บททั้งหมดของ Regrets of the Don: His Beloved Walked Away: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 8

The moment I stepped back into our bedroom, I fished out my phone and called my lawyer. “I need you to draft the divorce papers. Right now.” A stunned silence crackled down the line. “Divorce papers? Does Don Vitale know you’re doing this?”“He knows,” I said. The lie scraped my throat raw, but I pushed it out anyway. “Please, just send the documents.” Half an hour later, I stood by the small console table, the printer still warm. I signed the divorce papers. Then I slipped the entire stack underneath a pile of utility bills.I had barely smoothed my expression when Alessio walked in, and the second his eyes landed on me, surprise flickered across his chiseled features.“Ivy? I thought you weren’t back from your business trip until Friday.”I forced a smile. “I wrapped things up early. Wanted to surprise you.”He crossed the room in three long strides, cupping my face with both hands. The warmth of his palms used to be my favorite thing in the world. Now it made my skin crawl. “You

The next day, I began packing my things for our trip to the island.I folded sundresses into my bag, tucked my passport into the side pocket next to the signed divorce papers, and pretended I was just a wife heading off on a romantic getaway with her devoted husband.By late afternoon, we were cutting across the water on his yacht, the coastline shrinking behind us.Alessio stood at the helm, one hand on the wheel, the wind tousling his dark hair. Every so often he would glance back at me with that half-smile of his. “This is the beginning of our escape. Just the two of us. No business, no family, no distractions.”I nodded, pretending I was really happy.The island soon emerged on the horizon. As the yacht glided toward the dock, I spotted something flickering on the beach—dozens of tiny flames, arranged in a semicircle around a table set for two.Alessio killed the engine and helped me onto the dock, his hand warm and steady in mine. “Surprise,” he murmured, and led me down to the sa

Once the video was live, I logged out and let go of everything that followed. I boarded a flight overseas and began a new life.I had chosen a small island in the Venetian lagoon. It was the opposite of New York in every conceivable way, and that was precisely why I had come.I started a bookstore. Nothing fancy, just a quiet little place. Inside, the space was small but warm, with exposed wooden beams, a few well-loved armchairs, and shelves I had built myself from reclaimed timber.I arranged the books by feeling rather than genre. Customers told me they loved the unpredictability of it, the sense that the shop had a personality rather than a system.Every Monday morning, I created a new book recommendation display in the front window. People started coming from neighboring islands just to see what I would choose next. Some of them took photos and posted them online. I didn't mind.I had stopped checking social media obsessively, but on a rainy Tuesday about two weeks after my arriva

Hazel stepped further into the shop, her gaze sweeping over the shelves, the armchairs, the window display I had spent the morning arranging.She sneered. “Is this where you’ve been hiding? In this little store in the middle of nowhere? You destroyed my life and then you just disappeared!”“Destroy your life?” I rose from my stool behind the counter. “You destroyed your own life. I just told the truth about what you did.”Her voice rose to a near-shriek. “You posted that video and turned the whole world against me. I lost everything—my contracts, my award, my reputation. Everything I worked for, gone, because of you.”“You stole my design,” I said, my voice still level. “You slept with my husband. You got pregnant with his child and flaunted it in my face at a family dinner. And you’re angry at me for telling people what you did? How dare you!”Hazel’s face contorted. She grabbed a stack of books from the nearest display and hurled them to the floor. The carefully arranged tower I had