He Chose Childhood Sweetheart, I Married the Don

All I did was reach for a pastry Lila had her eye on, and my childhood sweetheart Luca, the Don's heir of Galvani family, had me thrown in the estate cellar for three days and three nights.

His voice was as cold. "I've told you before, Lila is like a sister to me. Why can't you just let her be?"

This time I didn't cry or beg. I just looked at him.

I had been half out of my mind over this man for more than a decade. I had even slashed my own wrist in front of his father, just to force him into marrying me.

Luca looked at me like he was disappointed all over again. "With a temper like yours, how could you ever be the Donna of Galvani family?"

"Get down to the cellar and think about what you've done. Come back when you've come to your senses."

Then, as if he couldn't quite help himself, he dropped his voice:

"Look, as long as you come around and stop making Lila's life difficult, everything goes back to how it was. Okay?"

I clenched my jaw. It felt like a blade pressed against my chest. "Okay," I said.

Next month, the Don of the Ferrara family will marry me as his Donna.

This time, I am done with Luca.

I was still holding the half-eaten almond cream roll, not sure what to do with my hands.

Luca had stepped in front of Lila, shielding her, his eyes cutting into me like a drawn knife.

"I've told you, Lila is like a sister to me. Why do you keep coming at her like this?"

"She can't even have a pastry without you taking it from her. What kind of person does something like that?"

Lila was crying behind him, big theatrical tears, but she still managed to put in a good word for me:

"It's all my fault. Sofia has loved Luca since they were children. Seeing him care for me must be hard, and anyone would feel the same."

"I just ask that once Sofia becomes the Galvani Donna next month, she'll be kind to everyone on the estate. If she's angry, she can take it out on me."

Luca shook his head with that familiar look of disappointment. "With a personality like that, how could she possibly run this family?"

My throat tightened. I opened my mouth and nothing came out.

I had bled for that position. I had begged for it on my knees, literally.

I had been in love with Luca since I was a child — more than a decade of it.

Back then I was still the legitimate daughter of the Caldwell family, and everyone on the island knew Sofia Caldwell.

When I was eight, my mother took a bullet meant for the Don of the Ferrara family and died not long after.

The Ferraras came to the estate soon afterward. They said they were bringing me to live with the Don's