They Chose Her, So I Married the Comatose Don

As the only daughter of the Rossi family, I had three exceptional men handpicked and raised by my mother as potential husbands. Once, they had gone to extraordinary lengths to win my affection. One bought me a centuries-old watchtower on the Sicilian coast. Another presented me with a one-of-a-kind black diamond ring. Then Blair, the daughter of our longtime butler, returned from boarding school, and all three men became obsessed with her. They adored her kindness, her innocence, and her delicate nature. Meanwhile, they condemned me for the coldness and ruthlessness I had developed after growing up in a world of blood and violence. Once they had broken my heart beyond repair, I washed my hands of the three ungrateful bastards and agreed to marry Vito Capello, the Don of the Capello family, who had been left in a vegetative state. The news shattered their pride. What I couldn’t understand was why they still thought I was playing hard to get—even after I became Vito’s Donna. Chapter 1 As the only daughter of the Rossi family, I had three exceptional men handpicked and raised by my mother as potential husbands. Once, they had gone to extraordinary lengths to win my affection. One bought me a centuries-old watchtower on the Sicilian coast. Another presented me with a one-of-a-kind black diamond ring. Then Blair, the daughter of our longtime butler, returned from boarding school, and all three men became obsessed with her. They adored her kindness, her innocence, and her delicate nature. Meanwhile, they condemned me for the coldness and ruthlessness I had developed after growing up in a world of blood and violence. Once they had broken my heart beyond repair, I washed my hands of the three ungrateful bastards and agreed to marry Vito Capello, the Don of the Capello family, who had been left in a vegetative state. The news shattered their pride. What I couldn’t understand was why they still thought I was playing hard to get—even after I became Vito’s Donna. “Have you lost your mind? You’re marrying a vegetable just to spite us?” Raphael kicked open the dressing room door. His face was livid, his outrage edged with disbelief as though I had no right to choose a man other than one of them. Matteo and Luca stood behind him, one on either side, staring at me as though I were throwing another tantrum and waiting for them to stop me. I stood before the full-length mirror, adjusting my black lace gloves without so much as glancing up. “I haven’t lost my mind,” I said calmly. “My mother has already approved the match. In four weeks, Vito Capello and I will make our engagement official.” “Alia Rossi!” Raphael stormed forward and clamped a hand around my wrist, squeezing hard enough to grind the bones together. “All because Blair accidentally touched one of your designer gowns, you went crying to your mother and had our shares in the family businesses taken away. Now you’re threatening to marry some half-dead man wasting away in bed?” His grip tightened. “Stop this, Alia. You may be angry with us, but you would never turn both yourself and the Rossi family over to a stranger. You’ve spent your whole life knowing you would marry one of us.” Pain shot through my wrist, but it was nothing compared to the ache in my chest. My father had died young, leaving my mother in sole control of the Rossi family. Determined to secure my future, she brought Raphael, Matteo, and Luca into the family and raised them to become worthy contenders for my hand. Once, they would have done anything to make me smile. Raphael bought a centuries-old watchtower on the Sicilian coast. Matteo gave me a one-of-a-kind black diamond ring. Luca handed me a stake in one of the family’s most important auction houses. Then Blair arrived, and everything changed. She was fragile and sweet, all wide eyes and trembling smiles. It took almost no effort for her to wrap all three men around her finger. To them, Blair was an innocent girl who needed to be protected at all costs. I was the woman they had known all their lives: strong, sharp-tempered, and hopelessly devoted to them. They mistook that devotion for something permanent, something they could wound without ever losing. I looked into Raphael’s once-familiar face and felt the last trace of warmth inside me die. I raised my free hand and slapped him across the face with all my strength. “Remember your place, Raphael.” My eyes burned, but my voice remained glacial. “Once Vito and I are married and I take over the family, I’ll give all three of you generous severance packages. Take the money, take Blair, and get the hell out of the Rossi family. I never want to see any of you again.” “You don’t mean that,” Matteo snarled. Matteo lunged forward with a roar and shoved me violently to the floor. My back slammed into the corner of an ornate mahogany cabinet. A bolt of agony tore through me, bringing tears to my eyes. “After everything we’ve done for you, you think you can throw us out like servants?” Matteo spat. “Come on, guys. We’re leaving the Rossi family today. Let’s see how long this hollow empire lasts without us out there risking our necks for it!” He threatened to walk away, clearly expecting me to panic and beg them to stay. But Luca, always the most levelheaded of the three, grabbed his arm. The men exchanged looks, and an awkward silence settled over the room. Leave the family? They would never dare. They loved the Rossi family’s staggering wealth and influence far too much. More importantly, they would never make their precious Blair endure a life without luxury. Matteo’s expression shifted several times before he finally spat on the floor and stormed away. I lay on the cold floor and let out a bitter laugh. Chapter 2 Gritting my teeth against the pain, I pushed myself upright. I hid my scraped palm beneath my glove and set off to find my mother. I hadn’t even reached the main entrance when Blair came stumbling toward me in a flowing white dress. As she turned to face the three men chasing after her, triumph flashed in her eyes. She leaned close and whispered with a soft, mocking laugh. “Even after you give them up, they’ll still love me.” The next second, Blair let out a piercing scream and hurled herself down the steps. “Miss Rossi, I’m sorry!” she cried. “I’ll never compete with you for their affection again!” Raphael raced over as though he had lost his mind and gathered Blair into his arms, his eyes red with distress. “Blair!” Matteo charged up the steps, fury eclipsing everything else. Before I could say a word, he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me toward the fountain. “How could you do that to her? You know she can’t fight back!” Agony ripped across my scalp, and a cold sweat broke out all over my body. Before I had a chance to fight back, Matteo seized the back of my neck and plunged my head into the freezing water. Water flooded my nose and throat. My lungs seized as I struggled desperately for air. Just as I was about to black out, Matteo yanked me up as though I weighed nothing. I collapsed against the edge of the fountain, coughing violently as uncontrollable tremors racked my body. “Apologize to Blair,” Matteo ordered. His eyes were cold, but there was no uncertainty in them. He still believed that no matter how far he went, I would forgive him and remain where I had always been. Before I could catch my breath, he forced my head underwater again. Once. Twice. Three times. With the icy water closing over me again and again, I truly believed he was going to kill me. Every last shred of my pride crumbled. When he dragged me up for the fourth time, I broke. Shaking violently, I sobbed out the words. “I’m sorry, Blair. I’m sorry! I swear I’ll never compete with you for any of them again. They’re all yours, all right?” “What the hell are you doing?” My mother’s thunderous voice rang out as her bodyguards came pounding toward us. The three men by the fountain went pale. Raphael and Matteo, who had been brutalizing me only moments earlier, instantly panicked. They leaped into the water and pulled me out, shouting at the top of their lungs. “Miss Rossi! How did you fall in? Someone call a doctor!” ... When I woke again, I was lying in my bed. Raphael opened the bedroom door and walked inside. “Enough, Alia. Stop frightening everyone.” He stopped beside the bed and folded his arms. “You apologized to make us feel guilty, and now you’re lying here pretending to be unconscious. You’ve always been stronger than this. How long are you planning to punish us?” I closed my eyes wearily. I couldn’t even be bothered to look at him. “Do you honestly expect us to believe you’ll hand the Rossi family over to a man who can’t even open his eyes?” Raphael said, but the edge in his voice could not hide his unease. “You don’t love him. You’ve spent your whole life expecting to marry one of us. When your engagement is announced in four weeks, you’ll have to choose one of us. You have no other option.” My silence unsettled him. His jaw tightened, as though my refusal to reassure him were an act of betrayal. He slowly pulled out a black folding knife and pressed the blade against my throat. “You’re going to keep your mouth shut about what happened at the fountain. If your mother asks, you slipped and fell in on your own. If she finds out the truth, she’ll use it to tear us apart and send Blair away. I won’t let you do that.” His voice dropped to a cold murmur. “And if you tell her anything else, your beloved nanny might suffer a tragic accident tonight. Or maybe I’ll have your father’s mausoleum torn apart. You’ve always protected the people you love. I know you won’t risk them just to punish us.” The cold steel rested against my pulse, carrying the unmistakable promise of death. I opened my eyes and replied without emotion. “I understand. Now get out.” Raphael searched my face, as if waiting for the familiar Alia who would soften first. When I did not, wounded pride twisted his expression into anger. He snapped the knife shut and stormed out. Chapter 3 After Raphael left, the room fell silent except for the faint hum of the IV pump. Before leaving for an emergency business trip overseas, my mother came to sit beside my bed. “Raphael said you slipped and fell into the fountain,” she said, studying my face. “Is that really what happened?” The truth rose to my lips. All I had to do was tell her. She would believe me. She would make all three of them pay. Then I remembered the knife against my throat. I saw my nanny lying dead in some alley and my father’s mausoleum reduced to rubble. I had no way of knowing how long the three of them had had men planted among our guards, or how many people inside the Rossi family were already loyal to them. Until I knew whom I could trust, I had to keep the truth to myself. I dug my nails into my palm beneath the blanket and forced myself to nod. “I slipped.” My mother brushed the damp hair from my forehead. The worry in her eyes nearly broke me. As she turned away, I bit down on my lip and swallowed every word I wanted to call after her. I had just filled out the ring-sizing form the Capellos had sent over. Blair walked in carrying a bowl of steaming semolina porridge. The moment she saw that we were alone, every trace of vulnerability vanished from her face. “I hear you’re making your engagement to that corpse in the Capello mansion official in four weeks.” She stopped beside the bed and looked down at me. “So what if he’s the Don? He’s still a vegetable lying in bed waiting to die. You may be the Rossi heiress, but you’ll spend the rest of your life married to a man who might as well already be dead. Do you honestly think sacrificing yourself will make them feel sorry for you?” Her smile sharpened. “Marry him if you want. Raphael and the others will still love me.” Pale and exhausted, I rested against the pillows and stared at her. I couldn’t even be bothered to react. My indifference only enraged her. Without warning, Blair snatched up the bowl and flung the scalding porridge across my face and neck. “Ah!” White-hot pain ripped through me the instant it hit my skin. Blisters rose almost immediately, and my skin turned an angry red. I screamed as sweat soaked my hair. “Get someone in here! Call the doctor!” I cried, my entire body shaking from the pain. The door flew open, and Raphael, Matteo, and Luca rushed into the room. “What happened?” I thought at least one of them would notice the burns covering my face and neck, but they all went to Blair. She had already crumpled to the floor. Clutching a shard of the broken bowl, she sobbed uncontrollably. “I’m sorry... I only wanted to bring Miss Rossi something to eat, but she lost her temper and knocked the bowl out of my hands. It was so hot...” “Blair!” Raphael rushed to her and gathered her into his arms. The instant he noticed the tiny red mark on her finger, his breath caught. “You burned your hand? Someone get a doctor!” Matteo and Luca crowded around her, their expressions grim. I pressed my hands to my blistered face and neck, trembling so violently I could barely speak. “Doctor... Please call the doctor. My face...” Raphael finally turned toward me. His gaze caught on the burns covering my face, and for a moment, something like concern broke through. Then Blair sobbed, and his expression hardened again. “Why do you always have to push her this far, Alia?” he said. “Blair came here to take care of you, and you threw scalding porridge at her?” “I didn’t.” Tears burned in my eyes. “She threw it at me.” “Enough,” Luca cut in, his voice cold with impatience. “You’ve always been able to withstand more than Blair. Stop turning everything into a battle between the two of you.” Matteo strode to the doorway and issued a cold order to the staff outside. “Send every servant in the main house home for the day. If the family doctor comes, turn him away. I’m not letting her turn another minor injury into a reason to have Blair punished.” “And take her phone until she calms down,” Raphael added, still holding Blair. “Otherwise, she’ll call Mrs. Rossi, twist this into an attack, and have all of us thrown out.” Then the three of them rushed Blair—and the tiny blister on her finger—to a private hospital. My skin burned throughout the night. When I failed to check in with my mother as we had agreed I would every day, she cut her overseas business trip short and returned home the following afternoon. When she entered my room and saw the infected burns covering my face and neck, her eyes immediately filled with tears. This was a woman who had ruled the Rossi family with an iron fist for years, yet the sight of me nearly shattered her composure. The doctor was summoned at once. After examining me, his expression turned grave. “Mrs. Rossi, these are severe burns. There are also traces of a caustic cleaning agent in the wounds. Any longer without treatment, and her face could have been permanently disfigured.” My mother looked from the burns on my face to the three men. The pain in her eyes hardened into fury. “Who gave you the right to leave my daughter like this all night?” she demanded. “Her engagement announcement is less than four weeks away. How is she supposed to stand beside him with her face burned like this? If Alia is left with a single scar, every one of you will pay.” Chapter 4 The room went dead silent. Raphael, Matteo, and Luca stared at her, the color draining from their faces. For the first time, they seemed to realize that I was seriously considering marrying Vito. Until that moment, they had mistaken my years of devotion for a promise that I would always choose one of them, no matter how they treated me. My mother rose slowly, murder in her eyes. She called an emergency family meeting and summoned everyone to the main salon. Blair dropped to her knees, sobbing. “Mrs. Rossi, it wasn’t me. Miss Rossi knocked the bowl over herself.” Raphael, Matteo, and Luca fell over one another trying to shield her. Matteo even attempted to take the blame. “I put the cleaning solution in the porridge. Blair had nothing to do with it.” “Shut up. All of you.” My mother’s laugh was cold. She looked at the three men as though they were rabid dogs she regretted ever sheltering. “Effective immediately, Raphael, Matteo, and Luca are stripped of all managerial authority and access to Rossi funds. You are no longer candidates for my daughter’s hand. From this moment on, you are merely guests living under my roof. Without my express permission, none of you may use a single Rossi employee, vehicle, account, or family resource.” With my mother cutting off their access, the power they had taken for granted disappeared overnight. The Capellos sent over a regenerative salve reserved for their own inner circle. Over the next two weeks, the infection was brought under control and the burns healed enough for me to leave my bed. With continued treatment, they eventually faded without leaving any noticeable scars. Once I was back on my feet, I summoned Blair to the main salon. I did not have Blair thrown out. Instead, I gave her one final chance to prove her loyalty. “If you want to remain under this roof, then show me where your loyalty lies,” I told her. “The Rossi family repays loyalty with loyalty and betrayal in kind. Whoever committed the offense must answer for it personally.” I thought Blair would finally admit the truth and accept her punishment. Instead, she seized on Matteo’s earlier confession. He had already claimed that he was the one who put the cleaning solution in the porridge. Blair clearly decided that if someone had to pay, it would be the man who had confessed for her. Sacrificing Matteo was the easiest way to prove her “loyalty” and keep her place in the Rossi family. The following afternoon, Blair asked Matteo to meet her in the guest wing. She had prepared another bowl of porridge herself and poured sulfuric acid into it with her own hands. Matteo believed she was finally ready to confess. When she approached with the bowl, he stepped toward her without the slightest suspicion. Blair flung the acid-laced porridge straight into his face. His scream echoed through the entire villa. As Matteo collapsed, clutching his face, Blair dropped the empty bowl and turned to me. “Matteo confessed,” she said quickly. “I was only carrying out Miss Rossi’s order. The person who committed the offense had to pay for it himself.” Raphael and Luca could not accept that Blair had chosen to hurt Matteo on her own. “You knew exactly what she would do!” Raphael shouted at me. “You threatened to throw her out and forced her to do this!” Luca added. Blair immediately seized on their accusation. “I was afraid,” she sobbed. “Miss Rossi said I had to prove my loyalty if I wanted to stay. I didn’t have a choice.” I had offered Blair the chance to tell the truth. I had never ordered her to mutilate Matteo. But Blair had sacrificed one of the men who worshipped her to save herself, and Raphael and Luca still preferred blaming me to admitting what she had done. In a single afternoon, the four of them exposed exactly how false and selfish their devotion to one another truly was. As scheduled, four weeks after my mother approved the match, the Rossi estate was filled with Sicily’s most powerful families for my engagement announcement. Raphael and Luca arrived without invitations. Matteo came with them, one side of his face hidden beneath heavy bandages. Even after everything my mother had said, all three still believed the same thing. I could despise them, strip them of power, and threaten to cast them out, but when the time came to choose a husband, I would have to choose one of them. The guests believed it too. They greeted the three men as though one of them would soon stand at my side as the future head of the Rossi family. Before I could make my announcement, Blair entered the salon with tears streaming down her face. “Miss Rossi, I’m sorry,” she cried. “I only did what you told me to do. You said I had to prove my loyalty and that whoever committed the offense had to repay it personally. I was terrified you would cast me out. Please don’t punish Raphael and Luca because of me.” Raphael strode toward me, his expression dark with anger and something more wounded. “Are you satisfied now? Blair did exactly what you forced her to do, and you still made her beg.” “If you expect one of us to marry you after this,” Luca said coldly, “you can forget it.” He spoke as though withdrawing the three of them were still the surest way to make me surrender. Even Matteo looked at me through the pain, his expression bitter and accusing. “Keep punishing Blair, and I will never marry you,” he said, as though losing him were still the one threat capable of breaking me. Whispers swept through the salon. “If none of the three of them will marry her, who does Alia Rossi have left?” “She cannot possibly mean to marry that comatose Don.” I lifted my glass and faced the room. “You seem to be mistaken. Tonight was never about choosing between Raphael, Matteo, and Luca.” The enormous screen behind me lit up with the Capello crest. Beneath it appeared the name VITO CAPELLO. The salon fell silent. Raphael’s face twisted in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. He’s a vegetable. This is another one of your games,” Luca said. “You’ve wanted one of us for years. You would never actually marry him.” Raphael reached the dais and clamped a hand around my wrist. “Enough, Alia. Tell them which one of us you’re really choosing.” Before I could answer, the salon doors opened. Dozens of men in black suits poured into the room, armed and bearing the Capello crest. They took up positions with lethal precision. A second later, a tall, broad-shouldered man stepped into the salon. His custom black suit fit him perfectly. His features were cold and severe, and he carried the absolute authority of a man accustomed to being obeyed. It was Vito Capello: the Don everyone believed would never rise from his bed again. His gaze settled on Raphael. When he spoke, his voice carried a lethal calm. “Who gave you the nerve to lay a hand on my Donna?”