All Chapters of I Stopped Waiting for the Don, and He Begged on His Knees: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

At the Renzetti estate, I waited until it was almost dawn before Antonio returned."You texted me to go back to the estate, so why are you only getting home now?"Antonio pressed his fingers to his brow, looking worn out. "I was handling family business. Elena, I'm tired. I need to sleep."I sat on the couch and watched him drop his coat and go straight to the bar to pour himself a drink. "I saw you at the underground casino on the south side. You were sitting across from a bartender who was all dressed up.""Are you having me watched?" He set the glass down with a sharp clink against the marble."Elena, you're my fiancée. You should trust me more than that."He paused."You're the one I love. Do you understand that?"Then he pulled a dark blue velvet jewelry box from his pocket."This is to make it up to you. I kept you waiting. You have a right to be angry."Elena, don't look at me like that. You know I don't like being questioned, and I don't like wasting time on something so small.

Chapter 2

"Elena, you will always be the princess of the Cesari family."My father's voice came through the phone. A car would arrive in a week to pick me up.He was the Don of Sicily's most powerful and secretive mafia family, and he had never approved of my decision to hide my identity so I could date Antonio.He had given me five years. If Antonio still loved me at the end, I could tell him who I was. If not, I would return to the Cesari family.But the five years weren't up, and Antonio had already changed.I put the phone away, looked around the room, and started deciding, item by item, what I would take with me.The next morning the Renzetti family held its internal audit meeting in the top-floor conference room.I put on a sharp suit and pushed the doors open.Antonio sat at the head of the table. Franca was in the seat beside him, the one that had always been mine.I stopped and looked at her in silence. Antonio seemed to sense my gaze and looked up at me."Franca may be a bartender, but

Chapter 3

After sorting everything out, I pushed open my bedroom door and found Franca lying on my bed, turning a porcelain figurine over in her hands.It was the one thing my mother had left me, and Antonio knew that."Who let her into my room and allowed her to touch my things?" I asked coldly, looking at Antonio, who was sitting off to the side.He looked up, still looking guilty. "Franca's blood sugar had dropped, and she didn't have the strength to make it downstairs. Your room was right here, so I told her to lie down for a while.""Antonio, I don't care what your reason is. She needs to put down what my mother left me and get out right now." I didn't move an inch.He frowned, walked over, and reached out to pat my shoulder. I stepped aside.His hand stopped in midair, and disappointment crossed his face."Elena, why can you never learn to think about the bigger picture?"The informant network behind Franca determines the Renzetti family's standing in Sicily. As my fiancée, you should supp

Chapter 4

Just as I'd expected, word came that a weapons shipment had been seized. It had been sent along the route newly assigned to Franca."Franca was the one who entered that route into the system. That idiot bartender leaked family secrets. Under family law, she has to be executed!"The atmosphere in the room turned grim. One of the Elders fixed Antonio with a thunderous glare.Eighty million dollars' worth of cargo had been impounded, and he had lost nearly half his men. The Renzetti family had never taken a hit this hard in its entire history.Franca had gone pale and was shaking hard.Antonio looked at me instead. His expression shifted, but he spoke anyway. "Elena has always been responsible for that shipment. It has nothing to do with Franca."Hearing him try to dress it up that way almost made me laugh, though none of it was funny.Anyone with eyes knew I hadn't touched family business since that meeting. Antonio was lying through his teeth.To protect Franca, he was even willing to p

Chapter 5

Antonio took Franca to the hospital the Renzetti family usually used. The doctor said she was only shaken up and needed rest.Only then did Antonio let out a breath. He dropped his bloodstained jacket onto a chair. Just as he was about to call Elena, his phone began ringing nonstop.The Renzetti family's advisor was on the line, speaking rapidly. "Don, the three private ports Elena managed personally were all shut down ten minutes ago."Two weapons shipments have been seized. We tried to negotiate, but they won't talk. All they'll say is that they're acting on orders."Antonio frowned and hung up. He pulled up Elena's number and called, only to hear a recorded message."The phone you are trying to reach is turned off."He sighed, opened his messages, and started typing.[Elena, stop throwing a tantrum. Tell the ports to let the shipments through immediately. Don't let your temper get in the way of business.]The message went through, but no reply came.Franca had just stepped out of th

Chapter 6

Franca bit her lip and reluctantly backed out. Antonio sat in a chair in Elena's room and stared at the laptop, its system now wiped clean.His phone rang. One of his informants was on the line. "Don, we found it."For the past five years, whenever the Renzetti family had cash-flow problems, a huge sum would arrive from an anonymous overseas account. At first, we all assumed someone simply believed in the Renzetti family."But when we traced the transfers, every one of them led to the same place."Antonio's grip tightened around the phone, and his hand trembled. "Where?""The Cesari family." The informant paused, then continued."To be precise, Elena Cesari is the account holder. For five years, the Cesari family has quietly kept the Renzetti family afloat through every bad patch."Cesari?Antonio went rigid. In Sicily, the Cesari family sat at the top of the food chain. It was both secretive and powerful.But Elena, of all people, was a Cesari? And not just any Cesari, but a member of

Chapter 7

When I got to the Cesari estate, my father was waiting at the door. He saw the wound on my arm and the state I was in, and his face darkened.For the next half hour, the best private doctors and stylists in Sicily attended to me.My father handed me a black card and a custom-made phone."Elena, you've paid a steep price these past five years."I looked at the fine lines on his face, and my eyes stung. "Father, it was my fault. I didn't listen to you."He reached over and ruffled my hair. "Don't say that. You'll always be my most precious daughter. From now on, every resource the Cesari family has is yours to command."I know my daughter will be the best leader this family has ever had."I sat on a leather couch with my father beside me and met the senior members of the Cesari family one by one. Some of them had watched me grow up. Some had come into the family recently.I listened as they addressed me as Princess with genuine respect. Then I reviewed the Cesari accounts and turned to m

Chapter 8

After the summit, my father stayed behind to speak with the families we work with. I headed for the Cesari family's private corridor and found Antonio already waiting there.I stopped and looked at how small he'd made himself. The sight amused me."Since when does the Don of the Renzetti family wait for me? That's a first."He saw me and dropped to his knees right there on the floor."Elena, I know how badly I messed up." His eyes were bloodshot."But our five years together weren't a lie. Franca blinded me, that's all. I swear, if you'll forgive me, I'll wait as long as you want."I didn't answer him. I turned to the bodyguard beside me. "Bring it out."He tipped a pile of broken porcelain out of a black case and spread the shards evenly across the floor between Antonio and me."Since you said the porcelain figure was just a cheap, lifeless object, crawl over it on your knees until you reach my feet, and I'll consider hearing you out."I looked down at him, my face impassive, as all t

Chapter 9

The day after the summit, I heard that the Renzetti family had declared bankruptcy.My father told me that all the property and accounts in Antonio's name had been seized and that the rival family had sent thirty professional killers after him."I hear he's hiding in a basement in the slums like a sewer rat." My father scoffed."Even that is letting him off lightly."Lorenzo, standing nearby, spoke up at just the right moment. "They say the bartender tried to run off with the money, and Antonio caught her in the act. They went at each other. Their faces were torn up."By the time our people arrived with the police, all they found were two bloody shapes on the floor."I tried to picture it, and it was more satisfying than it should have been.Under pressure from the Cesari family, Antonio and Franca both received life sentences and were sent to the maximum-security prison in the far north.No daylight. Two pieces of moldy bread a day. Nothing inside but the worst of the worst.None of w

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