He Replaced His Wife And Lost His Mafia Empire Chapter 03
The banquet was still going on downstairs.
I opened the wardrobe and took out a single suitcase.
The old house was filled with my things, but very little of it was truly mine. I had chosen the sheets, the flowers, the dinnerware. I had checked the gift ledgers in the vault. But all of it belonged to the Moretti family.
My phone rang. It was the private adviser who held joint documents for both our families.
“Evelyn, the Costa family previously guaranteed the financing on the three new casino hotels, but that guarantee expires next month. Dominic wants to extend it. He needs your confirmation.”
In the past, I would have signed a document like that without hesitation.
When the Moretti family expanded those three businesses, they had come up short on funds. Because I asked, Miles had let them leverage the Costa family’s reputation and West Coast shipping routes. Thanks to that, Dominic didn’t have to sell the old Lake Geneva house, and he took the boss’s seat without any trouble.
He had never thanked me for it.
In his mind, married people shared resources as a matter of course.
“Don’t renew it,” I said.
The adviser paused.
“Are you sure? They’ll have thirty days to find a new guarantor and explain to every partner why the Costa family is pulling out.”
“I’m sure.”
After I hung up, I went downstairs to look for my ID.
As I passed the study, laughter drifted out.
The door was ajar.
Sloane was sitting beside Dominic, still wearing the pearl necklace. In front of her lay the year-end tribute list that only the boss and his advisers were allowed to see.
Someone raised a glass, congratulating her on finally making it into a Moretti family portrait.
“I can’t believe Evelyn didn’t make a scene today,” a man said.
Dominic leaned back against the sofa, his tone casual.
“She’s just trying a new tactic. Once the guests leave, she’ll come to me crying.”
“Aren’t you worried the Costa family will find out?”
“California’s two thousand miles away. Her brother can be as formidable as he wants—he can’t live her life for her.”
Dominic smiled.
“Evelyn can’t leave me. Every time she throws a fit, I give her something, and she finds a reason to stay.”
Sloane asked softly, “Will you have to give the necklace back to her later?”
“That depends on how she behaves tonight.”
Laughter filled the room.
I stood outside the door and didn’t go in.
So, for the past five years, it wasn’t that Dominic had failed to understand my pain.
He had understood all of it.
And because he knew it hurt, he thought this was an effective way to tame me.
I went back upstairs, removed my name from the internal contact registry, and canceled the personal seal printed on every gift list.
Starting tomorrow, the banquets, the gifts, the elders’ medications, the housing arrangements for his men’s families, and the allies’ problems would no longer come to me.