The Don’s Double Standard: She Vanished with His Child Chapter 10

I froze.

“If this is what you want, Mommy, I can try even harder.”

I thought she didn’t understand any of it.

Turns out, she saw everything. I was the one who’d been blind.

…

A week before the wedding, an unknown number lit up my phone.

Nothing on the other end. Just breathing.

I was about to hang up when a voice came through.

“So… do I call you Donna now? Or just Clara?”

I recognized the voice instantly.

Mira. Dante’s ex. The intern I’d trained.

I had no interest in this conversation.

“What do you want?”

She laughed, thin and bitter.

“You really think he loves you? You’re just the shiny new thing.”

“God, Clara. You’re pathetic.”

“Back at the company, you had him wrapped around your finger, making excuses to come pick me up just so he could see you. And even after you quit, you still got him to marry you. A single mom with his bastard kid. Impressive.”

“You…”

I didn’t let her finish. I hung up.

I looked over at Dante and Talia building block towers on the rug.

It was his first time really taking care of a kid, and somehow, he was patient with it.

Without looking up, he glanced my way. “Who was that?”

I didn’t bother lying. “Your ex-girlfriend.”

His brow twitched. “Serena?”

That stopped me. Of all his exes, Serena was the first name out of his mouth.

I shook my head and walked back to the bedroom.

Mira, who lasted three days. Serena, who clung to him for years.

I didn’t care about any of them.

A while later, Dante let himself in, a key in his hand.

“The dress I had made for you came in this morning. Want to try it on?”

I didn’t move, so he lifted me by the waist and carried me into his master closet.

He zipped me into it himself.

I stood in front of the full-length mirror and stared at my reflection.

It fit perfectly. I looked beautiful. Even I could see that.

Two hands slid around my waist from behind.

Dante rested his chin on my shoulder. His breath was warm against my neck.

Five years since anyone had touched me like this. My body tensed and I turned my face away.

I tried to ignore the way he was looking at me, but his gaze had a heat I couldn’t pretend away.

I tried to pull away. He only held tighter.

“What happened before, it’s done, Clara. We can start over.” His eyes closed. His voice dropped so low I almost couldn’t hear him. “Forgive me. I don’t want to lose you again.”

I let him carry me to the bed. Let him peel the dress away. Until there was nothing left between us.

Afterward, he pulled me against his chest and lit a cigarette.

The smoke curled between us. It felt exactly like that hotel room, all those years ago.

I sat up, plucked the cigarette from his lips, and took a long, hard drag.

He watched me, smiling. “You want one?”

“Hold on. Let me go grab you the slim ones, the kind made for women.”

The bitterness behind my smile sharpened.

The woman who took his name wasn’t supposed to smoke, yet he was perfectly fine with me doing it. Because in his eyes, I wasn’t really a wife—just the mother of his heir. Damaged goods he was forced to claim. So that was the difference between being loved and not being loved.

At two in the morning, two cars pulled out of the villa, one after the other.

One headed down the hill to fetch the cigarettes.

The other headed to the airport.

…

One year later.

I’d settled in Ashford Bay.

I opened another children’s clothing shop. In my free time, I still designed pieces by hand.

But once they were finished, I tucked them away in the back of the closet, where no one would see.

Across the street, by the window of a coffee shop, a man and a little girl sat watching the woman in the store.

Talia sipped her chocolate milk and looked up. “Daddy, how come we don’t go inside? Why do we always just watch Mommy from over here?”

Dante rolled an unlit cigarette between his fingers.

“Your mommy doesn’t want to see us.”

Talia shook her head, a small smile on her face.

“No.”

“She just doesn’t want to see you.”