Lahat ng Kabanata ng The Don's Last Promise: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

Once the envelope was sealed, I set it quietly on the nightstand.At one forty in the morning, the door opened.Nathaniel came in first, cradling Victoria's ragdoll cat with exaggerated care.Victoria followed right behind him, clutching an elegant leather cat carrier, looking terrified.A rival gang hit near her apartment tonight. The security system triggered the alarm. Until her own detail is sorted, she stays here tonight."He glanced at the master bedroom, lights still on.In the guest room, my packed cardboard boxes were stacked neat and orderly.Twelve large moving boxes, holding every trace of my seven years here.Nathaniel spotted them the second he walked in.He kicked the one blocking his path."Donating books to the church charity again?"Every year around the holidays, I'd sort through my hardcovers and send them to the community library or the church.He never cared. He never even bothered to read the recipient's name on the boxes.So he never noticed that on every flap,

At the New York mafia gala, my seat at the main table had originally been arranged right next to Nathaniel.After Victoria came over, Nathaniel raised a hand and summoned a server to add a chair between him and me.Victoria settled in slowly, elegantly swept her long hair aside, and the thin ruby bracelet on her wrist glittered under the lavish crystal chandelier.That was the bracelet Nathaniel had personally fastened around my wrist at the celebration banquet when the Vance family defeated every rival and officially became New York's number one mafia family, in front of all the family elders and Dons.Even the tiny scratch near the clasp was identical.Back then, Nathaniel had searched half the city's top jewelry workshops to have it custom made, because that shade of red was the color of the Vance family crest, and the color of my birthstone.He'd clasped it on me himself, eyes blazing."Audrey, I'm giving you this because you and the Vance family are the most precious treasures of

Before the elevator doors closed, Nathaniel was still standing there, Victoria's ragdoll cat in his arms.He didn't follow.Rachel was waiting for me downstairs.She saw the suitcase and asked nothing, just opened the trunk for me.As we pulled away, my phone buzzed.A message from Nathaniel.[Audrey, don't lose the estate key.]Five minutes later, another one.[Come back tomorrow night. We need to talk about what happened with Victoria.]He didn't even ask where I was staying.Because he was certain that without him, I had nowhere to go.Rachel glanced at the screen."He still thinks you're throwing a tantrum?""Mm.""The divorce papers?""On the nightstand.""Did he see them?"I shook my head.Nathaniel never looked at anything I left for him.He was the underground emperor of New York, and every trivial matter at home was mine to handle.All he had to do was come home.Everything else, someone would take care of for him.Rachel dropped me at her empty apartment.After my shower, my

A week later, the Vance family held an internal meeting.I attended as the Donna.Victoria sat at Nathaniel's right hand.The ruby bracelet was gone from her wrist.When she saw me, she started crying first."Donna, I was only trying to find the family's traitor—"I opened my laptop in front of everyone."So you said I maliciously deleted the route files?""I was in too much of a hurry.""So you put your name on my proposal?""Don said you two are married, that I didn't need your permission—"Nathaniel's expression shifted."Victoria."She shut her mouth immediately.I projected the files from the past seven years onto the screen, one by one.The first South American route, the first version of the freight agreement, three revisions, twelve core proposals.Every single file listed me as the creator.The notebook Victoria had taken had also been scanned into the family computer.She thought it was Nathaniel's handwritten draft.I flipped to the last page.That faded Post-it had been sca