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Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Don’s Regret After Signing the Divorce Papers Without Reading Them: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

8 Kabanata

1

When I pushed open the conference room doors, Victor was pinning the black diamond brooch on Irene.He did it carefully, as if he were afraid of hurting her.Three years earlier, on the night before our wedding, he had stood behind me just like that and pinned the same brooch to my dress.That night, he had said, "From tonight on, no one in the Rinaldi family will go over your head."Now he had put it on another woman.Irene looked down at the black diamond and touched it, her eyes red."Is this really all right? Won't Adriana be upset?"Victor said, "As long as I'm here, nobody gets to upset you."Irene saw me and shot to her feet as if she'd been caught doing something wrong."Adriana, I'm only standing in for you at tonight's negotiation."I looked at the chair.The metal nameplate on the back of the chair had been removed. A new temporary one lay beside Irene's hand.My South Port proposal was next to it, and my mother's necklace was around her neck.A few captains I had personally

2

Victor didn't come back to the bedroom until dawn. I could smell Irene's perfume on him.I was sealing the last South Port contract in an envelope. He walked through the door, and his first words were, "Are you going through the South Port files again?"He didn't sound concerned. It sounded more like an accusation."Yes," I said.He frowned. "I told you last night. You need to hand South Port over to Irene first."My hands kept moving. "That's why I'm organizing my original documents."There was a knock at the door.The maid said quietly, "Don, Ms. Costa is here to return the necklace to the Donna."Victor's expression softened immediately."Let her in."Irene came in wearing a pale gray wrap. Her eyes were red as she held the necklace out to me."Adriana, I'm so sorry. I had no idea it was this fragile."I took the necklace, and my fingers stilled.The old silver clasp at the back had been shortened, and a corner of the Vitale crest my mother had engraved into the clasp was worn away.

3

Five days after Victor signed the agreement, the South Port manager called me."Ms. Vitale, members of the Rinaldi family have arrived at the central building with Ms. Costa and a group of clients. The invitation was signed in your name."I said, "Send them through the visitor entrance."He lowered his voice. "Ms. Costa refuses to take the clients through the visitor entrance, but she isn't cleared to use any other entrance... The clients all think you changed your mind at the last minute to embarrass the Rinaldi family."Irene had invited them in my name, then blamed me when she couldn't open the door.Victor let her do it.Once that was clear, I left for South Port.I wasn't going to clean up after them. I was going to protect both my name and the Vitale family name.I got there half an hour later.The lobby was full of people. The nameplate on my office door had been removed and replaced with Irene's name.She stood beneath it, wearing Victor's coat as if she already owned the place

4

Two days later, the Rinaldi family held its public handover meeting.There were fifteen minutes left on the temporary clearance.The Rinaldi family advisor, the district captains, and the South Port clients filled the hall.Victor sat at the head of the table. Irene sat to his right.She still wore the brooch, and the South Port handover documents lay beside her.My nameplate had been moved to the far end of the long table, next to the note-taker.I wasn't wearing my wedding ring or anything else that marked me as a Rinaldi.Victor saw my bare left hand, and his gaze lingered for a second.But he looked away quickly.He thought I'd taken the ring off in a fit of anger to make him give in.He pushed the handover documents across to me.The advisor read out the decisions. "Irene Costa formally takes over as South Port liaison. Adriana Vitale leaves core management and moves to the basement archives. As of today, she has no authority to contact any partner on behalf of the Rinaldi family.

5

Victor grabbed the agreement and flipped back through it, page by page."I thought this was the South Port partnership agreement."His grip tightened when he finally saw the heading at the top of the first page.[Dissolution of the Marriage Contract Between the Rinaldi and Vitale families]Minutes earlier, he had taken my seat from me in public and handed the South Port liaison role to Irene.Now he turned to the advisor, his expression grim."Restore Adriana's seat on the council. Give her back her estate access and her security detail."The advisor opened his file and said quietly, "Don, her seat on the council can be restored."Victor's expression eased slightly. "And the Rinaldi family's special access at South Port?"The advisor didn't answer.South Port's counsel answered instead. "Mr. Rinaldi, core zone access, route guarantees, and priority berthing at South Port all depend on Vitale authorization."With the marriage contract dissolved, that authorization has been withdrawn. Th

6

The next afternoon, Victor came to South Port's central building.He didn't have an appointment, so the receptionist stopped him in the lobby.Everyone here used to let him walk straight in because I had once registered him as a guarantor for the Vitale family.Now the receptionist handed him a white visitor badge.The badge read, "Mr. Rinaldi. Temporary Visitor. Third Floor."He looked at it for a few seconds before he clipped it to his coat.Forty minutes later, they showed him into a standard meeting room.No seat at the head of the table. No private elevator. No hot coffee waiting.He put a three-year-old guarantee agreement on the table.That day had been my birthday.He had promised to come home and have dinner with me, but he left after Irene called him about a fever.I worked alone in the study until three in the morning and signed the Rinaldi family's first South Port guarantee.The next day all he asked was when the guarantee took effect.Victor looked as though he had finall

7

Victor stopped in the doorway.A few minutes later, the enforcers brought Irene to the meeting room door.She was wearing the black diamond brooch and clutching a rejected authorization document she'd crumpled in her hand.All the clients waiting to sign in the corridor saw that she'd been stopped outside the core zone.The moment Irene saw Victor, her eyes turned red."You can't sign her contract. The terms are too harsh."She slapped the document down on the table."If you just say the divorce isn't valid, Adriana has to continue acting as guarantor for the Rinaldi family."Victor said nothing.In the past, all she had to do was cry, and he would step in front of her.This time, he looked at me instead, without even meaning to.I turned to South Port's counsel. "Read the reason for the rejection."He opened the file. "Ms. Costa's application for permanent authorization used a scan of Ms. Vitale's old signature."Irene went white. "I didn't know. My assistant prepared it."Someone in

8

A week later, I walked into the law office.Victor was already there.He was wearing the black suit he had worn on our wedding day, with the final divorce documents in front of him.Three things sat beside them.My wedding ring. The old silver clasp from the necklace, now shortened. And a necklace the jeweler had made to look very much like the one my mother left me.My lawyer asked whether we could begin.Victor nodded, and my lawyer slid the documents across to him.He paused for a long time when he reached the attached dissolution agreement.That was the same document he had signed fifteen days earlier.He lingered on that page, pressing a deep crease into the paper."Mr. Rinaldi, the cooling-off period for that document has ended," my lawyer said quietly. "Today, we're only confirming the divorce."He opened his mouth and nothing came out.When he reached the South Port independence clause, he paused again."The Vitale family will no longer provide any private guarantees for the Ri

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