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หน้าหลัก / I Faked My Death To Escape the Don / บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

บททั้งหมดของ I Faked My Death To Escape the Don: บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 10

10

Chapter 1

Before Adrian left the bedroom, he told me Bianca would be staying at the estate for a while.“She’s in poor health, and someone has already tracked her once. This is the safest place in Chicago.” He held my hand, his thumb brushing my wedding ring. “Mara, my feelings for you haven’t changed. She simply needs our help.”I did not argue.Only after the door had been closed behind him for a long time did I call Nora in. “Bring me the estate accounts, the vault permissions, and the family trust records.”Nora saw the medical consent form on the desk, and her eyes immediately reddened. “Have you really decided to take the drug?”I placed the authorization card and encrypted key in a wooden box. For seven years, I had managed every Vescari account, cared for Adrian’s gravely ill mother while he fought a family war in Europe, and used my maternal trust to rescue the family from a cash crisis. Now that Bianca was back, everything received under her name had to be returned.Nora picked up the
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Chapter 2

The next morning, I returned to the Bellandi estate.The car had barely stopped when a new guard approached. “Which guest of the Vescari family are you?”Nora’s expression hardened. “This is Mara, the Bellandi family’s second daughter.”The guard’s face changed. He glanced around instinctively. “Please don’t joke about that. The Bellandis’ second daughter died in a yacht accident seven years ago.”I stopped Nora before she could argue. “Tell Mr. and Mrs. Bellandi that Mrs. Vescari is here.”On the way inside, I passed my former rooms. The doors stood open, revealing Bianca’s luggage, gowns, and artwork from Europe.The housekeeper explained, “Mrs. Bellandi is inventorying Miss Bianca’s belongings before sending them to the Vescari estate.”I looked toward one corner of the courtyard. A magnolia tree I had planted myself once grew there. It was gone now, and the pencil marks on the wall recording my height had vanished under fresh white paint.Nora lowered her voice. “This used to be yo
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Chapter 3

Night had fallen by the time I returned to the Vescari estate.Inside the main house, employees were carrying my belongings out of the east suite. My orchids lay piled in the hall, soil scattered around shattered pots.Nora stepped forward. “Who gave you permission to touch Mrs. Vescari’s things?”The estate manager looked uncomfortable. “The scent of orchids gives Miss Bianca headaches. Mr. Vescari ordered us to remove them.”“This is Mrs. Vescari’s private suite.”“Miss Bianca has been suffering frequent panic attacks. This wing is closest to Mr. Vescari’s study and the safe room, so...” She let the sentence trail off.Inside, my blue-gray curtains had been replaced with Bianca’s favorite burgundy. My books, photographs, and belongings filled boxes, while my mother’s dressing table stood in the hall.Bianca waited by the door in an oversized cashmere coat. “You’re back? I wanted to wait until after you moved, but Adrian was worried the guest rooms weren’t secure enough. He insisted I
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Chapter 4

The day I planned to fake my death was the seventh anniversary of the truce between the Vescari and Bellandi families.The estate blazed with light as Five Families members, politicians, and business partners arrived for a commemoration disguised as a charity gala. Tonight, Bianca would reappear as the first Bellandi heir.I changed into an unadorned white dress and sat in the guest room assigned to me, closing the last ledgers. Nora stood behind me arranging my hair, her tears falling silently onto my shoulder. “Are you ready?”“Yes.”I placed the estate access card, the family trust key, Adrian’s jewelry, and the shattered opal pendant in a box. I kept nothing that belonged to the Vescari family.An old camera lay dust-covered in the deepest drawer. Before our wedding, I carried it everywhere. Adrian and I once walked down an empty Michigan Avenue before dawn, and I once slipped out to photograph the first snow over Lake Michigan.Then a rival family tracked me. Adrian said he could
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Chapter 5

It burst open, and Adrian rushed inside, catching me before I slid from the bed.“Mara!” For the first time, genuine terror filled his voice. “Look at me. What did you take?”I wanted to tell him it was not poison. I would not die. I had simply decided to leave him at last.But my lips could no longer make a sound.Adrian lifted me and repeatedly ordered his guards to call a doctor. His arms held me tightly, but his voice trembled. “You can’t leave me like this. I love you, Mara. Open your eyes. There is still so much I haven’t told you.”What a pity. It had taken me seven years to understand that whether someone loved you was never what mattered most. What mattered was whether, whenever a choice had to be made, he chose to keep you.By the time Dr. Mercer arrived, my heartbeat was too faint to detect. Following the plan, he examined me twice before finally removing his stethoscope.“Mr. Vescari, I’m sorry.”Adrian’s entire body went rigid.I closed my eyes in his arms and sank complet
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Chapter 6

He demanded records from the bank, the household staff, and every security checkpoint on the estate. The answers only made the truth clearer. I had closed my personal accounts, released Nora from her contract, and transferred the last of my money days earlier. Adrian had slept beside me without noticing that I was quietly preparing to die.Dr. Mercer told him the substance in my blood could endanger anyone performing an ordinary autopsy. My body had to be transferred to a controlled facility before the funeral home could receive it.Adrian objected until the other doctors agreed. He followed the medical van through Chicago and remained outside the secured examination room for hours. Shortly before dawn, his consigliere arrived with news that the Commission was demanding an explanation for the chaos at the gala.Adrian refused to leave.It took three senior members of the Vescari family to convince him that failing to appear would expose both my identity and the substitution that had be
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Chapter 7

After the funeral, Adrian returned to an estate that no longer felt inhabited.My orchids had been removed, my books were packed in boxes, and the limited-edition camera he had bought me remained unopened on the table. He found a dark stain on the marble where my blood had dried around the broken opal.For the first two days, he blamed Bianca.On the third, he began blaming my parents.By the end of the week, there was no one left to blame without eventually reaching himself.In his mind, the final days replayed without mercy. He remembered asking me to return the necklace, telling me Bianca deserved justice, and leaving me alone because the Commission was waiting downstairs. At every moment, he had believed his love excused the choice he made. He had never considered that love could become another weapon when only one person was expected to endure it.He ordered his men to reconstruct my final days. They traced my car to the Bellandi estate and discovered I had spent almost an hour in
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Chapter 8

Eleven months after leaving Chicago, I stood at the head of a glass conference table in Boston and explained how someone had stolen forty million dollars without moving a cent through an unauthorized account.The executives across from me had spent six weeks blaming hackers. I showed them that their chief financial officer had instead altered ownership records, pledged company assets through shell corporations, and prepared to disappear before the next audit.When I finished, no one spoke for several seconds.Then the chairman closed the report. “How soon can you recover the assets?”“The injunctions were filed this morning. He can no longer move them.”My managing partner smiled. The case had been considered impossible when he assigned it to me. Three hours later, he offered me an equity position at Northbridge Risk Advisory.I accepted under the name Mara Hale.At first, I had joined Northbridge as a temporary analyst because my new identity could not withstand an extensive backgroun
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Chapter 9

Bianca disappeared two weeks after Adrian revoked her protection.Before leaving Chicago, she stole an encrypted copy of the Vescari financial ledger. It contained shell companies, port payments, and enough evidence to destroy Adrian’s organization.It also contained transactions authorized under her name during the seven years I had lived as Mrs. Vescari.Her lawyer contacted me first.Bianca would give the ledger to federal prosecutors unless I signed a statement accepting responsibility for the accounts. If I cooperated, she would keep my new life out of the investigation.The threat exploited the years when I had managed accounts under Bianca’s legal identity. On paper, separating us looked almost impossible.She had forgotten that I designed the accounting system.I read the demand twice, then forwarded it to Northbridge’s general counsel.Adrian called ten minutes later.“Do not answer her,” he said. “I’ll handle it.”“That is what you always say.”“Mara, those records can implic
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Chapter 10

Bianca’s immunity agreement was formally revoked three months later.She pleaded guilty to wire fraud, identity theft, extortion, money laundering, and conspiracy to sell protected financial records. At sentencing, she insisted that everything had begun because I stole the life meant for her.The judge asked who had forced her to flee on the night of the wedding.Bianca had no answer.She received eighteen years in federal prison.My father was indicted for falsifying my death certificate and misappropriating my trust. The Commission permanently removed him from his seat, while the family’s harbor holdings were divided among its creditors. My mother moved to a guarded house in Switzerland and sent me three letters asking for forgiveness.I returned them unopened.At my identity hearing, their attorneys warned of scandal. I testified anyway. The judge vacated my false death certificate and recognized that my signature had been coerced. At last, my survival existed in public records.Adr
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