All Chapters of I Left the Don Without a Goodbye: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

Tonight was the Moretti family’s annual gala, and the family elders and members had all arrived with their dates.As the Don of the Moretti family, Nico should have attended with me, but he was nowhere to be seen.When I walked into the ballroom alone, every head turned toward me. The gazes lingered for two seconds before drifting away, and no one came over to exchange pleasantries.Nico’s second-in-command passed the word around. “The Boss has something to take care of. He’ll be here later.”Everyone knew that Nico was somewhere in Brownsville, dealing with a mess involving a girl named Lola and the loan sharks who were after her.A few people behind me were whispering among themselves.“Five years. He must be tired of Claire by now. She never socializes, and she has way too much pride. Who could put up with that?”“I’ve seen that girl. She looks so pitiful, you can’t help feeling sorry for her.”“I told you, Nico falls for a sob story. I saw him comforting that girl with my own eyes

Nico’s expression darkened completely, and the family gala ended on a sour note.Nico didn’t come home that night. I heard he had bought an estate on Long Island for Lola and was staying there with her.He had unilaterally decided to give me the silent treatment, while everyone waited to see how I, the woman who had held her head high for five years, would compete with an orphan for his attention.I had no intention of competing.Back in the first year of our relationship, I had already told Nico that if he ever found another woman and no longer wanted to be with me, he could call it quits at any time. I wasn’t the kind of woman who would cling to a man who no longer wanted her.I had said it calmly and matter-of-factly, which had infuriated Nico. He had wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and kissed me fiercely before declaring, “Who’s been filling your head with this nonsense about calling it quits whenever I want? I’m keeping you by my side for the rest of my life.”We might no

The lights in the hospital corridor were painfully bright.Nico sat in a chair beside Lola’s hospital bed, frowning at his phone as he waited for my reply. But even by nightfall, I still hadn’t answered him.His frown deepened, yet he was so preoccupied that he didn’t even notice Lola opening her eyes and secretly watching him from her bed.All he could think about was the sight of me kneeling on the floor, clutching the broken porcelain fragments with tears in my eyes.His Claire had never looked so vulnerable before, and the thought of my tears made his heart ache with an almost unbearable pain.Unable to sit still any longer, Nico gripped his phone and stood up. He was going back to find me.Just then, Lola, still with her eyes closed as though caught in a nightmare, called out in a tearful voice, “Brother... please don’t leave me here all alone...”Nico stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her. She lay curled up in the hospital bed, looking pale and frail.Her brother, Paul,

The day my assignment ended, I slung the same backpack I had brought with me four years earlier over my shoulder and walked out along the muddy road that led away from the camp.When I had first arrived four years ago, no one had come to welcome me. Now, as I left, a line of people stood behind me, watching as I made my way toward the checkpoint at the end of the road.That was when I saw Nico.He was standing outside the checkpoint, looking much thinner than before, his face pale and dark circles beneath his eyes making him look as though he hadn’t slept properly in a very long time.The moment he saw me emerge, he took a step forward.“Claire.”I ignored him and kept walking.He hurried after me, his voice lower and hoarser than I remembered. “I finally found you. Four years, Claire. I’ve been looking for you for four years.”He seemed desperate to pour out everything he had wanted to say over the past few years, all at once.“I’ve prepared a law firm for you, your own law firm. You

Three days after Gerald brought me back to New York, he hosted a dinner in my honor.He told me there were many people who wanted to see me.The venue was in Midtown Manhattan. It wasn’t particularly lavish, but the guests were all influential figures in their own right.Among them were Wall Street fund managers, community leaders from Brooklyn, and entrepreneurs who had built their fortunes in the medical device industry. They were all faces I had seen four years earlier at my makeshift legal-aid desk.Back then, they had sat across from me looking so nervous and uneasy that they could barely get their words out. Now, they approached me one after another with drinks in hand, bowing their heads slightly as they greeted me with the words, “Esteemed Attorney Mercer.”Gerald stood beside me and said quietly, “They’ve been waiting for this day for a long time.”“Did you arrange all this?”“They wanted to come on their own. I simply let them know.”More than halfway through the dinner, I to