Home / After I Left, the Don Finally Said What He Meant / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of After I Left, the Don Finally Said What He Meant: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

My heavy black diamond ring hit the long wooden dining table with a sharp clack.Arthur went pale.Even my in-laws were suddenly rattled. Lorenzo Romano, the former Don, and his wife, Sofia, had been enjoying the show until then.Six years.I'd lived like this for six whole years.Whenever Arthur mocked me or even pulled a gun on me, he never had to coax me. I only had to hear how terrified he was of losing me, and I'd go running back to make up with him.Over time, everyone got used to it.They even joked, "A violent, paranoid man needs a wife who stays even when he points a gun at her."So when I took off the ring, Sofia hurried over."Elena... what's wrong? Are you just having a bad day? You're not usually this petty. As the Donna, you have to be bigger than this."Lorenzo frowned. "This dinner is for the family's inner circle. You may be upset, but divorce is no joke. Put the ring back on. Don't make a spectacle of yourself in front of the men."I let out a small laugh. "So you do

Chapter 2

I looked at Arthur. His lips were trembling, but I remained calm."Fine. I'll get out right now."I ignored the elders trying to stop me and headed for the estate's bronze gates.Just as I was about to step out, a hand clamped around my wrist and yanked me back, so hard I thought my bones might break.Baby, are you really mad? I'm so scared. Are you leaving me?If you leave me, I'll die! I'll take the whole world down with me!Don't leave me!His panicked thoughts closed around me, suffocating me.Stunned, I turned back and saw that the eyes of this Don, a man who could kill without blinking, had gone red.And my heart wavered.Then Arthur's cold voice cut through my hesitation."You want to leave? Fine. Take off that mink stole! I gave you that!"I froze.I looked down at the white mink stole around my shoulders. It was already a little worn.Right after we married, when he'd just taken over the family, Arthur had hunted the mink himself and had the stole made for me.He'd had one of

Chapter 3

By the time I reached our house on the hillside, the freezing cold had left the skin on my legs and ankles cracked and bleeding.I cleaned them with rubbing alcohol, then looked around the room.Our home had once been heavily guarded but warm. Somewhere along the way, it had filled up with Bella's things."Elena, Bella brought this antique musket back from Switzerland. Hang it on the wall. I want to see it every day.""Elena, Bella gave me this silk tie. Does it look good?""Bella wanted me to keep these cigars here. She says they smell like her."Whenever I got so jealous I drew my gun, his cruel smile only widened. He took a sick pleasure in my jealousy.The more he hurt me, the more certain he seemed that I loved him.And his answer to me was always the same."Elena, Bella and I just work together. You're the Donna. Don't be so petty."Worn down day after day, I finally gave him what he wanted. I stopped being petty.I even gave up the Donna's seat.Once I'd bandaged my feet, I pack

Chapter 4

During a mob war that wiped out my family, my mother sold our only heirloom: a ruby necklace.Her last wish before she died was for me to get it back.When Arthur learned about it, he called on every contact he had in Europe's underworld and finally paid a fortune to buy it back.I'd cried when he gave it to me. I told him I didn't know how I'd ever repay him.He wiped the blood from the barrel of his gun. His voice was calm, but his eyes burned with obsessive love. "Then give me your life in return."Elena, I want to marry you."He fastened the cross necklace around my neck himself. My mother's last keepsake became his pledge to marry me.Now he said, "I gave you that necklace because you were going to be my Donna. You want a divorce? Then you aren't mine anymore. What makes you think you can take it?"You don't think you're still worth thirty million dollars, do you?"His words stripped away the pride I'd carried as the daughter of a mob family.I swallowed back a sob."Thirty millio

Chapter 5

"Arthur, I'm bleeding... I'm really bleeding. Let me go to the infirmary now!"It hurts... my stomach hurts so much..."A terrible feeling nearly drove me out of my mind. I pounded on the iron bars, desperate to get out, but the cold steel held fast.Arthur stood in the dark corridor. His voice was ice cold."Elena, ten years, and I never knew you were such a good actress."Bella's the one who's actually bleeding and hurt. I barely shoved you, and you're screaming about blood."Your period isn't until next week!"I broke down, my fingers bleeding as I gripped the bars. "Exactly! My period isn't due until next week, so why am I bleeding?"After six agonizing years of waiting and so many failed rounds of IVF, I didn't dare put a name to it.All I knew was that I had to see a doctor!"Arthur, I'm begging you. Please, will you open the door?"I'm really bleeding! Help me!"Before Arthur could answer, Bella called down the corridor, her voice trembling. "Donna, you'll say anything to cover

Chapter 6

He lunged at me, his voice shaking. "Blood... where did all this blood come from?""From when I fell yesterday." I pushed his arms away and gave him a hollow, bitter smile. "I begged you for help, but you said I was lying."Arthur went pale and swayed. "I... I didn't know... I thought...""Thought I was lying to you?" I gave a self-mocking laugh.We'd known each other for ten years and survived countless shootouts together. Yet he believed every word Bella said without question, while he met everything I said and did with suspicion.Sometimes I wondered.Did he care about me, or did he want to destroy me?Even a prisoner from a rival family would have been treated better.Luckily, I didn't care anymore."I'm going upstairs to shower and change."Arthur grabbed my wrist. My indifference left him at a loss, and he looked terrified.His eyes were red, and he sounded close to begging. "Let's go to the medical center first.""No." I yanked free. "Don't worry. It's just my period. I haven't

Chapter 7

I went to the entryway and slipped on a plain pair of flats.Arthur went on high alert. He hurried over and blocked the door with his body. "Where are you going?"Between yesterday's talk of divorce and the packed suitcase, he was badly shaken.He looked ready to fight to keep me there. I didn't want bloodshed before I left, so I made up an excuse."Headquarters. There's a meeting about an international money-laundering deal. I have to sign the papers.""Really?" His frown eased. For the first time, he set aside his pride. "Then I'll have the motorcade take you."I agreed. At headquarters, I could slip out through the secret passage to the private airfield.Once we were inside the bulletproof Maybach, Arthur brought up Bella."You really hate her, don't you?"Arthur had promoted Bella a year ago.I'd told him countless times over the past year that I hated her. I'd even held a gun to her head.Arthur always answered with, "Don't be so petty. She's just a useful tool."I didn't know wha

Chapter 8

Arthur watched the cab speed away, his fists clenched, rage boiling inside him.But he didn't know what to do with the terror rising in him, the sense that he was about to lose everything.Until now, every time he'd lost his temper, I'd come back to hold him. No matter what he said, I'd followed him like a puppy. He couldn't get rid of me even if he tried.In the mob, no one had taught him to apologize or ask forgiveness.The only thing he could think of was my shattered ruby cross necklace.If he found the best jeweler in the underworld to repair it, would I be happy?That had to be why I was angry and distant. The necklace.Arthur took the wheel, turned the car around, and sped back to the estate.With no thought for his dignity as Don, he crawled across the living room floor, searching every corner until he'd gathered all the ruby shards.As he breathed a sigh of relief, he smelled blood.He'd killed enough people to know the scent. But I was gone. Where was it coming from?His gaze

Chapter 9

"That's impossible..." His eyes went wild. He grabbed Marco by the collar and jammed his gun against the man's temple. "How could Elena agree to go to North America? She swore to me a long time ago that she'd always stay with me. She'd never give up being Donna for some overseas posting!"She told you to lie to me, didn't she? Get her out here right now to explain herself, or I'll shoot you!"Marco stared at him as if he were a madman, sweat pouring down his face."Don... it's true! The transfer order already went through."You're her husband. Why not check the flight records yourself? The Donna has risked her life for this family again and again. What has she done wrong? Why should she have to beg for your forgiveness?"Marco knew he could take a bullet for it, but his words still landed like a slap across Arthur's face.The shame stung.His face burned.And with a terror he'd never known, he finally understood.All of this was real.Arthur suddenly remembered that before the inner-ci

Chapter 10

It had been our first child, the miracle we'd hoped for through six years of despair.Just yesterday.It happened while I begged him through the bars to let me out.Our child was gone. All that remained was a pool of blood.If Arthur had shown even a shred of humanity, if he'd believed me and gotten me out of that cell and to the infirmary, our child might have survived.Arthur clutched the report as he collapsed to his knees among the torn papers, sobbing uncontrollably."Elena... my Elena..."The child he'd waited so long for.The flesh and blood of the woman he loved most.Yet he'd thrown me into the dungeon with his own hands and left me to lose our baby there.On the back of the tear-stained report, I'd written one last line with a fountain pen."Let me go."That was my request.After ten years of gunfire and torment, it was the only thing I'd asked of him.Soon, at my New York penthouse, I received the signed divorce agreement and the papers severing our ties within the mob.A no

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