The Soldier I Married Is the Don’s Heir Chapter 08

The Soldier I Married Is the Don’s Heir Chapter 08

Rocco returned to the Vadala family smoothly and began learning to handle the family business.

He got busier and busier, coming back to the Bushwick apartment later and later.

The Conti family’s scandal at the Long Island dinner spread through New York. Companies that had been willing to work with them began terminating negotiations one after another. The Conti family finally fell into a real crisis.

The only ones with the power to save them were the Vadala family.

Late at night, Rocco’s message was still pinned at the top of my phone.

[Baby, I have a board meeting tonight. I won’t be home for dinner.]

The comments appeared again.

[Don’t get cocky, Estate. Aurora is already getting close to Rocco. It’s going well.]

[Our Aurora just has to shed one tear and Rocco will toss Estate back to Brooklyn. Someone like her is only fit to pick up what others leave behind.]

[Everything Estate has will be taken from her because she can’t hold onto anything. She has no beauty, no class, and she even has to beg for love by playing the victim.]

Those comments did shake me.

But I remembered the half year we’d spent relying on each other.

No. I didn’t want to let go.

I knew many women prettier and more poised than me kept appearing around Rocco.

These days, we were like two parallel lines, constantly drifting apart.

Should I confess my insecurity, or keep silent?

I clutched my phone and sat on the couch until midnight, but I couldn’t find an answer.

Just then, my phone screen lit up.

It was a message from Aurora.

I rubbed my tired eyes and opened the DM.

Without even a greeting, she sent a photo.

In a dim hotel room, Rocco lay on the bed shirtless, eyes closed.

Then two lines popped up:

[Estate, he and I have already slept together.]

[Also, the meal voucher thing was arranged by me and Luca on purpose. You’ll never beat me. Whatever you want, Luca will hand it to me himself.]

I stared at the photo for five seconds, then immediately headed to a hotel in Midtown Manhattan

Outside the suite, Luca frowned and blocked me, his face full of disapproval.

“Estate, what are you doing here?”

I sneered.

“My fiancé is inside. What right do you have to stop me?”

Only then did Luca show a flicker of guilt. He turned his face away, not daring to meet my eyes.

“Estate, our family really needs Rocco now. Later, I’ll find you a more suitable match. Once the Conti family’s finances recover, we’ll give Rocco back to you.”

“Give him back?”

I looked at him in disbelief.

“You treat a person like an asset you can circulate? Rocco is a human being, not collateral on your

contract!”

Luca stuck out his neck, his face red.

“So what? When are you going to grow up? You cut ties with the family over a few meal vouchers, and everything happening now is your retribution.”

“Leave now, or I’ll call hotel security.”

He turned his back to me, his figure still as tall as I remembered.

My father was always absent from my childhood. Many times, Luca filled that role.

When I was little, I wanted to see the big excavators at work, and he carried me on his back on a long

subway ride to Queens to watch a construction site.

But I always fell asleep on his back.

When we got home, he’d gently brush the hair from my face and smile.

“Esta, your big brother will always protect you.”

I had believed that.

Luca turned back to say something else, and I slapped him across the face.

That slap severed the last of the sibling affection between us.

I called emergency services. It wasn’t just paramedics and local detectives who arrived at the hotel. Michele and his lawyer came too after getting word.

Michele had always hated using drugs to control people, and he especially couldn’t tolerate it happening to his own son.

When hotel security opened the suite, Rocco was down to his underwear, and a half-finished glass of whiskey sat on the nightstand.

Aurora saw me. I rushed over and slapped her hard before she could scream.

She was about to argue, but the detectives had already restrained her, sealed the glass, and called a forensic nurse to collect evidence.

I pulled the barely conscious Rocco into my arms.

He was shaking all over, tears streaming down his face, repeating in a weak whisper.

“Esta…”

I held his hand tightly and answered over and over, “I’m here.”