The Arrogant Don's Regret

Everyone said I was Domenico Calvetti's most obedient woman.

On our first wedding anniversary, he flirted with a pair of twins at the gambling table. He had lipstick smeared all over his shirt.

I smiled and wiped it away with a silk handkerchief, but he swatted my hand aside. "Don't kill the mood."

In the third year, the star performer from the club he ran showed up at my door with a gun pressed to my temple, demanding to take my place. Without flinching, I disarmed her using the technique he taught me and disposed of the body myself.

Behind me, he held his new lover and laughed softly. "Lucia, you always know what to do."

In the fifth year, he blew up the library my father left behind just to make his new flame, Marilena Rossetti, smile. That library was my mother's favorite spot when she was alive, and it held the only photographs of our family of three.

The explosion made me the laughingstock of the city. People whispered, "Signora Calvetti can't even protect her own memories."

Everyone believed I could never leave the Calvetti family or Domenico, but they forgot how this all started.

Back then, he rescued me from my adoptive father and fell in love with me at first sight. He knelt and begged to marry me, swearing he would protect me from blood and pain for the rest of my life.

For ten years, I held onto those empty words.

At our tenth anniversary party, his hundredth mistress arrived. Alice Russo, fresh out of college, held a glass of red wine and poured it down my gown while Domenico watched.

"Signora Calvetti, this dress is so old. Given your position, you should be wearing something better."

Everyone at the party waited to see my humiliation. Instead, I lowered my eyes and dialed Domenico's father's number.

"Father, the ten-year agreement is over. I won't be Signora Calvetti anymore."

On the other end of the line, Salvatore Calvetti's voice was thick with exhaustion.

"These ten years have been hard on you. Everything's arranged. Someone will meet you at the back door in five days."

Listening to Salvatore's hoarse voice, a bitter ache rose in my chest.

The night I agreed to Domenico Calvetti's proposal, Salvatore called me in for a private conversation. He looked at the hope in my eyes and sighed. "Child, if you're planning to play around with him, I won't say a word.

"But if you're certain about marrying him, I have to ask if you've thought this through? The men in the Calvetti family have never known how to cherish anything. They only need a wife who's sensible and accommodating."

I agreed without hesitation. Domenico, who made all of Cecilo tremble, was my savior. I would repay that debt with ten years of devotion.

When I was 15, my adoptive father was a monster. One night, when he was drunk, he tried to force himself on me.

My adopted sister stopped him.