Beranda / Don Forced Me To Accept His Mistress on the Eve of Our Wedding / Bab 1 - Bab 9

Semua Bab Don Forced Me To Accept His Mistress on the Eve of Our Wedding: Bab 1 - Bab 9

9 Bab

Chapter 1

After the wedding rehearsal, Dante told me he intended to keep his mistress.I was still in the fitted gown.Four hundred walnut chairs stood in the ballroom of the Long Island estate, and every important member of the Russo Family in New York had confirmed they would attend.The priest had just left, and the staff were adjusting the seating for the next day.Dante stood in front of the altar, unhurriedly straightening his cufflinks."Vivian won't affect your position."I thought I had misheard him."Who?""Vivian Hale," he said. "You met her at the charity dinner."Of course I had.She was young and beautiful, and she had a habit of tilting her head down when she spoke, a practiced kind of meekness.Last month she had walked into my charity dinner on Dante's arm and explained that she had twisted her ankle and needed someone to lean on.Dante told me then that she was only the daughter of an important political consultant."How long have you been sleeping with her?""Six months."He d

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Chapter 2

The next day there was no wedding.Dante announced publicly that I was unwell and the ceremony had been postponed.He never asked whether I agreed.At ten in the morning I walked into the Russo Family conference room. The lieutenants sat along both sides of the long table, and Vivian had taken my chair.She was still wearing my mother's brooch.Dante sat at the head of the table and raised his eyes to me."You should be resting upstairs. You aren't needed here."For seven years every set of dock accounts had passed through my review. Under Marco the Russo smuggling routes had been a mess. I redrew the shipping schedules, talked three dockworkers unions around for Dante, and found customs middlemen willing to cooperate.Now he was telling me I was not needed here."Why is Vivian here?"Vivian stood up at once."I'm only looking into the Family's income for the charitable foundation. If you'd rather I didn't, I can step out."She said it and did not move.Everyone was waiting for Dante t

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Chapter 3

Over the next two weeks Dante revoked my Family security clearance.I could not enter the harbor control room, I could not look at the quarterly accounts, and I could not give orders to Russo guards directly.He told everyone I needed to rest and recover from my emotional problems before the wedding.Vivian took my place hosting the children's hospital charity dinner that had always been mine.That night she wore my mother's brooch and stood beside Dante for the photographers.I did not attend.I sat in the study of the estate, reading a shipping report nobody had bothered with.For three days running, unfamiliar vehicles had been seen near Pier 6. Two dockworkers had abruptly taken leave, and a freighter registered to carry olive oil had arrived twelve hours early.Every sign said someone was preparing to hit the port.I called Gabriel."Pull our people off Pier 6 immediately."There were a few seconds of silence on the other end."Dante has forbidden us to take orders from you.""Tel

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Chapter 4

When I woke up, the doctor told me the baby had not survived.The room in the private hospital was very quiet. Outside the window the Hudson lay gray, and the monitors beeped at even intervals."About nine weeks along," the doctor said. "The gunshot didn't hit the uterus directly, but the shock and the blood loss caused the miscarriage."I stared at the ceiling and did not cry.The doctor opened an older file."There was already serious damage from the accident five years ago. After this, the chance of conceiving naturally again will be lower still."Five years ago I had lost a child too.Dante was not Don yet then.To find the witness Marco had bought off, I deliberately drew away the car tailing us and was hit on an overpass in Queens.When I woke, Dante was on his knees at the side of the bed, holding my hand, crying for a long time.He promised he would end the fighting and give me a safe home, and promised he would never let me be hurt because of him again.I never told him that t

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Chapter 5

I did not go back to the Manhattan apartment.The lawyer took me to a private hospital outside Boston. It had no name, and every one of its security men spoke Italian.It belonged to the Moretti Family.I stayed in that room for twenty-seven days.For the first few days Dante called every day. I did not answer. His messages went from orders to demands, and from demands to explanations."Don't push this past the point of no return.""I've already sent Vivian away from the estate.""We can renegotiate the arrangements after the marriage.""Lysa, pick up."On the twelfth day, he said something new for the first time."I'm worried about you."On the twentieth day he said something else."Just tell me you're safe. I won't force you to come back."I deleted every voice message.In the news, the Russo Family said nothing about the cancelled wedding. But three partners abruptly pulled out of the harbor project, the insurers for Pier 6 refused to renew, and a city official who had once backed D

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Chapter 6

The Family council did not welcome me.When I arrived at the estate in Palermo, sixteen department heads sat along the long table. Lorenzo had taken the chair beside my father's, plainly already thinking of himself as the next Don."You have no standing to attend this meeting," he said."I know."I laid four shipping files on the table."But you all need to know where the missing forty-seven million euros went."The room went quiet.Lorenzo's expression did not change."You've been out of the Family for ten years. You don't understand the business as it is now.""It's precisely because I left ten years ago that you never got around to cleaning up the New York records."I switched on the projector.Of the twelve freighters the Moretti Family insured last year, three had filed repeated claims for mechanical failure. The repair company was registered in Malta, and its actual controller was a lawyer who had been dead for six years.The insurance payouts moved through five shell companies a

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Chapter 7

Dante arrived in Sicily four days later.He brought six bodyguards and was stopped at the first gate of the estate. The Morettis allowed only him and Gabriel into the reception area.I was chairing a harbor meeting that day.An assistant told me Dante was demanding to see me immediately."Let him wait.""He says there's a serious problem with the New York partnerships.""That is a Russo problem."Three hours later I left the council chamber.Dante was standing at the far end of the corridor. He had lost a great deal of weight, and there was stubble he had not bothered to shave. The instant he saw me he started forward, and security stopped him."Alexandra Moretti." He said my name aloud."So you know.""Why didn't you tell me?"The question struck me as absurd."You never once seriously asked.""You said your family had fallen.""I said I left my Family."Dante had no answer.Gabriel handed him a black folder. Inside were ten years of transfers, call records and protection orders.Dant

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Chapter 8

The next day Dante came to the study on time.He brought no bodyguards, and he did not sit down."I've signed the papers turning over the Russo interest in Pier 6 to you.""I don't want it.""Part of it was always yours.""Helping you doesn't mean I want to take your business now."Dante set another document on the desk."I'll make a public statement about your part in the rise of the Russo Family. Gabriel will take my place. If you're willing to come back, I'll step down."I looked at him."You think I left because you had too much power?""I know that isn't it.""Then what are you doing?""Making up for it.""You can repay money. You can't repay this."Dante's eyes were bloodshot."I've sent Vivian away. The brooch has been delivered to your room. The safe house is back in your name.""And?""I know it isn't enough.""You still don't understand."I stood up."Vivian wasn't the real reason we ended. Neither was the baby."Dante's body visibly stiffened."You let her wear the last thin

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Chapter 9

Two years later my father formally stepped down.I became the real decision maker of the Moretti Family.I dismantled the network of interests Lorenzo had left behind, sold off the high-risk casinos, and moved most of the money into legitimate shipping, hotels and security firms.At a Family meeting I also laid down three rules that could not be broken.No involvement in human trafficking.No drugs in any neighborhood the Family controls.No using minors to carry the Family's crimes.Some people argued the rules would cut our income.I proved with new legitimate trade contracts that the Moretti Family did not need those businesses to stay strong.Adrian Conti and I built a working relationship again.He never once mentioned the engagement I had refused ten years earlier. We handled harbor disputes together, and sometimes we had a drink after the meetings ended.Some people guessed we would marry.Neither of us responded.I now hold the right to decide whether I marry, whom I marry, and

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