All Chapters of I Don't Want the Ring or You: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Her car arrived too.I recognized it immediately. It was Reese's private car.He never let anyone else ride in it. Even I, his wife, rarely had that privilege.She tapped lightly on the window and crooked a finger playfully at whoever was inside."Emily, you're still such a brat!"A hand pulled her into the car, possessive and indulgent at once.My driver, Charles Bennett, opened my door, but I did not move.Reese Moretti and I had been married for five years.He was the Don the Mafia feared and respected. His men obeyed him without question, and so did I.With Emily, however, he looked like a gentle, attentive boyfriend.Emily reached one arm out the window and casually tossed an old ring onto the pavement.The car sped away and vanished from sight.I stared at the ring rolling across the ground as cold spread through me.On our anniversary the year before, I had found that ring in Reese's pocket and could barely contain my excitement.But he had gotten the size wrong. It would not sl

Chapter 2

In the car, I replayed what I had just seen.Reese had guided Emily's ringed hand to the crest on his chest, the symbol of his family's honor.The diamond caught the blue-green of his eyes, and Emily looked radiant.His face had lost the hard expression I knew. It looked more like snow melting in spring.At the coffee shop, Mary sat across from me with her silver hair perfectly arranged and her hands trembling slightly."Donna, Miss Emily hasn't actually been with the Don for long."She's a naive girl."I stirred my hot chocolate without looking up.After Reese became Don, his underbosses seemed eager to please him by sending women his way.As a daughter of the Camorra family, groomed to become his wife, I could not accept his first betrayal.But I did not confront him.I coaxed what I could out of Charles and pieced together the rest from the estate staff's gossip.I learned that her name was Emily Caldwell and found the hotel where she was staying.I told her no one but me could stan

Chapter 3

I left the coffee shop and had Charles drive me back to the main estate.When I opened the door, a bouquet of Juliet roses filled my vision.Reese stood behind the flowers with his arms spread and a smile on his lips. "Happy fifth anniversary, Rebecca."I have a surprise for you, baby!"I did not take the flowers."Thank you, but you know I've never liked roses."Uncertainty flickered across his face before his expression returned to normal. "You don't? I thought you liked flowers. I had these flown in from Holland."I had never liked roses, but Emily's garden overflowed with them.My gaze dropped to the ring finger on his left hand. It was bare except for a faint indentation.The pink diamond Emily had bought was probably one of a kind, and Reese had not found a matching ring yet.The heavy perfume clinging to him was not mine. My stomach turned, and I rushed to the bathroom to retch.Reese followed and set both hands on my shoulders, hands hardened by years of holding a gun. "You don

Chapter 4

As soon as she heard that, Jane realized she had slipped and hung up.The ticking clock became the only sound in the bedroom.I leaned against the windowsill and spoke quietly. "Reese, I don't want to play hide-and-seek with your little girlfriend."You've betrayed me again. The ring proves it."His fingers went instinctively to the mark on his ring finger."Rebecca, I think you must have misunderstood..."I cut him off. "Reese, your voice always quickens when you lie to me."You used to lie because you were planning a surprise."Back then, I thought that meant you loved me."He frowned in confusion. "You're my wife. Of course I love you. What are you trying to say?"I waved him off and left the room.He had changed. Maybe he still loved me, but what remained had been diluted because he had given part of that love to another woman.My chest tightened as I walked down the corridor lined with photographs.At the far end hung our stiff wedding portrait. Even in the photograph, it was obvi

Chapter 5

Emily huddled behind him, sobbing. "Reese, I thought we were in love!"She called me a mistress. I can't bear that humiliation!"Maybe I should walk away from you and all of this!"Reese pulled Emily into his arms. "Rebecca, you had no business meddling in this!"I pulled off my wedding ring, ready to ask him for a divorce.Emily pushed him away. "I'm sorry, but I can't accept being kept as your mistress."Reese looked at me. Every trace of warmth had vanished from his blue-green eyes. "Rebecca, you're not fit to be my wife."The Camorra family failed to teach you manners. You've brought shame on yourself and them."Apologize to her!"The room fell silent.The guests included prominent members of Emily's powerful financial family and several of Reese's most trusted men.Everyone stopped talking and turned to watch us.I looked at Emily's hand clasped in his, my eyes burning. "The Camorra family swore loyalty to you, not to her. I will not apologize!"A storm gathered in Reese's eyes. "

Chapter 6

This time, I did not wait for an answer.I ended the call and snapped my SIM card in half.With it went every trace of Reese, left behind somewhere between Chicago and Sicily.Only then did I feel free of the relationship that had been suffocating me.I watched Chicago shrink to a dot outside the window, and something in me let go.I thought I would cry, that I would find it hard.Instead, it felt as though a long stretch of rain inside me had finally ended.Most of the people on the plane were going on holiday, and I listened to their quiet talk and slowly closed my eyes.I always used to worry when I flew with Reese.Watching the clouds with him had been romantic, but I always worried that a rival family would ambush us after we landed.He had once held me in his arms and promised we would someday live as an ordinary married couple, with one condition: no more bloody Mafia feuds.I used to look forward to that day, even knowing it would never come.It was afternoon when the plane tou

Chapter 7

At four the next morning, lawyers from Carlo Moretti's firm delivered the divorce settlement drafted on Rebecca's instructions to Reese.He had just left Emily's white estate. Champagne still stained his shirt collar.When the call came, he still thought Rebecca was throwing a tantrum.Holding the papers, Reese stared for ten solid minutes at the line that read "husband unfaithful during wife's pregnancy."The settlement was scrupulously fair. Rebecca was even willing to walk away with nothing.Everything he had given her, she didn't want.Reese admitted that he had gone a little too far for Emily this time.But what man did not stray a little during marriage? Besides, Reese had promised before a priest to stay with Rebecca for life, and he would not break that promise.That was why he refused to believe his affair justified a divorce.Reese made a call.He intended to tell Rebecca she had no right to end their marriage.Rebecca didn't answer.Emily came out of the estate after him and

Chapter 8

By my second month in Palermo, an informant in Chicago sent me a sealed envelope containing a photograph.It was a surveillance photograph taken three years earlier at Chicago's south docks.Emily had not yet dyed her short, dark brown hair blonde. She wore a work jacket.She stood beside a ship registered to the Calabria syndicate, handing a brown paper file to a man I recognized.Domenico.The second-in-command overseeing arms shipments out of Naples.I looked at it a long time.The informant had written only two lines:Ms. Camorra, no underboss placed her with Reese by chance.She bore Calabria's seal from her first day.That explained everything.Reese thought he'd been keeping a docile canary.In truth, the white estate had served as Calabria's listening post inside the Moretti family from the day its foundations went in.She took the plans Reese gave her and every coastal account he let slip, sending them south piece by piece.The pink diamond ring was camouflage. So was the firs

Chapter 9

His shoulders finally sagged.The sea wind in Sicily turned up his collar and revealed the dark blue vest I had chosen for him five years earlier.I found it bitterly ironic. He had rarely worn anything I chose for him.He stood there for a long time before pulling a newly printed settlement from a document folder.It awarded most of the assets to me.The settlement would cost him dearly."Then at least take this."He pushed the papers through the iron bars. The rough, rusted iron scraped his fingertip, leaving a red line across it.It looked much like the blood at the corner of my mouth when I left the ballroom."Don't leave with nothing. You paid for those assets with your blood. I didn't give them to you."I didn't take the paper."Take the settlement back. I don't want the wreckage of the Moretti family, and I don't want you building me an estate. I have my own gallery here in Palermo. I painted the walls and planted the irises myself. Everything here is mine, entirely my own. Do y

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