Chapter 4
The smile on Ives’s face vanished.
He snatched the file, his face a mask of disbelief.
“What the hell is this?” he demanded, his voice rising in anger. “You’re cutting ties with me? Aurora, do you have any idea what you’re saying?”
“I do,” I said calmly.
“Oh my god,” Isabella gasped, covering her mouth, though her eyes shone with a joy she couldn’t hide. “Aurora, what are you doing? Ives was just upset. How can you be so childish? The Don loves you so much, how could you possibly—”
“I don’t agree to this,” Ives snapped, cutting her off. He slammed the file down on the coffee table.
“The alliance between the Moretti and Castellano families is bigger than us. It’s built on decades of shared interests,” Ives said, his voice turning to steel. “The East Coast arms routes, the casino cuts in Vegas… you think a divorce is just signing a piece of paper?”
He stepped toward me, his shadow falling over me.
“Aurora, breaking this alliance will have consequences. You’re threatening to plunge both our families into a war.”
Everything he was saying, I had already planned for. In the three months I spent preparing for this, I had secretly and meticulously untangled our families’ intertwined finances and operations.
So I smiled. “I don’t think you’re getting it, Ives. I’m not asking for a divorce.”
I pointed a single, manicured finger at the file on the table.
“I’m informing you that our marriage is already over.”
“You already signed the papers.”
Ives froze.
He grabbed the file, his hands shaking as he flipped frantically to the last page. He saw it. His own bold signature.
The realization hit him like a physical blow. “This was in that stack of asset papers? You tricked me?!”
“I never told you what it was,” I corrected him coolly. “You were just too lazy to read it.”
The hand holding the papers trembled, veins popping on his skin.
Then, with a roar of pure rage, he ripped the agreement to shreds.
“So what if I signed it? I don’t allow this divorce.”
His childish tantrum was pathetic. “Tearing up a copy won’t help you,” I said, my voice bored. “My lawyer has already filed the original. It’s done.”
Ives’s face went white.
“Also, the family council has been notified,” I added, twisting the knife. “The alliance between the Castellano and Moretti families is officially dissolved. My father has already signed off on it.”
Ives staggered back a step, as if I’d struck him.
“Aurora, you’re just being emotional,” Isabella said, rushing to support Ives, a triumphant smile she couldn’t quite hide playing on her lips. “See? Ives is so good to you. How could you bear to leave him?”
“If I had a husband this wonderful, I would never let him go,” she cooed, her eyes gleaming. “Not like some people, who don’t know how good they have it—”
“SHUT UP!”
Ives suddenly spun on Isabella, his voice a thunderous roar that shook the room.
She froze, her eyes wide with shock and hurt.
“Ives…” she whispered, her lip trembling.
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