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All Chapters of He Chose Her, I Chose Myself: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Hold still."I'm going to get a dressing on this, but the wound is bad. You need a hospital and you need that bullet out now."The medic, Sal Bruno, took his scissors and cut away my coat, stiff with dust and blood.The bullet had come within a hair of punching through the bone, and the flesh had been torn wide open.A ragged gash four inches long lay exposed to the air.On my right wrist, the rose bracelet — the engagement token binding the two families — had been driven deep into the raw flesh.Sal worked it free, and the pain went through me like a drill until I couldn't stop shaking.On my phone screen, thirty-eight missed calls from Riccardo."Valeria..."Riccardo came running toward me from across the lot, his face full of panic.He had almost reached me when a weak voice spoke up."Riccardo, my heart hurts so much."Loredana pressed a hand over her chest, her face white as paper.Riccardo stopped dead, hesitated, and then walked fast past me to the woman behind me.

Chapter 2

The door of my room swung open and Riccardo walked in with long strides.His eyes settled on me, and his voice carried the same soothing note it always did."Valeria, those rumors going around outside — don't take them to heart."I braced myself against the bed and sat up a little, my eyes full of scorn."Don't take them to heart? Do you mean you leaving me on the ground in the middle of a firefight, or you and Loredana all over the gossip pages?"Riccardo sat down on the edge of the bed, stroked my face tenderly, then leaned over and tucked the blanket around me."It happened too fast, and there were too many pairs of eyes on that lot. I had no choice but to take Loredana out first."I got Luciano's agreement signed. You saved the family again, Valeria. I know what it cost you."Luciano Sorrentino was the other party in the deal, and his family sat at the head of the Seven Families. He was the Godfather. Riccardo was one Don among seven.Riccardo paused, and his voice went ge

Chapter 3

Luciano was an old friend of my father's, and as a young man he had been on the receiving end of my father's generosity.The reply came back fast."No trouble at all, my dear Valeria. I'm glad you finally thought it through."Then another one, right behind it."The moment you want to go, I can take you out. Any time. Anywhere."I had just finished reading these messages when the door to my room was pushed quietly open.The doctor came in with the results in his hand."Congratulations, ma'am. You're three months along."I stared blankly at the words on the page, and I couldn't sort out a single thing I felt.It was a long while before I dialed the number I knew by heart.The voice that answered was Loredana's."Where's Riccardo?""We're picking out the main gown for next week's wedding."Loredana's voice was bright with it."They've already taken my waist measurement. We went with an eight-carat pink diamond for the ring, the hall's going to be packed end to end with orchi

Chapter 4

A commotion went up at the entrance to the hall.The Ferrantes had invited every outlet in the city.Camilla stood on the platform and began to speak into the lights, taking her time."I want to thank my daughter-in-law, who in the ambush that shook this city shielded the agreement with her own life and protected the Ferrante family's interests as far as any person could."And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce to all of you..."Riccardo held my hand tightly and walked me up onto the platform, step by step.But every camera on the floor below turned at the same moment toward Loredana."They say that in the worst moment of the ambush you were the first to get your body over the family's agreement. What was going through your mind?""Don Ferrante put this celebration together for you himself. What does that mean to you?"Loredana gave a small smile and accepted, without a flicker, every piece of credit that belonged to me."Protecting the family's interests in a crisis

Chapter 5

The veins stood up at Riccardo's temple, and his face was all anger."Luciano, this is private Ferrante business. It isn't an outsider's place to put his hands in it."Luciano kept me steady against him, his expression perfectly unhurried."I agreed to work with you people on Valeria's account in the first place."The Ferrantes have broken faith with her, so she has every right to decide who she deals with instead."Riccardo turned his head to me, coaxing, his voice light."Valeria, don't be difficult. Come here. Let's talk this through properly."I turned my face slightly away from his eyes, and bit by bit I went cold."There's nothing to talk through. The moment you started leaving me behind and choosing Loredana, there stopped being anything worth talking through."His pupils contracted, and he pressed me."What exactly do you mean by that?""I mean I've given up on you completely." I raised my eyes to him slowly. "This wedding — I'm canceling it."A ripple of astonishme

Chapter 6

Luciano took me to a private hospital for treatment.By great luck we got there in time, and the baby and I were both safe."What happened today made the front pages."Luciano was smiling faintly as he held his phone out to me."Guests filmed the scene at the wedding and put it online, and the talk has gotten completely away from them."The Ferrante estate and every location under them are ringed so tight with reporters nobody can get through."On top of that, word got out that I'd ended the partnership, so faction after faction has changed sides, their financing has collapsed, the capos have turned on Riccardo to a man, and inside that family it's chaos."He paused, then added the rest."And every piece of dirt on Loredana stealing credit and setting people against each other has been dug up. The whole internet is after her."I listened to all of it with my eyes down, as though it were something that had happened to a stranger."Is there a way to merge the Ferrante organizat

Chapter 7

Three months later, Loredana, out of options, turned up in front of me without warning.Ever since the Ferrantes had been absorbed by Luciano, she had lost everything she used to lean on.Her face was worn out and her clothes were a mess, and there was nothing left of the woman who had stood so far above me at that wedding."Valeria, I'm begging you, let me in. I have things I need to say to you."I looked at her flatly, without a ripple behind my eyes."There's nothing between us worth saying."But Loredana wouldn't go, and she kept herself planted in my way."I know you hate me, but I've got nowhere left. The Ferrantes are gone, Riccardo doesn't want me, everyone treats me like something they threw away. Can't you look at what we used to be to each other and leave me a way out?""When you took my doctor off my case, and when you nearly made me lose this baby at my own wedding — when exactly were you planning to leave me a way out?"Loredana went white, and still forced out a

Chapter 8

"The one who's been working everyone from behind is you!"Riccardo kicked her off him, with undisguised disgust in his eyes."You faked being ill again and again, playing the victim, and used every soft spot I had for you as license to do harm."You joined with my mother to set us against each other, and you broke Valeria's heart over and over, all to feed your own selfish need to own me."Loredana shook her head, dazed.She fought to get at me one more time, and Riccardo's men pinned her down and held her."That was a moment of madness, I only loved you too much! I couldn't stand there and watch Valeria take you away, take everything that was mine!""Love?" Riccardo looked like a man who had just heard the funniest thing in the world."Your kind of love won't even spare my unborn child? Loredana, the only person you love is yourself."With that, Riccardo stopped paying any attention to Loredana's hysterics.He turned around and looked at me, tense."You're pregnant. Why did

Chapter 9

Three years later.I had built out a business of my own right across the world.The day the change of partner was settled, I signed a long-term agreement with the Aldridge Group.Once, for Riccardo's sake, I had turned down every branch held out to me and let countless chances to build something go past.Now I was finally standing inside a business empire that was mine.The apology messages Riccardo had gone on sending all these years were still sitting in my phone.I never opened them, let alone answered.The heart that had been trampled and thrown away back then was so much smoke now, and none of it could touch me.Riccardo still wouldn't put it down. He tried desperately to win me back, and could only watch the distance between us stretch out further and further.He had no choice but to admit it: I did perfectly well away from him.Once, it was me dragging the Ferrante family forward one step at a time.Only the woman I am now is never going to turn around.At a grand ev

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