The Don Chose Her, I Chose Left Chapter 02
I headed straight back home after leaving the Russo-owned underground bar.
Right before falling asleep, my phone rang with an incoming call from Julian Russo.
His voice was lazy and detached over the line.
“Did you get upset back at the bar earlier?”
“Nope.”
A short laugh rumbled from his throat.
“I’m thrown off how mature and compliant you’ve suddenly become, Elena.”
He rushed to explain himself right after.
“Bianca flew all the way back from abroad the second she heard I was getting married.”
“Rest easy, whatever we had is long dead and buried.”
“You’re the one I’m walking down the aisle to.”
“This overnight vigil’s only happening out of respect for my family’s ancient rules…”
“No need to explain anything to me.” I cut his speech short.
“I promised I’d honor your Russo traditions.”
“Just remember the Bellandi Family’s got our own set of rules you’ll need to respect tomorrow as well.”
“No problem, what’re your family’s rules?”
A woman’s breathy moan cut his unfinished sentence clean off.
“Julian, focus up already…”
“We agreed tonight’s your final farewell vigil.”
“Quit getting distracted by phone calls.”
Julian ended our call abruptly.
“Gotta hang up now.”
“Be good and wait patiently for me tomorrow on our wedding day.”
Numbness had completely dulled my heartache by this point.
I powered off my phone and curled up to sleep.
When I switched my device back on the next morning, dozens of unread messages waited from my best friend Sofia.
She’d forwarded a short clip posted to Instagram.
Two tangled, suggestive figures filled the video frame.
I recognized the man’s side profile instantly.
The woman nestled against his chest wore a cocky, triumphant grin.
Bianca Marino’s IG caption sat underneath the clip:
[This overseas trip was totally worth every penny.]
[Spent the entire night nonstop.]
[After eight years apart, his embrace’s still impossible to walk away from.]
I closed the video feed without a single flicker of emotion.
I got behind the wheel and drove directly toward the upscale hotel hosting our wedding, a top-tier venue fully owned by the Russo Family business portfolio.
This wasn’t a small casual gathering by any means.
Clan elders, capos, consigliere plus dozens of key mafia affiliates had all flown in to witness the landmark alliance wedding between our two powerful families.
Sofia shook with unbridled rage while I slipped into my wedding gown backstage in the dressing suite.
“Has Julian Russo lost his entire mind?!”
“That fake outdated family rule’s nothing but a cheap excuse to cheat on you!”
“You abandoned the Bellandi estate and fought tooth and nail against your whole family just to be with him once!”
“He swore up and down he’d treasure you forever!”
“How could he hop into bed with his first love days before your wedding?”
“Does he even have a beating heart inside his chest?”
I doubted he possessed any heart left at all.
I’d gone against my parents’ wishes when I first fell for Julian years ago.
Dad had already arranged a formal political marriage for me with Dante Moretti, heir to the Moretti Family fortune.
Dante came from a squeaky-clean business lineage, steady-natured and genuinely eager to honor the pre-planned family engagement.
But young, love-struck me only had eyes for Julian back then.
I’d rejected the Bellandi-Moretti union stubbornly, fallen out with my folks, and moved out of the sprawling family estate entirely.
Julian had knelt before my father’s family crest all those years ago, swearing a sacred oath.
He’d promised never to hurt me or make me regret picking him over my family.
I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment everything started falling apart, but it traced back roughly six months prior.
An overseas phone call from a heartbroken Bianca Marino changed everything.
Her hysterical sobs over the line had slowly pulled Julian’s affections away from me bit by bit.
Sofia’s frustration poured out once more.
“I still can’t wrap my head around your plan, Elena.”
“This dirtbag’s publicly humiliating you left and right and you’re still set to marry him?”
A calm, knowing smile tugged at my lips.
“Sofia, we’ve grown up side by side since childhood.”
“You ought to know my personality better than anyone.”
“When someone wrongs me badly, I always pay them back in equal measure.”
