My Don Mistook Survival for Greed Chapter 10

My Don Mistook Survival for Greed Chapter 10

Dante kept pestering me.

Suddenly-scandal after scandal about Celina flooded UIC. The Joffrey Ballet goddess everyone worshipped-exposed as a manipulative schemer.

I knew it was Dante’s doing. I didn’t feel any satisfaction, I just kept even more distance/from him.

But he was relentless.

Every place I worked, he showed up.

He chased after me.

He begged.

“Renee. All my money. The entire Caruso empire. you can have it all, Just look back at me. Please?”

Maybe in that moment, whether it was guilt or love, he meant it.

But I couldn’t trust his promises anymore.

I shook my head and kept walking.

It was my June birthday.

Flowers bloomed along the Lakeshore Trail.

I bought myself a tiny birthday cake.

I blew out the candles in a small gazebo in Lincoln Park, and celebrated my 20th birthday alone.

I knew Dante was hiding in the shadows, so I said my wish out loud.

“I wish for peace and joy from now on, and never to be bothered by annoying people again.”

I said it loud and clear.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dante freeze.

A long moment later, he turned around and walked the opposite way.

Two more years passed.

I saved up 500,000 dollars.

Paid back Dante and Jason. Principal plus interest. Every cent.

Finally. That ugly chapter of my life-closed.

Senior year. I finished my thesis and defended it.

I was going to a better school-Columbia University-to pursue a graduate degree in journalism

Because I knew the more I learned, the further I went.

Before I left, Mrs. Marino and Julia gave me going-away gifts.

Julia cried but encouraged me to move forward.

I turned around.

Only then did I realize, along the way I’d walked.

There had actually been so many warm moments.

Epilogue-Dante’s POV

I thought I’d done a lot of stupid things in my life.

If you asked me which one would haunt me for the rest of my life.

No doubt about it. I listened to Jason and Celina’s lies, and bought their story that Renee was a gold digger.

I was the one who broke up with her.

Back then, I couldn’t accept that the pure love I’d chased after had any hint of self-interest mixed

Even when Renee got dumped, she trembled like a lost kitten that couldn’t find its way home.

I still hardened my heart and left.

After the breakup, Jason told me.

“Only poor people will be gold diggers. If you date a rich girl, she won’t be after your money.”

I believed him like a total idiot, and courted Celina with half the sky full of fireworks over Navy Pier.

Turned out I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Yeah!

Celina wasn’t after money, but she was after the vanity that came with being the future Caruso Family Donna.

I couldn’t decide whether Celina or Renee made me sicker. I’d overthought it for

ages.

Until the day I found out the truth from Jason. Only then did I wake up to how stupid I’d been.

What gold digger lived the way Renee did?

She never asked for luxury gifts, never chased fancy romantic trips.

All she did was juggle classes and a job.

Then she squeezed time out of her schedule just to date me.

Epilogue-Dante’s POV

100.00%

When we talked on dates, she always loved staring right into my eyes.

Her smile. It was bright.

Only occasionally-awkward, flustered-would she ask to borrow money from me.

It was nothing to me.

But she always swore to me.

“Dante. Trust me. I’m just borrowing it. I will pay you back.”

I believed her the first time.

The second.

The third.

Then I stopped believing, acted like a total cheapskate.

I started suspecting Renee was only with me for the money.

But when the truth came out.

I panicked, couldn’t wrap my head around it.

It wasn’t for luxury.

Wasn’t for wealth.

The girl I loved had clawed her way out of so much muck just to get to me.

Even every time she borrowed money, she’d been pushed to the edge of breaking point before she worked up the nerve to ask.

It was a problem I could’ve fixed without breaking a sweat.

Only a few hundred thousand. Just enough to buy a Hermes bag.

And I threw away the only real love I’d ever get in this lifetime. I replaced her right away.

And the next day I replaced her so fast.

How wronged must she have felt?

In that moment—I wanted to kill myself.

But regret never fixed anything.

I knew I could never get Renee back.

She gave me a chance. I wasted it.

I lost my ticket into her life. Forever.

far

Even her birthday wish-was for me to stay away.

So… I granted her that wish.

Later-I even received 350,000 dollars in my account.

I didn’t need to check the sender. I knew it was Renee.

She was that kind of girl-fiercely independent. Hated owing anyone anything.

Later, punishment caught up with Jason. He was exposed-not a real Marino. He’d been switched at

birth.

He got kicked out of the Marino Family, wandered alone for years scraping by.

When he came back-weathered, worn-I drank with Jason at the Caruso Family’s private bar.

With enough whiskey in my system, I finally said what I’d been holding in.

“Weren’t we the biggest bastards that ever lived? Rich, backed by powerful families, and we looked

down on a girl who crawled up from the gutter.”

Jason slumped on the leather sofa. Just drank and cursed. “Honestly? Neither of us is half the

person Renee is.

“You know what, Dante?

“When I got kicked out of the Marino Family-starving. Didn’t want to live anymore.

“Then suddenly-120 grand in my account.

“I went through every name I knew.

“Guess what?

“It’s Renee.

“I thought-if a girl who had it that bad could keep going-I can’t check out either.”

I couldn’t have agreed more with Jason.

In the years Renee was gone, the Caruso Family made a bad investment. My dad almost lost half our territory in Chicago.

I poured so much effort just to barely keep up the Caruso Family’s reputation.

But what about Renee? She got her master’s at Columbia, then her PhD at Heidelberg in Germany.

She landed a job as chief investigative reporter at Reuters.

Her future was wide open.

She’d never look back.

Only I stayed behind in Chicago, numbing myself with alcohol.

Because when I was sober, I couldn’t stop thinking about how Renee went through so much, yet still stayed so proud?

Until one day…

I stumbled on an old poem from the east.

“The most little flower-small as a grain of rice-still blooms like the peony.”

It was just like Renee.

She was never moss.

She was always the bloom.