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The Men Who Abandoned Me Watched Me Marry a Mafia King
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
My husband and I sealed our alliance pact today, but the two men I was raised beside, the ones who once swore my name would be entered into their Family's book, had no idea. They were too busy fussing...
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第1章
My husband and I sealed our alliance pact today, but the two men I was raised beside, the ones who once swore my name would be entered into their Family's book, had no idea. They were too busy fussing over the woman who had supposedly "saved my life."
To lift her spirits, they had even bought her a darling Ragdoll cat as a token of their gratitude. They had completely forgotten that cat fur could put me in the ground.
So when I came home, freshly discharged from the safehouse infirmary, my throat closed, my lungs failed, and I went straight back under a doctor's care.
And they did not believe me when I told them the woman had staged the whole "rescue" from the first breath.
The moment I came to in the emergency ward, I called my uncle to arrange my marriage.
After my parents were buried, my uncle was the one who had set aside a good match for me.
——
The instant he heard I consented, Don Marchetti moved with the speed of a man closing a deal before the other side could think twice. He did it because he feared I would go soft in the head again and waste my years torn between two boys raised in the circle.
"Gioia Marchetti," he said, "didn't I warn you that those two are barely fit to be called your friends? I'm a man. I know for certain neither of them has the makings of a husband. A man reads another man's flaws better than any woman ever will. And still you wouldn't listen."
Then: "We get the pact witnessed first. Seven days from now, you'll have the union before the whole table."
I used to think my uncle, being a man, could never understand what a woman feels.
After all, only you know whether the shoe fits. But before I had ever slipped these ones on, they had already cut me a hundred times over.
"Don, send me his information. I'll set the witnessing now," I told him.
A union was a matter between two people. I had to take charge of something.
As it happened, just as I was about to fix the appointment, Tommaso Bellini and Geffri Lombardi caught my words and pushed into the hospital room.
They asked me in one voice, "What appointment? What are you going to register?"
I saw no reason to keep it from them, so I answered plainly, "I'm getting married."
The two exchanged a look. When they understood that neither of them was the groom, they both let out a relieved laugh. "You're joking, right?"
I paid them no mind and kept arranging the time on my phone.
Out of habit, they leaned in the way they always had, to see. But before they could read the screen, Tommaso's phone rang with the meow of a cat, a ringtone he had set just for Lizetta Conti.
"Tommaso. I think someone's in my place. I always triple-lock the door when I leave, and now it swings open with one turn." Lizetta's voice came thin and frightened.
Tommaso shot up without a word, and he and Geffri rushed out together.
On his way through the door, Tommaso called back, "Lizetta, don't go inside. Wait for us at the usual spot."
I listened to the panic in his voice and the hurried footsteps fading down the corridor.
They had not known her a full month, and already there was a "usual spot" for the three of them.
I smirked and confirmed the earliest date the witnessing would allow.
On the day I was discharged, Tommaso and Geffri finally showed their faces again.
They were in a hurry. They kept pushing me to move faster, so I told them kindly that if they had something more pressing, they were welcome to go on ahead.
Geffri muttered at Tommaso, his face dark. "Didn't I tell you we should've split up? Now Lizetta's waiting on us, and if anything happens to her, you'll be the one to answer for it."
Tommaso fired back, his eyes full of anger. "You think I want to be standing here?"
Once, they would have come to blows over who got to bring me home. Now I was nothing but dead weight between them.
I smiled and flagged a taxi from the curb. Seeing it, they hauled me back out of the car, annoyance written all over them.
"Gioia, what do you think you're doing? Lizetta put together a surprise to celebrate you getting out," they said.
Before I could refuse, they dragged me into their own car.
The moment the doors shut, they dialed Lizetta and talked with her the whole ride, lively as could be. I had become invisible, so I closed my eyes and rested.
Only when we reached the bar did I understand that the so-called surprise for me was in fact a birthday party for Lizetta.
Hands full of beautifully wrapped gifts, Tommaso and Geffri hurried toward her. They were the same presents the two had picked out for my birthday this year.
Seeing the gifts had found a new owner, and having no interest in playing the supporting part, I turned to leave.
Out of nowhere, a cat lunged at me.
Without a second thought, I kicked it away, sending it flying with a yowl.
Lizetta, still wearing her party hat, stormed up to me.
第2章
"Gioia, if you've got something against me, you come at me directly. Why take it out on poor Vera?" asked Lizetta.
In her arms, the cat let out a pitiful whimper, as if it had been terribly wronged before the whole room.
Tommaso and Geffri rounded on me without a breath between them. "Gioia. We know cat fur sets you off, but that doesn't give you the right to lash out at Vera and Lizetta."
As he said it, Tommaso pressed an entire blister pack of allergy medicine into my hands.
"Maybe you should think about why you're the only one in this circle so sensitive to a cat. I don't believe you'd still have a reaction if you took this whole pack."
Did he actually expect me to swallow all of them? I wondered.
I took just one and forced it down. "One is enough," I told them.
That only made Tommaso and Geffri more displeased.
"Lizetta's right. How does anyone end up that badly allergic to a little fur? Looks like the whole hospital stay was an act."
The words left the dissolving medicine bitter at the back of my throat.
There had been a time when a stray cat wandering within five meters of me would have put them both on alert, treating it like a threat to be answered. Now my allergy had become my original sin.
First they'd let that cat roam free in my room until I went into anaphylactic shock. Then they'd accused me of faking it to land myself a hospital bed.
Now, after the thing had nearly gone for my throat, I was the one branded too fragile to be taken seriously.
Lizetta was weeping her heart out beside us, the picture of a woman lost.
"I don't know what I did wrong, but if I upset you, then it's my fault. I'm sorry. Please, will you stay and celebrate my birthday with me, please…" she pleaded.
Her tears came down without pause, with practiced precision. They had arrived a half-second too fast.
Tommaso was so undone by the sight that he went straight to wipe them away, while Geffri pulled me aside to reprimand me under his breath. "You've taken the medicine. So even if you kissed the damn cat, it wouldn't kill you."
With that he went back to stand beside Tommaso and comfort her. "Don't cry, Lizetta. Let me apologize for Gioia. She's been spoiled rotten since she was a girl. Don't take her to heart."
The two of them competed to appease her, eagerly laying out every flaw I had like tribute.
Right on cue, Lizetta's tears gave way to a smile. When she glanced at me, her eyes were full of smugness, and underneath it, a quiet challenge.
That was the moment I understood how little I mattered to them.
When the music started, both men rushed to claim her hand for the dance.
She chose Tommaso and left Geffri standing there, sullen. Then Geffri turned to me, frustrated, and held out his hand for the floor.
I rubbed at the rash spreading hot and itchy across my skin and shook my head.
My refusal didn't seem to bother him. Instead he dropped into the seat beside me, drink after drink going down, his eyes fixed on the couple swaying together.
"Gioia, do you think Lizetta likes Tommaso?" he asked. The disappointment and the jealousy in his voice were plain to hear.
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that she preferred Tommaso over him.
My silence pushed Geffri up from his chair.
The instant the song ended, he was back across the floor, pulling Lizetta away from the other man. I had no stomach for watching two men brawl over one woman, so I rose to take my leave.
Then, through the crowd's gasps, Lizetta found me and dragged me bodily back toward the floor.
"Gioia, please, talk to Tommaso and Geffri. They're fighting over me again and I can't stop them." For all her pleading, she couldn't quite bury the boast in her voice.
I refused her outright. "If you can't stop them, what makes you think I can?"
But the crowd gasped again. This time Tommaso had taken a fist to the face, and blood was running freely from his nose.
That finally snapped Lizetta out of the performance and into real panic. She yanked me with all her strength, nearly hauling me into the middle of the brawl.
The thing they were fighting over was where she would stay. Her neighborhood wasn't the safest stretch of the territory, and now they argued over whose held ground would shelter her.
Geffri's reasoning was that since Tommaso had already taken the first dance, the right to keep her under his roof fell to him.
I had no desire to part the two of them, and it was a sorry thing to watch. Yet somehow, their heated argument turned toward me.
第3章
With tears already brimming, Lizetta asked me, "Can I stay in your house? What I mean is, since you're allergic to cats, you probably haven't had time to tidy up anyway. Why don't you let me stay here?"
Just then, Tommaso and Geffri, who had been trading blows like two soldiers settling a grudge in the back of a social club, stopped and turned to look at me in unison.
"You know, Lizetta has a point. Would you mind staying somewhere else for a few days, Gioia? We'll cover all the costs."
I considered it for a moment before suggesting, "Why don't I just sell the place to Lizetta instead?"
It seemed Tommaso and Geffri thought I didn't want to let Lizetta stay. They were immediately twisting it back on me, reminding me of how she had once saved my life, as if that debt sat over my head like a marker called in.
The onlookers who didn't know the full story joined in, the way men in a crowd always side with the one crying. They told me to pay the favor.
To pressure me into agreeing, both men counted out three hundred thousand in tribute right there in front of everyone. "It's only for a few days. Consider this rent, okay?"
At this point, refusing in front of the ranks would have cost me more than the house. "Fine!"
The three of them immediately cheered, clasping hands as if the brawl had never happened.
I didn't bother watching them celebrate. I went home to pack my bags.
On my way back, Lizetta sent me a message. "Gioia, I think that amount should be enough to buy your house outright, right? Why don't you just sell it to me?"
What she suggested was exactly what I wanted. I had no plans to come back once the alliance was sealed in Ansel City, so I needed the asset off my hands anyway.
Lizetta was thrilled when I agreed and begged me not to breathe a word to Tommaso or Geffri just yet. Of course, I was more than happy to keep that quiet.
Looking around the held ground that had been my family's, I realized that apart from my parents' things, there wasn't much I needed to take.
The next day, when Tommaso and Geffri brought Lizetta back, the men I'd hired to clear the place had already hauled out everything I didn't want. The two of them didn't look pleased at the near-empty rooms. "Gioia, we only asked you to lend the place for a few days. Do you really have to guard it like there's a thief in the family?"
"You're reading too much into it. I just cleared out what I don't need, to make room for Lizetta," I replied calmly.
The explanation seemed to settle them, at least a little. "Well, fine. We'll replace the furniture later."
Lizetta, who had been watching me with nervous eyes, finally relaxed when I agreed and said nothing more.
I smiled, told the two of them what they wanted to hear, and pushed my suitcase toward the door.
They insisted on walking me down, and I couldn't refuse without making it strange, so I let them.
Just as I was about to step into the elevator, the fire alarm tore through the entire building. The next second, the power cut out and the hall went black.
Tommaso and Geffri immediately closed ranks around Lizetta and steered her down the emergency stairs.
Smelling smoke, I gripped my suitcase and made for the emergency exit as fast as I could.
The heavy case made the stairwell impossible to manage, and I nearly lost my footing when someone shoved past me in the dark. Then a hand caught me, and I fell into a warm, solid embrace.
"Watch your step. Are you all right?"
The man's deep, low voice brushed past my ear and sent the blood rushing to my face. I tried to pull my hand free, but he held me steady, putting his body between me and the crowd pressing through.
We reached the ground floor and he let me go. My face burned as I thanked him.
He looked at me, unhurried, taking my measure. "There's no need to be so formal with me. After all, we're practically famiglia."
Startled, I glanced up and found myself staring into eyes dark as obsidian.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Lorenzo Vitale," he said.
My heart skipped. So this was the man my uncle had chosen to bind me to.
But hadn't my uncle said Lorenzo wouldn't return until tomorrow, the same day we were to seal the alliance pact?
Reading the confusion on my face, he smiled. "When word reached me that you'd agreed to the union, I wrapped up my business early and came back. I couldn't wait any longer to meet you."
His voice, rich and unhurried as a cello, paired with that gentle, indulgent smile, struck something behind my ribs.
My eyes moved over him more than once, and the longer I looked, the faster my heart raced.
Damn you, Don. Why didn't you put a photograph in front of me sooner? This man was everything I'd ever let myself imagine.
第4章
Maybe my gaze was a bit too intense, because I noticed a faint blush creeping up Lorenzo's ears, an unguarded thing on a man whose name made other men lower their voices.
"Gioia," he hesitated. "You... you're not having second thoughts about the union, are you? Are you unhappy with me?"
I quickly shook my head, then nodded emphatically. "No, no, I'm really happy with you!"
Hearing this, the man immediately smiled radiantly. It was so radiant that it seemed like a spring sunlight melting the last patches of snow, an expression I doubted his soldiers had ever seen cross his face.
Lorenzo told me he had pulled some strings to move the sealing of the alliance pact to today, and I was more than willing to go with him to the courthouse where his people had already smoothed every signature in advance.
By the time Tommaso and Geffri arrived with Lizetta, Lorenzo and I were looking and smiling at each other. At that moment, all I could hear was the pounding of my own heartbeat.
It was not until I heard Tommaso's familiar voice calling my name that I realized I had been staring at Lorenzo like a lovestruck fool. "Gioia! Why didn't you pick up your phone? We were worried sick when we couldn't find you!" he scolded.
"Geffri even went back up for you, and all he found was the cat. You didn't even bother bringing the poor thing down! She's been shivering non-stop!"
Geffri nodded along, giving me his piece of mind and complaining about me in the same breath.
Lizetta quickly jumped to my defense. "Don't be too hard on Gioia. We forgot about Vera too, didn't we? Thank goodness Geffri went back and helped me rescue her." The cat wound itself trustingly against Geffri's wrist, oblivious.
Her meaning was clear. The only reason Geffri returned to the house was to rescue her cat, not me.
I checked my phone. It had been two hours since the fire alarm went off, and sure enough, I saw a single missed call. I swore my phone had buzzed for just a second before the call abruptly ended.
Their supposed "concern" struck me as ironic.
The smile on Lorenzo's face faded the moment the three of them showed up, especially when he noticed the cat trembling in Lizetta's arms. He pulled me behind him with a quiet, possessive certainty, his tone anxious when he said, "Gioia, you're allergic to cat fur. Stay back."
Then he drew an allergy pill from his pocket. He wanted me to take it.
His protective actions made the two men's faces darken.
"Allergy pills aren't candy. You shouldn't just hand them out recklessly!" Geffri snapped.
I stopped Lorenzo's hand, reassuring him softly that I had already taken my medication that day.
He was not convinced. When he saw me cough a few times behind my hand, his expression filled with worry.
"If you're coughing, then something's wrong," he insisted. His eyes turned sharp as he looked at the group, and the easy charm was gone from them entirely. "The three of you, and the cat. Stay away from Gioia."
He didn't wait for a response. He took my hand and drew me away from them as if they were some kind of danger that needed answering.
This was the first time anyone had ever taken my allergy so seriously, least of all a man I had just met. Even if my uncle had warned him in advance, his concern for me far outweighed the so-called "care" I had received from Tommaso, who had been raised beside me for ten years.
Maybe Lorenzo's sudden appearance set off some alarm in Tommaso and Geffri's hearts, because they called after me, "Gioia, who is he?"
Before I could answer, Lizetta asked in a voice full of curiosity, "Is he your new man, Gioia?"
Both Tommaso and Geffri scoffed in unison. "No way. This has to be an act. She's just trying to get back at us for not paying attention to her lately."
I didn't want to explain myself to these two overconfident men. But I also didn't want to cause any misunderstanding with Lorenzo right after we had bound our Families together.
I squeezed Lorenzo's hand tightly, our fingers intertwining, and drew out the witnessed alliance pact, its red seal catching the light. Waving it in front of Tommaso and Geffri, I said, "Let me formally introduce you to him. This is my husband."
Their smiles froze.
They were stunned into silence.
Then they burst out laughing, as if I had cracked the world's worst joke.
"Gioia, that's not funny at all!" they said, almost doubling over.
But their laughter died away when I opened the pact fully, revealing the unmistakable seal of authenticity, the kind no rival in any territory would dare contest.
Panic washed over their faces, as if something precious had slipped right through their fingers.
Geffri's jaw worked, and for once the loud man had nothing to say.
"Gioia Marchetti, just because we forgot to grab you in the fire doesn't mean you should marry the first man you see!"
"Go back to the courthouse and tear it up. Now."