Semua Bab I Proposed to the Don 52 Times Before I Died: Bab 1 - Bab 9

Raffaele watched the letters curl and blacken in the flames.Then, with no thought for his own safety, he tore off his jacket and beat out the fire.His eyes were red when he shoved me down onto the sofa strewn with white rose petals, in full view of the thousands still watching the livestream."What the heck is this, Sofia?""You called me here just to humiliate me in front of the whole world?"His underboss Marco immediately killed the stream.Silence fell over the room. I said nothing.Raffaele stood so close that I caught the faint scent of gardenia clinging to his suit.Gianna's favorite perfume.And suddenly, I was thinking about seven years ago.Back then, Raffaele hadn't been the untouchable Don he was today. He had been the Moretti family's unwanted bastard son.When an ambush left him with two bullets in his body, I had dragged him from a burning car under a hail of gunfire.After that, I helped him purge traitors, seize territory, and put every man who stood in his way into

I spent the rest of the day completing the handover and didn't finish until evening.Marco came into my office and placed an opera ticket on my desk."You know the Don. He doesn't know how to apologize, and he doesn't always think things through. But he does care about you.""You've wanted him to take you to La Traviata for years. He had the best seats in the house reserved for tonight.""Eight o'clock. Meet him outside the opera house. Please be there, Sofia."I stared at the ticket for a long moment.It was Raffaele's version of an olive branch. I knew that. I also knew it was meant to make up for what he'd done.In the end, I accepted it. After all, he owed me that much.At eight o'clock, I arrived outside the opera house. Raffaele was waiting alone at the bottom of the steps in a long black coat.But when we entered the private box, I found Gianna already seated inside.When I stopped in the doorway, Raffaele offered an easy explanation."Gianna has wanted to see this opera since s

Raffaele's POVGianna stood there in the silver-blue gown, the engagement ring in her hand, her radiant smile freezing in an instant.Her expression stiffened. “Raffaele, it's me. Aren't you happy to see me?”He ignored her, sweeping his gaze across the room in search of Sofia.She was nowhere to be found.Gianna lowered her voice to a pleading whisper. “Raffaele, the whole world is watching. Please don't humiliate me.”Raffaele swiftly regained his composure.Relieved to see the familiar calm settle over him, Gianna smiled again. “Sofia finally realized that in a love triangle, the unwanted woman is the outsider. She told me I should fight for my own happiness.”“I suppose she does know her place after all—”A crack appeared in Raffaele's carefully controlled expression. “What did you say to her?”His voice was quiet, but every word came through clenched teeth.“You and I grew up together. Surely you didn't mistake a few designer dresses and expensive gifts for romantic interest.”He

Sofia's POVAfter I died, I became a spirit suspended above the living, watching as Bianca arranged my funeral.One evening, Raffaele somehow learned the truth and came to the old house in Tuscany.He stood motionless at the gate.His mouth opened several times before he finally managed, in a shaking voice, “Bianca... where is Sofia?”Bianca looked up at him, and all the fury she had been holding back erupted at once.“Who are you to her? What right do you have to ask about her? What possible claim do you think you still have?”“You wasted seven years of her life. How dare you show your face here?”Raffaele began to tremble. For the first time in his life, he went down on his knees before another person.He knelt at Bianca's feet, his eyes bloodshot as he pleaded with her, fear unlike anything he had ever known written across his face.Then she gave him the answer he had dreaded most.“You're too late. Sofia is dead! She's already dead, and you still came after her. Haven't you hurt he

Months passed, and Bianca remained at the old house in Tuscany.Because I had proposed to Raffaele so publicly, the internet had turned me into the subject of countless vicious rumors.People said I had stopped at nothing to marry into the Moretti family.Others claimed I had pursued Raffaele for seven years despite knowing he loved Gianna.Bianca hired lawyers to set the record straight, but the rumors refused to die.Then Raffaele ordered Marco to release every message we had ever exchanged.The messages proved that each proposal had been part of the bargain he had offered me.After my first proposal, he had written, “Wait a little longer. When we reach the last one, I'll tell the world that you're the only woman I've chosen.”The tenth proposal. The twentieth. The fortieth.Every time I considered giving up, he kept me there with the same promise.He also admitted publicly that I had taken a bullet for the Moretti family, helped him eliminate traitors, and fought beside him to recla