Never Offend the Hidden Don Chapter 03

Never Offend the Hidden Don Chapter 03

I didn’t look at the card. “Eat first. The coffee’s really getting cold.”

Besides, after so long, her birthday had already started to blur in my memory.

I drank the last of my coffee. “This hour is almost up.”

I took out my phone and checked the time. Then I turned to her with the same polite driver’s smile.

“Do you need me to take you back, or… do you have other plans?”

Isabella stared at my calm face and lowered her voice. “Stop messing around. I’m not joking. Take the money. Buy a decent apartment. Get a better car. Find an easier job, or start a small business.”

“Stop driving rideshare. It’s too hard, and it’s not something you should be doing.”

I still shook my head.

My gaze moved past her and settled on the mottled bark of the old sycamore tree.

“Thanks, but no. I like my life the way it is.”

“Enzo!”

Her voice suddenly rose, drawing a quick glance from Mrs. Rossi before she went back to work.

Isabella seemed to realize she had lost control.

She took a breath and lowered her voice again.

“Stop being stubborn. You know what kind of life you’re living now. Three million is nothing to me. Just… just think of it as a clean ending to what we had. Then we’re even, okay?”

Even.

That word hit a painful memory I’d buried deep inside.

Years before everything fell apart, there had been a college debate final.

The topic was whether technological progress inevitably made human relationships colder.

I was the lead speaker for the affirmative side.

The lead speaker on the opposing side was a girl with a neat ponytail and clear eyes.

During the open debate, my teammates and I threw out polished data and sharp arguments.

When it was her turn, she didn’t attack the numbers directly.

She told a story.

In her hometown, an elderly man lived alone. His children were away, and he spent every day depressed and sick.

Later, a simple companionship app built by local volunteers taught him how to video call.

After he could talk to his grandson every day, he smiled more and even seemed healthier.

Her pace was steady.

She used no fancy words, only plain storytelling.

But the warmth growing out of those small, specific details held the whole room.

“Technology is a tool.” During her closing statement, her eyes were bright. “A tool has no heart of its own. What matters is the heart of the person using it.”

“When we use technology to connect people, it doesn’t create distance. It becomes another kind of companionship and care.”

At that moment, the lights onstage seemed to gather around her.

I forgot the rebuttal I had prepared.

I just stared.

Not because she was beautiful, though she was.

It was because of the light in her eyes.

I had grown up in a mafia family, surrounded by money, vanity, and deals dressed up as loyalty.

I had rarely seen someone with that kind of warmth.

I fell for her.

Then I started chasing her in every way I knew.

Expensive gifts, carefully planned “accidental” meetings, a public confession that shook the whole campus…

To me, those were ordinary tactics.

To Isabella back then, they were heavy, overwhelming, and exhausting.

She thought I was exactly what I looked like, a spoiled rich boy amusing himself with an ordinary girl.

So she rejected me cleanly.

Sometimes she even avoided me like I was trouble.

The more she ran, the stronger my obsession became.

Looking back now, it was almost madness.

I even used a few connections to make other guys back off.

After chasing her for a year, I finally got her.

To ease her burden, I never mentioned my family background.

Besides, I had no real interest in inheriting the family business.

So I decided to start a company with her.

Half mine, half hers.

We would share the risk, the work, and the profit.

She thought about it for a long time before she agreed.

At first, the company was just the two of us and one part-time assistant.

She handled the core business planning and execution. I handled outside contacts and resources.

Once the company found its footing, I proposed.

She cried.

Then she smiled and nodded.

I thought that was the future I wanted.

I even started planning how to slowly break away from the family’s exhausting power games.

I’d stay with Isabella, protect our company, and build a small life that belonged only to us.

Then the turn came without warning.

Victor, Isabella’s childhood friend, came back from overseas.