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The Don Exiled Me, So I Married Another
Novelix
Completed
After one reckless night with the man the Family had raised me to call Uncle. He stared at the glass of milk on the nightstand, long gone cold, in silence for two full seconds. Then he cut me off from the Rinaldi Family and shipped me overseas. After I was exiled, every mistress he took bore some resemblance to me. Until five years later, when I flew back to New York on short notice, and ran into him at a friend's birthday party. Adriano Vittorio Rinaldi. His grip on the crystal tumbler tightened, just slightly. But before I could read it, a girl slipped her arm through his. She looked nothing like me. And yet she was the first woman he had ever publicly claimed. Marco leaned in and whispered nervously in my ear, "Their engagement's tomorrow. Don't make a scene." Even the look Adriano fixed on me had turned guarded. Everyone was afraid I'd start clinging again. Adriano himself warned me, his voice cool, "Five years abroad—by now, you should have learned to behave, sweetheart." I gave a small laugh and twisted the ring on my left hand. "Congratulations, Uncle." "Only—I'm getting married tomorrow. I'm afraid I won't be able to make your engagement gala."
Chapters (3)
第1章
After one reckless night with the man the Family had raised me to call Uncle.
He stared at the glass of milk on the nightstand, long gone cold, in silence for two full seconds.
Then he cut me off from the Rinaldi Family and shipped me overseas.
After I was exiled, every mistress he took bore some resemblance to me.
Until five years later, when I flew back to New York on short notice, and ran into him at a friend's birthday party.
Adriano Vittorio Rinaldi. His grip on the crystal tumbler tightened, just slightly.
But before I could read it, a girl slipped her arm through his.
She looked nothing like me.
And yet she was the first woman he had ever publicly claimed.
Marco leaned in and whispered nervously in my ear, "Their engagement's tomorrow. Don't make a scene."
Even the look Adriano fixed on me had turned guarded.
Everyone was afraid I'd start clinging again.
Adriano himself warned me, his voice cool, "Five years abroad—by now, you should have learned to behave, sweetheart."
I gave a small laugh and twisted the ring on my left hand.
"Congratulations, Uncle."
"Only—I'm getting married tomorrow. I'm afraid I won't be able to make your engagement gala."
...
Adriano's face went dark in an instant.
No one dared speak.
Every pair of eyes in the room turned toward me.
Vanessa Colombo covered her mouth and let out a small, mocking laugh.
"Oh, sweetheart. Are you feeling all right? Did you somehow confuse my engagement to Adriano with your own wedding?"
That I'd been in love with Adriano was common knowledge.
Around us, people murmured about how I'd chased him for years, told him I loved him ninety-nine times, and been rejected every single time.
Marco leaned over urgently to Adriano: "Adriano, Ceci's practically your niece. Tell your fiancée to watch her mouth."
Adriano's expression softened, and he pulled Vanessa closer by the waist.
"She's my fiancée. She can say whatever she wants."
His voice was full of indulgence—but his eyes were locked on mine.
Marco looked stricken, terrified I'd fly into hysterics the way I used to.
I just smiled, unfazed.
"I was young and reckless once. I didn't know any better. I owe your fiancée an apology for the misunderstanding."
"But I really am back to get married. And no matter what, the groom isn't going to be you."
I was just reaching for the invitation when Adriano's grip on Vanessa's waist tightened without thinking.
She staggered back two steps and crashed into the champagne tower.
The whole thing collapsed in a shower of glass.
A shard sliced Adriano's arm.
"Adriano!"
Vanessa scrambled forward to bandage him, but he raised a hand to stop her.
"I'm fine."
Marco, desperate to shut it all down, elbowed me.
"Ceci—don't joke about marriage."
He waved a waiter over for the cake.
The moment the lights went out, someone shoved me from the side.
I stumbled, unguarded, into a chest I knew too well.
He froze.
His hand—still slick with blood—hovered, hesitating, over my back. Then the lights came up.
Our eyes met, and the emotion in his eyes was so raw I couldn't breathe.
For years, I had told myself that look was our silent understanding.
Until the night of his birthday...
Crack.
Before I could recover, Vanessa slapped me hard across the face.
"Cecilia Marchetti! Have you no shame at all?"
My cheek burned.
Vanessa's tears came on cue.
"Adriano and I are engaged—engaged—and you throw yourself into his arms? Are you really that shameless? You want to be his mistress that badly?"
I clenched my teeth against the pain and knit my brows.
"I wouldn't stoop to that. Someone pushed me."
The words were barely out when Vanessa only started sobbing harder.
"To be with Adriano, you'd even slip him something. Is there anything low enough that you wouldn't do?"
Adriano's eyes went black.
That night had haunted him for five years. He'd never given me the chance to explain.
When I first landed in Palermo, I called him every day, tried every way to reach him.
Every call went unanswered. Every message stayed unread.
Back then I truly believed the world had ended.
Now, I only gave a soft laugh.
"I'm getting married tomorrow."
"And compared to my fiancé, my dear uncle—you don't hold a candle to him."
The instant the words left me, Adriano's hand shot out and locked around my wrist.
Vanessa's face changed, but she only bit her lip and stared at me.
"You keep saying you're getting married. Then where's this fiancé of yours today?"
I ignored the barb in her voice.
I only shook Adriano's hand off, and glanced at my watch.
"He'll be here in half an hour."
第2章
Adriano's eyes stayed fixed on me, trying to tell whether I was lying.
His hand clenched at his side.
Vanessa, tears still fresh, suddenly burst into a scornful laugh.
"A grown man, keeping his fiancée waiting this long?"
"You'll go to such lengths for Adriano's attention—you'll humiliate yourself this thoroughly?"
She lifted a flute of champagne and pushed it toward me.
"Your lie is too transparent. This little wounded-doe act is beneath you. Then prove it. Drink three glasses, and we'll call it even."
She kept pushing the glass closer.
I frowned and knocked the glass aside impatiently. "Adriano isn't worth the lie."
His face went ashen. His knuckles bone-white.
The push wasn't hard. But Vanessa reeled as though I'd shoved her with all my strength.
The glass tipped. Champagne spilled down her dress.
She scrubbed at it in a frenzy—
But the skin along her collarbone was already breaking out in angry red hives.
"Adriano, it hurts—"
His expression tightened at the tremor in her voice.
He shoved me aside.
I fell hard, and a piece of broken crystal drove into my palm.
Blood pooled on the marble.
But Adriano didn't so much as glance at me. He roared:
"Vanessa's allergic to alcohol! Do you want to kill her?"
I bit my lip and pushed myself up on one arm.
"If you're that afraid she'll die, hang a sign on her—Allergic to alcohol. Don't touch."
"You—"
Once, I would have done anything he asked.
Once, I would have been terrified of his anger.
The mockery in my voice now turned his face red.
Vanessa, seeing him lose his temper, shook her head through her tears.
"Adriano, I'm all right."
"Don't blame her. Seeing us together must be hard for her. I understand."
Her tone was wounded, magnanimous.
And Adriano's eyes on me filled with disappointment.
…
"Cecilia, when the hell are you going to grow up and learn to behave?"
For years I'd told myself those same words were love.
Now they hit me like an open hand.
I gave a cold laugh. "Mr. Rinaldi. You threw me out of the Family a long time ago. Whether I grow up, whether I learn to behave—it's no longer your concern."
When I turned to leave, he seized my wrist, and the whites of his eyes were shot red.
Anger. And something else I couldn't name.
Regret?
"Where do you think you're going?"
Before I could answer, Marco pulled me down into a booth before the whole situation blew up.
"It's my birthday. Do me a favor."
Seeing I still looked murderous, he pressed his hands together, pleading.
"Your fiancé's coming, right? Just sit and wait for him."
I could feel Adriano's stare boring into me.
I only checked my phone.
Fifteen minutes.
I nodded at Marco, indifferent. "Fine."
The moment I did, Vanessa—her hives already receding—snatched my phone from my hand.
"Let me see who this fiancé of yours actually is!"
Before I could stop her, the screen lit up.
Vanessa's smile froze on her face.
"Your fiancé—is him?"
第3章
Everyone in earshot pressed in.
Only Adriano stayed where he was, swaying slightly.
The crowd broke into laughter the moment they saw the screen.
Vanessa's face went to ice. She flung my phone at me.
"Cecilia, have you no shame!"
"Adriano and I are getting engaged tomorrow, and you're keeping his photo as your lock screen? And—wrapped around him like that?"
Only then did I look.
My old lock screen—me and Adriano, together—had come up somehow. Vanessa must have swiped past it in her frenzy.
Adriano's expression eased. The corner of his mouth even lifted.
Vanessa was staring at me, waiting for an explanation.
Every birthday, growing up, I'd begged Adriano—who hated photographs—to pose with me.
He'd always sigh and shake his head, acting put-upon but indulgent.
But he'd always let me have my picture.
I'd make each one my lock screen and privately treasure what his patience seemed to mean.
Now I only glanced at a message on my screen and gave a careless shrug.
"Adriano was only the man I'd been raised to call Uncle. We weren't related by blood."
"If it bothers you, I'll delete them."
I chased Adriano for ten years.
Every time he grew tired of my clinging, he'd smile and shake his head. "I'm your uncle, Cecilia."
Back then, I hated those words more than anything.
Now they came out of my own mouth—and it was Adriano whose face changed first.
He drained his glass in one swallow and stepped toward me.
"If you're going to delete them, delete them now."
"Wouldn't want anyone spreading rumors. Vanessa would be upset."
I met his eyes.
They were trembling.
My fingertips went cold.
But two seconds later I nodded. "All right."
There weren't many photos.
I selected the old photos one by one and deleted them.
I could hear his breath grow heavier beside me.
Only when the last one was gone did I lift my eyes to his.
"From now on, we're nothing to each other."
He looked like he'd been struck.
Under the dim gold light, his face went white as chalk.
He slammed his fist into the wall.
Blood ran down the plaster.
Vanessa's eyes filled instantly. "Adriano, what are you doing?"
Then she turned on me, venomous.
"Cecilia—Adriano's been generous enough not to make you answer for the disgusting stunt you pulled on him. After everything he's done for you, this is how you repay him?"
I ignored Vanessa. I only looked at Adriano.
"I didn't drug you."
He pulled the corner of his mouth into something that wasn't a smile.
Before he could speak, Vanessa dug a USB drive from her clutch and hurled it at me.
"This is the security footage from Adriano's birthday. It shows you going into his room that night. Are you still going to pretend nothing happened?"
The drive struck my forehead. It hurt.
Adriano shifted a half-step forward.
I only stared at him. "Do you believe me?"
The room went silent.
My phone rang.
When I saw the name, the question that had been lodged in my throat for five years suddenly didn't matter.
I answered.
Whatever he said, I nodded, and I smiled. "All right. I'm coming out now."
I hung up and looked back at Adriano.
"You've already decided I'm guilty. Fine. Believe what you want. Are you done with me now, Mr. Rinaldi?"
"I—"
He was shaken by the shift in me. His voice caught.
I cut him off, still smiling.
"If you're going to let it lie, I'll be going. My fiancé is waiting."
