Chapter 5
“Have we… met before?” D
Suddenly, countless fragments in my mind were threaded together by something!
This time, I’m afraid I’m destined to disappoint you.
It wasn’t until the seventh day, when delaying any longer would have been a true breach of propriety, that I finally agreed to return.
I nodded numbly, and it took a long moment for the reality of his words to sink in.
It was a simple act of kindness on my part, yet he had held it in his heart all this time.
“And he asked you what your name was.”
He didn’t touch me, only stripped me bare inch by inch with those deep, penetrating
eyes.
Dante gently tapped the tip of my nose with a look of fond exasperation, then let out a deep sigh.
“So, it turns out I saved you, but I had no idea who you were. And you remembered me, but you had no idea I would forget,” I said with a bitter smile.
I just wonder, will you be able to withstand my counter-attack?
That’s why rumors began to spread that on their wedding night, Sophia had angered Dante and was met with his cold shoulder ever since.
He had indeed suffered a severe leg injury after being ambushed, but he had already
made a full recovery some time ago.
“You still haven’t recognized me? You forgetful little thing!”
In a fit of pique, I never went back to apologize and simply drifted all the way to Bucharest, where I happened to run into Dante as he was being pursued by his
enemies.
At present, only his Consigliere and a few of his most trusted men knew the truth.
It was my own obsession with my status as a wealthy heiress, with my mother’s doting
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affection, and with the hollow bond of blood that had, in some unseen way, trapped me in a cage of my own making.
Judging by his reaction, he was nothing like the crippled man of the rumors.
“Seven years ago, in an alley in Bucharest, you saved a man who’d been shot in the leg…”
Seeing my family already waiting by the door with ill intent, I sneered inwardly.
Dante let out another low chuckle. The deep rumble vibrated through his broad chest, leaving me mesmerized, but he didn’t answer my question directly.
Once we had laid bare the origins of our connection, Dante no longer suppressed the bone-deep desire coursing through him. He pinned me beneath him, possessing me fiercely.
I blinked, realization dawning on me, but I simply couldn’t connect the blood-soaked man from all those years ago with the Don who now stood before me, the man who controlled all of Chicago.
In an attempt to win his favor, she tried all sorts of ways to seduce Dante. But who could have known that while she was “rehearsing” with another man, she was caught in the act by members of the Torrino family who were there for a banquet.
When his pursuers passed by, they didn’t recognize him in his disguise at all and
headed off in another direction to continue their search.
It wasn’t until Easter Eve that he finally let me go, though he was still far from satisfied.
For seven days, we devoured and entangled ourselves in bed, as if trying to merge our very flesh and bone.
In truth, we were supposed to return to the family for a gathering three days after the wedding, and the Kovalenko family had already sent someone to inquire several times.
The day had been exhausting, and I didn’t have the energy to dwell on it, so I soon fell into a deep sleep.
I couldn’t help but voice the question that had been weighing on my mind.
I knew it was Sophia’s doing. She was impatient to see the miserable, suffocated look on my face, the one that said I was suffering in silence after marrying a cripple. I
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merely sent word back, “The time is not yet right.”
I helped him change into some shabby backpacker’s clothes, mussed up his hair, and even smeared some mud on his face, making him look like an ordinary,
down-on-his-luck tourist.
That mother, the one who shares my blood, didn’t even see me off on my wedding day. Instead, she chose to dote on someone else.
I finally understood. In my past life, the person Dante had truly wanted to marry was me, but through a twist of fate, he ended up with Sophia instead.
His sweat dripped onto my skin, so scalding hot it felt as though it would burn me.
From his surprise when he first saw me last night, to the overwhelming possessiveness in his gaze, to the respect that never crossed a line, and now, this trust that defied all
reason.
“You’re mine, Katya,” he growled in my ear over and over. “From head to toe, inside and out, you are all mine.”
“I’m not crippled. Are you surprised?”
The only reason he hadn’t announced it publicly was to use the opportunity to lure out the traitor within the family.
The next morning, Dante was propped up on his elbow, a smile gracing his face as he gazed at me adoringly.
I was utterly bewildered, not daring to move an inch in his embrace. I could only manage a muffled question.
And that is what drove Marcus, who secretly adored Sophia, to resent me, ultimately causing my family’s ruin and my own humiliating death. And the starting point of everything was when I told him my real name. With his resources, finding out who someone was wouldn’t be difficult.
I should have seen it clearly long ago-my obsession was pointless.
My mind was swirling with questions, but I didn’t dare voice them. Dante, however,
was the one to break the silence.
Dante’s fingers traced my collarbone, traveling downward until they rested over my
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heart. “Your heart is racing, baby,” he rasped, his voice tinged with a hint of teasing. “Are you scared, or are you excited?”
“But, we’ve only just met. How can you trust me so easily?”
The Torrino family disposed of her secretly, claiming to the public only that she had gone insane and taken her own life.
And so, she became certain I was living in utter misery, too ashamed to return and face
them.
The maids who brought in our breakfast had never seen their Don with such an expression and found it quite extraordinary.
He simply swept me into his arms, tossed me onto the soft, large bed, and loomed over
Back then, Sophia had framed me for stealing the family’s money, and when my father found the forged account books in my room, he threw me out of the house in a fit of
rage.
I shook my head. Since this was fate’s design, this time, I would firmly grasp the opportunity that was mine.
