He Needed a Donna. I Wanted a Husband のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 1 - チャプター 9

After I returned to Milan, my secretary brought me a file.As I went through it page by page, the truth gradually came into view.The first time I asked to return to Sicily with Matteo, his mother was suddenly hospitalized with a heart attack, so I stayed behind to look after her. According to the file, the entire thing had been staged with the help of her doctors and nurses.The second time I wanted to go with him, one of the Vitale family’s operations in Milan came under attack, and I remained there to negotiate on the family’s behalf. Only now did I learn that the confrontation had been deliberately provoked by Matteo’s right-hand man, Sal, who had led his men into another family’s territory.The third time I planned to accompany him, my father was summoned by the prosecutor’s office. I stayed in Milan to find him a lawyer and deal with the investigation, never knowing that he had deliberately drawn the authorities’ attention to himself.They had gone to extraordinary lengths to kee

Preparations were underway for Chiara and Stefano’s welcome dinner.I spent most of the day in the study finalizing the menu, arranging the seating plan, and confirming the guest list, with documents spread across the desk in front of me.Matteo came in carrying a small plate.On it were two slices of toast, lightly charred at the edges and covered with a thick layer of Sicilian orange marmalade.There had been a time when that was the only thing I could eat whenever the pressure became too much.Back when we had first moved to Milan, we worked from morning until well past midnight almost every day. Whenever I lost my appetite, Matteo would make this for me, bring it to my desk, and feed me.Once we had established ourselves in Milan, he never made it again.He set the plate down in front of me.“You haven’t had dinner.”I looked at the toast but made no move to touch it.“Vera.” Matteo sat across from me, his voice low and gentle. “I haven’t forgotten everything you’ve carried for me

Matteo had sent everyone he could spare to search for me when Sal, his right-hand man, stormed into the study and urged him to think clearly. “Boss, you need to calm down. The Family still has business to take care of, and you can’t afford to forget that.”Matteo’s expression remained unreadable as he replied, “Sal, she matters more to me than anything else.”Sal fell silent, but eventually accepted that there was no changing Matteo’s mind and went to carry out his orders.After Sal left, my father, Tommaso Moretti, was the next to enter the study. Matteo turned his dark, heavy gaze on him and said, “If you’re here to talk me out of this too, you can get out.”He would never have spoken to my father that way while I was still there, but now that I was gone, even that restraint no longer seemed to matter.My father shook his head and took a document from inside his jacket. “I only came to tell you that she left a set of papers with me as well.”The documents made it clear that I had sep

The children huddled behind me, clinging to my legs as they watched the man standing at the gate with frightened, uncertain eyes.I gently told them to go inside, and Arta was the last to release her grip on me before scurrying into the house and closing the door behind her, leaving Matteo and me alone in the courtyard.His hands were wrapped in thick bandages, his eyes bloodshot, and his entire frame had grown noticeably thinner, but I wasn't surprised that he had managed to find me. I had never deliberately concealed my whereabouts; I had divorced him and left the Vitale family, not vanished off the face of the earth, and Tirana was a small enough city that anyone determined to find me would eventually succeed.Matteo approached me one slow step at a time before dropping to his knees in front of me.“Vera, I'm sorry. I was wrong,” he said, looking at me with desperate, pleading eyes as he begged me to forgive him and give him another chance.He wanted me to understand that he wasn't