The Don’s Rejected Wife Chapter 07

The Don’s Rejected Wife Chapter 07

Smoke filled my lungs.

A figure tore through the flames and ran toward me.

I weakly pointed at my mother.

“Save her first…”

Julian Vance’s eyes flicked to her, and the silence that followed told me everything.

He didn’t go to her. He lifted me into his arms.

My mother was gone.

On the highway out of Brooklyn, Julian gripped the steering wheel hard.

“Why didn’t you call me?” His voice was low. “Did we really end like that?”

I had no answer.

Years ago, my mother’s surgery had cost a hundred thousand dollars I didn’t have. I was desperate, drowning, with nowhere left to turn. Then Luca Romano stepped in and paid the bill.

Back then, I mistook gratitude for love.

I chose Luca. I left Julian behind and followed the Romano name to New York, believing I had made the right choice.

Now Julian was the one driving me away from the city, the one who had pulled me out of the fire.

I owed him more than an apology could ever cover.

I looked out the window as tears slid down my face.

My phone rang. It was Marco’s school.

“Is this Mrs. Romano? Mr. Romano filed for a six-month leave of absence for Marco. The child doesn’t seem emotionally well, so we wanted to confirm the situation with you.”

I understood why.

I knew exactly what was happening.

Marco could hate me all he wanted, but he had never learned how to be without me.

If he went too long without seeing me, he would spike a fever and stay sick for days.

He was only a child.

But I had already lost custody. He had to learn to live with his father.

I tightened my grip on the phone.

“Contact his father. We’re divorced.”

The other end went silent. I hung up directly and deleted the number.

I left New York and started over in another city. No tabloids. No eyes watching my every move.

For the first time, I was just an ordinary woman no one cared about.

After my mother’s ashes arrived, I buried her in the old cemetery.

Julian stayed by my side, trying to pull me through the grief.

“I built all of this for one reason,” Julian said. “There was someone I wanted to protect.”

He looked at me.

“It was always you.”

I didn’t answer. I just leaned into his arms and let myself breathe.

It was the kind of safety Luca had never given me.

I thought life would stay quiet.

Then two figures appeared downstairs outside my apartment building.

“Ma’am, I’m looking for my mom,” Marco said to the doorman. “She’s really pretty and has big eyes. Can you let us go up?”

Three months had passed.

Marco was no longer the spoiled little boy he used to be.

The doorman shook his head politely.

“Sorry, kid. I can’t let visitors in without her permission.”

“Oh,” he said. “There she is.”

Luca and Marco followed the doorman’s gaze.

Their eyes landed straight on me.

Marco ran over and wrapped his arms tightly around my legs.

Luca walked toward me slowly, his eyes red.

“Stella,” he said, his voice breaking. “Are you okay?”