All Chapters of My Husband the Don Cheated to Beat a Prophecy, So I Vanished: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Sophia Conti, Leonardo's personal assistant, stood in front of me with tears streaming down her face."Donna, I didn't mean to spill the whiskey into the soup..."I grew up in the projects. Half the time there wasn't enough to eat, so when I spilled the liquor, I couldn't bring myself to throw the soup out... I never thought you'd be so fragile..."I was too weak to move, let alone confront her.If I'd had the strength, I would have grabbed her by the collar and demanded an answer.She'd spilled whiskey into the soup. How could she hand it to me as if nothing were wrong?!But I didn't want to put the baby through anything else, so I closed my eyes, exhausted."Handle it, Leonardo. I don't want to see her again."He was already obsessed with keeping this baby safe.Just a few days earlier, we'd been at a Michelin-starred restaurant when the chef sent out a plate of his special liqueur-filled chocolates.Leonardo's face went dark. He sent his men into the kitchen and had them march the s

I slowly released the door handle, turned, and walked out of the restaurant.The cold night air hit me. I kept walking, with no idea where I was going.When I finally snapped out of my daze, I was standing outside a fortune teller's shop. The wooden door was ajar.Esme sat on the other side of the candlelit table. She didn't look the least bit surprised to see me.She simply looked up. "Do you want to draw a card?" Her voice was rough and weary.I hesitated, then nodded.She drew a tarot card from the deck with a bony hand and laid it flat on the table.The Page of Swords."The person you're wearing yourself out trying to save can't be saved. The thing you want most is going to come to nothing."She tapped the edge of the card."Only after you get through the worst of it will you have your one chance to leave this city."...I walked home on legs that didn't feel like mine.Leonardo stood outside the house in a sharp suit, waiting in the night wind. His expression was frighteningly col

He turned back to me, sounding a little guilty. "Julia, go ahead and pay your respects. I'll handle her dismissal and be right there."Then he took Sophia into the small memorial building where my parents' urns were kept.I thought I'd gone numb to all of it. But watching them walk in there together still cut me to the quick.I clenched my fists, turned around, and walked to my parents' headstone.In the photo, they looked back at me with the same gentle expressions I'd always known.I laid the white jasmine I'd brought in front of the stone and kept my voice low. "Dad, Mom, I'm leaving this city."Forgive me for not living the safe, settled life you wanted for me. But don't worry. I'm taking you with me."The jasmine petals trembled in the breeze, as if they were nodding.I smiled, stood up, and started toward the building where their urns were.Before I could touch the door, I heard a breathless cry from inside. Sophia was trying to keep her voice down. "Ah... easy, Leonardo. Think o

Leonardo looked back at me with a coldness I didn't recognize."She's already hurt. What more do you want?"Then he hurried out with Sophia in his arms, never looking back.Like he couldn't see the warm blood spreading out underneath me.It was a long time before the cramping eased enough for me to call 911.The ambulance rushed me to the hospital. When the light over the operating room went off, the doctor gave me the news.The baby was gone.For real this time.I looked down.I wasn't even surprised.All my hopes for this baby had died the moment he reached out and shoved me without hesitation.My phone kept lighting up and going dark. Texts from Leonardo."Julia, I know you're just scared of losing me, but Sophia is in the ICU now. This time you went too far.""Come here and apologize to her.""Be good. Apologize like you mean it and I'll let all of it go. Everything will go back to the way it was."I gave a thin smile and switched off my phone. Then I took out the SIM card, snapped

Three days.For three solid days, the Rizzo family's men searched every dock and highway and checked every flight out of Chicago.One of them stood in the study doorway, keeping his voice down as if he were afraid of setting Leonardo off. "Don... it's been three days. Not a trace."The Donna's bank cards haven't been used. Her phone last pinged near the cemetery and hasn't come back on since."She might... really be gone from the city."Leonardo sprang out of his chair and kicked over the coffee table.Glass shattered with a crack like a gunshot, and whiskey spilled across the floor."Impossible!" His eyes were bloodshot as he forced the words out. "Where would she go? She's got nobody, she..."He stopped.Nobody.Marco had said she had no one left, that she depended on Leonardo for everything and had nowhere else to turn.But she'd left.The door opened. Sophia came in, pale and forcing a smile, with one hand on her back."Leonardo... how long has it been since you came to see me?"Yo