Home / The Don Gave Me Away, Then I Died / Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

All Chapters of The Don Gave Me Away, Then I Died: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

Eva Bruno, my maid, held back her tears until we were behind the side wing's bulletproof doors."The Don's going to make Selena his Donna, and he's just pawning you off on Carl."What does he think you are, an object? Now that he doesn't need you as a shield, he just hands you to one of his men?"I gave her the agreement with my bloody fingerprint on it."Lock this up."Eva looked at the Lombardi family crest in my hand."And what about the crest?""Get Victor over here."Victor was soon summoned to the sitting room in the side wing.I slid the crest across the long table."I have no problem with dissolving our marriage pact."But I am never marrying Carl."You made this deal without me. You can be the one to call it off."Victor glanced at the crest on the table, and his face darkened."Monica, I've already decided Selena will be the Donna."Even if you refuse to enter into a new pact, that isn't going to change.""Do you think that just because I refuse to be traded like a bargaining

Chapter 2

The next day, I went back to my family's estate with Eva.My belongings hadn't been loaded into the car yet. I'd come only to tell the family elders that I'd signed the agreement ending my marriage.The guards at the estate gates recognized my black armored car, waved it through, and sent word ahead.By the time I walked into the meeting room, my father, my brother Luca, and his wife Amy were already sitting at the long table.I'd barely set the agreement down when my father asked, "When is Victor planning to marry Selena?"No one cared that my five-year marriage had ended overnight or what would happen to me next."I have no idea when he's marrying her."I came to let you all know that I'm moving back home for now."And I refuse to marry Carl."My father's face hardened."The Don himself picked his most trusted man for you. He's doing this family a great honor."If you dare back out, you're not just slapping Carl in the face. You're slapping Victor."Luca frowned too."Just yesterday,

Chapter 3

When I woke up, it was already noon the next day.The doctor said the cold had caused a high fever and that my old knee injury needed at least two weeks of rest.But my father had no intention of letting me recover."You still haven't moved your things out of the estate or handed over the books for the underground business."Go take care of it today. Don't let the Don think this family drags its feet."I did need to get my belongings back.The armored car stopped in front of the main house at the estate, and Eva carefully helped me out.I used to inspect the entire armory in heels and deal with a few rats along the way.Now, climbing the steps made my knee feel as if a drill were boring into it.I gripped Eva's wrist hard."Don't let anyone see."The moment I entered the hall, I ran into Selena, who was overseeing the decorations.My gun cases and clothes were being thrown out one by one.Racks of her dresses were being wheeled into the master bedroom.She signaled a servant to bring c

Chapter 4

Victor sent men with more painkillers twice, but he never came himself.My father's bodyguards stopped them at the iron gate both times.The report that reached Victor was always the same."Ms. Coppola has come around. She's very calm."On the morning of the fifth day, the whole Coppola estate had been decorated for the celebration.My father stood outside my bedroom door and gave me an ultimatum. "You're going to Carl's place in the South District this morning."Once the Don's wedding goes off without a hitch, Luca will officially take over the shipping routes. Then we'll have nothing to worry about."He'd already told Carl two days earlier that I'd agreed.He'd also had my entire floor sealed off and every line of communication to the outside cut.Fighting back nausea, I changed into the black dress they'd laid out. Then Eva and I pushed open the bathroom's ventilation window.She'd just climbed out onto the fire escape when Luca and his men kicked in the bathroom door.I grabbed a p

Chapter 5

Carl's private medical team rushed into the villa's main hall and hooked me up to their monitors.The heart monitor flatlined. The doctor shone a penlight into my eyes.After half a minute, he slowly took off his stethoscope."Mr. Lombardi, there's no point trying to resuscitate her."She suffocated. There are no vital signs."Carl's arms tightened around me.When the Coppola bodyguards saw how bad things were, they tried to slip out the back. Carl's men drew their guns and jammed the barrels against their heads."Lock down the whole territory."Leave the convoy, the rope, and the gauze exactly where they are. Anyone who touches them is a dead man."One of the bodyguards was so terrified that his legs buckled, and he sank to the floor."Mr. Lombardi, Ms. Coppola's been sick for days. She suddenly took a turn for the worse on the way..."Carl picked up the length of rope he'd cut."Do you tie a sick woman's hands behind her back?"Do you tape her mouth shut?"The bodyguard went white an

Chapter 6

While the medical examiner performed the autopsy, Victor stood guard outside the door like a statue.At one point, he tried to push his way in, but Carl refused to let him through."She's dead, and you'd still let your men desecrate her body?""If I don't get a full autopsy, nobody will have hard proof she was murdered."If the Don keeps saying he wants justice for her, then he can damn well stand here and wait."40 minutes later, the medical examiner came out with a tablet."She has severe ligature marks on both wrists and signs of frostbite and dead tissue around her knee. We found dangerously high levels of a muscle relaxant in her system."She died of asphyxiation. The rope compressed her chest, and the gauze blocked her airway."She struggled for a long time before she died."Victor stared at the photos on the tablet. His voice came out ragged. "How did she get frostbite on her knee?"The bodyguard on his knees in the corner broke down and begged for mercy. "It was old Mr. Coppola

Chapter 7

Late that night, investigators from the tribunal questioned each member of the Coppola family separately, cross-checking their stories.Victor sat behind the one-way glass and listened as they turned on each other. Each blamed someone else for my death.My father still insisted he'd been thinking of the bigger picture. "I matched her with a powerful capo who runs the South District. If she hadn't been so stubborn and fought her family, no one would have died."Luca sounded as if he didn't care at all. "Once she married him, I'd get the smuggling routes at the docks. It was a win-win deal for everyone."Victor punched through the one-way glass. Shards fell to the floor alongside drops of his blood."Win-win?"You suffocated her to death in a car. You call that a win-win?"Amy was the first to crack under questioning, and she handed over a flash drive.Luca had already struck a secret deal with Selena's contact over the smuggling rights he'd been coveting at the South District port. The

Chapter 8

Three days after I was declared dead, Victor opened the file.On top lay a transfer record and a few private letters.Five years ago, Victor had just taken command of the most dangerous crew and was facing a gang war he had almost no chance of surviving.Selena didn't want to bet her future on a man who could be gunned down any day. She'd taken up with the old Don's enemy and planned to run away with him.But she was afraid the other man might lose his power someday. She wanted to keep Victor as a backup.She paid the old Don's advisor a fortune to stir up trouble at the Caceres family council and push him into forcing Victor to marry me.One of Selena's letters read, "That idiot Monica has the least standing in her family. Give her a few crumbs and she'll do as she's told. Let her marry him in my place. It'll keep Victor steady without getting in the way of my plans."Victor stared at the lines, his eyes bloodshot.Then he opened the records tracing the anonymous transfer.The documen

Chapter 9

That night, Carl finished giving his last statement and got ready to go back to his own territory.Before he left, he came to the medical pod where my body lay and tossed the Lombardi family crest into the trash."Monica, I called off the match you never wanted."No family gets to push you around anymore."Victor stood outside the room and watched Carl go, rooted to the spot for a long time.When I was alive, I'd begged him three times to call off the match.He'd stalled until they dragged me away. Even then, he refused to relent.As Carl passed Victor, he stopped and let out a bitter, mocking laugh."So the you used your power to claim her after all."But hiding her body in a basement doesn't mean she'll forgive you, not even from hell."By the end, she'd stopped hoping for anything from you."When she was slamming her shoulder against that car door, she was only trying to save herself."Victor closed his eyes, and a single tear slipped out.Seven days after I was declared dead, the e

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