer, pulled out a Cuban cigar, and clipped the end with a golden cutter.Just as the lighter flame touched the tip, an image of Isabella's scrunched-up nose flashed in his mind.She had just turned twenty, lounging on the leather sofa in his office, swinging her bare feet. She had plucked the half-smoked cigar from his mouth and dunked it in his whiskey glass."Lorenzo, cigars stink. I'm serious, you're already ten years older than me, pr

Lorenzo stared at the lines on the screen, his gaze as sharp and cold as a blade. But when he spoke, his voice was unnervingly gentle. "Don't worry, Ava. Your parents will be fine. I'll take care of it."Oblivious to the coldness beneath his gentle words, Ava let out a sigh of relief, her voice suddenly cheerful."That's wonderful, Enzo! I'll see you at home!"She hung up the phone, overjoyed.Lorenzo's expression, however, turned as cold as ice.He dialed the direct line to the family's lawyer and gave a single order."Dig up everything on Ava and her foster parents, from birth to the present day. I want all the dirt you can find."Lorenzo knew his benefactor was one of the most principled and honorable men in Manhattan. Even if his child had been lost for years, she couldn't have grown up to be so calculating.But the evidence suggested that Ava, despite her soft and kind appearance, had a side to her much darker than he knew.In that case…Lorenzo's knuckles turned white as he gripp