He Faked Death, I Married The Don

He Faked Death, I Married The Don

Hua Jian

5.0
Comment(s)
529
View
9
Chapters

I was arranging white lilies on the cold marble of my husband's grave when I saw a ghost. Walking through the cemetery gates was a man who looked exactly like my dead husband, Dante. Logic said it was his twin brother, Matteo. But a wife knows the slope of a man's shoulders. She knows the arrogant tilt of his chin. My husband hadn't been blown up in a car bomb three years ago. He had faked his death to steal his brother's rank, his fortune, and his mistress. For three years, I had forced our son, Leo, to kiss a photograph goodnight. We lived in a damp, peeling apartment, surviving on the "charity" of the Family. Meanwhile, Dante was living in a mansion, driving cars that cost more than my life, playing house with another woman. When he came to our cramped apartment to drop off the monthly "pension" money, pretending to be Uncle Matteo, he didn't look at me with love. He looked at his watch. When Leo ran to hug him, shouting "Papa," Dante peeled the boy's small arms off his expensive suit like he was removing a piece of lint. "Don't call me that," he snapped. "I am your Uncle." My grief turned into ice. He chose another woman's comfort over his own son's hunger. I grabbed Leo's hand and walked out the door. "You walk away, and you get nothing!" Dante shouted after me. "You'll be on the street!" I didn't stop. I walked straight to the black SUV idling at the curb. The window rolled down, revealing Salvatore Vitiello. The Don. The most lethal man in the city. "Get in, Elena," he commanded. I opened the door and slid onto the leather seat next to the devil himself. As we drove away, leaving my husband in the dust, I realized I had just traded a liar for a killer. And I didn't regret it for a second.

He Faked Death, I Married The Don Chapter 1

I was arranging white lilies on the cold marble of my husband's grave when I saw a ghost.

Walking through the cemetery gates was a man who looked exactly like my dead husband, Dante.

Logic said it was his twin brother, Matteo. But a wife knows the slope of a man's shoulders. She knows the arrogant tilt of his chin.

My husband hadn't been blown up in a car bomb three years ago.

He had faked his death to steal his brother's rank, his fortune, and his mistress.

For three years, I had forced our son, Leo, to kiss a photograph goodnight. We lived in a damp, peeling apartment, surviving on the "charity" of the Family.

Meanwhile, Dante was living in a mansion, driving cars that cost more than my life, playing house with another woman.

When he came to our cramped apartment to drop off the monthly "pension" money, pretending to be Uncle Matteo, he didn't look at me with love. He looked at his watch.

When Leo ran to hug him, shouting "Papa," Dante peeled the boy's small arms off his expensive suit like he was removing a piece of lint.

"Don't call me that," he snapped. "I am your Uncle."

My grief turned into ice. He chose another woman's comfort over his own son's hunger.

I grabbed Leo's hand and walked out the door.

"You walk away, and you get nothing!" Dante shouted after me. "You'll be on the street!"

I didn't stop. I walked straight to the black SUV idling at the curb.

The window rolled down, revealing Salvatore Vitiello. The Don. The most lethal man in the city.

"Get in, Elena," he commanded.

I opened the door and slid onto the leather seat next to the devil himself.

As we drove away, leaving my husband in the dust, I realized I had just traded a liar for a killer.

And I didn't regret it for a second.

Chapter 1

Elena POV

I was standing over the grave of the man I loved, carefully arranging white lilies on the cold marble, when I saw the ghost of my dead husband walking through the cemetery gates with his arm around another woman.

The logic in my brain fractured before my heart did.

My husband, Dante, had been blown to pieces in a car bomb three years ago. The man striding toward the exit was supposed to be his twin brother, Matteo.

Or at least, that was the lie designed to break me.

But a wife knows the slope of a man's shoulders. She knows the way he favors his left leg when it rains. She knows the specific, arrogant tilt of his chin when he thinks he owns the world.

I watched them get into a car that cost more than the apartment the Family allowed me to live in.

My grief, which had been my constant companion, my shadow, my very skin for three years, suddenly felt like a costume I had been forced to wear in a play I didn't know I was auditioning for.

Three years of wearing black. Three years of teaching our son, Leo, to kiss a photograph goodnight. Three years of silence, of Omerta, of being the perfect, tragic Widow in Black for the Outfit.

I looked down at the grave. It was empty.

My life was a lie.

I turned away from the headstone, leaving the lilies to rot.

I trudged back to the small, cramped apartment in the shadow of the Vitiello territory. The walls were thin, peeling with layers of cheap paint that smelled like damp plaster and despair. This was the charity the Family gave to the widows of Soldiers.

Leo was sitting on the floor, pushing a toy car with a missing wheel across the linoleum. He looked up, his eyes so dark, so much like Dante's that it sometimes hurt to look at him.

"Mama, is Uncle Matteo coming today?" he asked.

The name tasted like ash in my mouth. Uncle Matteo.

"Yes, Leo," I said, my voice hollow. "He is coming to bring the envelope."

Every month, on the anniversary of the death, "Matteo" came. He brought cash. Blood money. Pension money. He claimed it was from the Family, for the widow of his brave brother.

A knock rattled the door.

I opened it.

Dante stood there. He was wearing a suit that fit him perfectly, his hair slicked back, a gold watch glinting on his wrist. He looked well-fed. He looked vibrant.

He held out a thick envelope.

"For you, Elena. For the boy."

He used the voice he used for everyone else now. A little deeper. A little rougher. The voice of Matteo, the Capo who had died of an overdose three years ago-a death they had hushed up to let Dante take his place.

I took the envelope. My fingers brushed his. His skin was warm.

Dead men are cold.

Leo ran over, hugging Dante's leg.

"Papa!" Leo shouted, forgetting the rules.

Dante stiffened. He peeled Leo's small arms off his expensive trousers like he was removing a piece of lint.

"Don't call me that, Leo," he said, his tone sharp. "I am your Uncle. Your Papa is a hero. He is in heaven."

Leo shrank back, confused, hurt.

I watched Dante's face. There was no pain there. Only annoyance. He wasn't looking at his son. He was looking at his watch.

"Gina is waiting in the car," he said, smoothing his jacket. "We have a dinner reservation."

Gina. Matteo's widow. The woman he was protecting. The woman he was living with.

He turned to leave.

"Dante," I said.

He stopped, his back to me. For a second, his posture slumped.

"What?" he asked, not turning around.

"You forgot to ask how I am."

He didn't turn. He just opened the door.

"Buy yourself something nice, Elena. You look tired."

He walked out, closing the door on the tomb he had built for me.

I walked to the window and watched him get into the car where she was waiting.

Down the street, a black SUV sat idling. It had been there for weeks. Tinted windows. Heavy. Dangerous.

I knew who was inside.

Salvatore Vitiello. The Don.

The most lethal man in the city. The man who controlled the air we breathed. He was watching. He was always watching.

People whispered that the Don was a monster, a man who had no heart. But as I watched my husband drive away with another woman, I realized the real monsters aren't the ones who kill you.

They are the ones who let you live, just so they can watch you bleed.

Continue Reading

Other books by Hua Jian

More
The Mafia Don's Regret: Torturing His True Savior

The Mafia Don's Regret: Torturing His True Savior

Modern

5.0

My husband crushed the metacarpals of my left hand—my drawing hand—with a heavy leather-bound book. This was Punishment Ninety-Six. The offense? I had missed a single phone call from my stepsister, Joyce. According to Don Austen Ballard, ignoring the woman who allegedly saved his life fifteen years ago was akin to high treason. "Discipline is the highest form of love, Alana," he whispered, watching the violet bruise spread across my skin. He calls shattering an architect's hand "love." He believes Joyce dragged him from a burning building when he was a boy. He treats her like a living saint and me like a punching bag to pay his life debt. But it is all a lie. Fifteen years ago, Joyce was at a cheerleading camp three towns away. I was the one in that crawlspace. I was the one who found the bleeding boy in the dark. I was the one who called him "Stellen" because he was too terrified to tell me his real name. He has spent our entire marriage torturing his true savior to please a fraud. Tonight, the pain finally burned away my fear, leaving only cold resolve. I didn't cry. I waited until the house was silent, then I retrieved a burner phone hidden in a false bottom of a box in the bathroom. I dialed the number of his sworn enemy, Don Dalton Underwood. "I have the blueprints," I said, my voice steady despite the agony in my hand. "And I have the controlling shares of Ballard Industries. I'm ready to burn his kingdom to ash."

You'll also like

The Placeholder Bride's Secret Billionaire Revenge

The Placeholder Bride's Secret Billionaire Revenge

Luo Ye
5.0

For two years, I was the invisible force behind tech billionaire Kieran Douglas, convinced that our "private" romance was his way of protecting us from the tabloid spotlight. I managed his mergers, warmed his bed, and waited for a future that didn't exist. The illusion shattered at 6:00 AM when a Page Six alert debuted Kieran’s "real" romance with socialite Aspen Schneider. Before I could even process the betrayal, Kieran sent me a cold, professional text: "Order flowers for Aspen. Pink peonies. Her favorite." When I tried to walk away, my own mother called me a disgrace and threatened to lock my inheritance forever unless I married a sixty-year-old businessman to save her failing estate. At a high-society gala that same night, Aspen intentionally crushed my burned hand in front of the cameras, while Kieran stood by and dismissed me as a "mediocre assistant" who had overstayed her welcome. I stood in the cold New York rain, drenched in champagne and humiliation, realizing that every sacrifice I made for Kieran was a joke. I was a ghost in a penthouse that was never mine, discarded the moment his "soulmate" returned. To the world, I was just a placeholder whose time had run out. But Kieran forgot one thing: my father’s multi-million dollar trust fund unlocks the moment I legally marry. I didn't need love; I needed a signature and a shield. I walked into a discreet law firm and signed a marriage contract with a man I believed was the city’s most notorious, scandal-ridden playboy. I thought I was marrying a degenerate "beard" to buy my freedom and secure my revenge. I didn't realize the man who signed that paper wasn't a playboy at all, but Gaston Collins—the most powerful and dangerous man on Wall Street—and he had no intention of letting our fake marriage stay fake.

The Mute Bride Is The Secret Mastermind

The Mute Bride Is The Secret Mastermind

Jin Yi
5.0

I was the titan of Wall Street until an indictment and an ankle monitor turned my penthouse into a gilded cage. To save face, I was forced into a marriage with Elza, a "mute" girl from the Schmidt family whom I treated as nothing more than a silent piece of furniture while my empire crumbled. The night I was poisoned at a high-society gala, a mysterious server in an oversized uniform saved my life with terrifying, clinical precision. They disappeared into the night, leaving me with a silver cufflink and a burning obsession to find the shadow who held my life in their hands. Back home, I took my frustration out on Elza, telling her she was "exhausting to look at" and "smelled like sickness" after her charity visits. Her own family treated her like a stray dog, trying to humiliate her at the next gala by dressing her in what they claimed was a cheap knockoff while whispering to the press that she was nothing but a high-end escort. "Stay out of my way," I would growl at her, never noticing the steel in her eyes. I sat at my table, watching my rivals' stocks plummet and wondering who "The Zero"—the legendary financial ghost—really was. I never suspected that the woman I ignored was the same one solving the equations that were currently burning Manhattan to the ground. The injustice peaked when Elza stood before the city's elite, not as a victim, but as a queen. She dropped over a hundred million dollars to buy back her family’s legacy, revealing a secret fortune that made my own empire look like pocket change. As I grabbed her wrist and saw the small red mole hidden beneath her watch, the truth hit me like a physical blow. The silent wife I had despised was the savior I had been hunting, and she was finally done playing the victim. "We have a lot to talk about, wife," I whispered, realizing I had been sleeping next to the most dangerous woman in the world.

Chapters
Read Now
Download Book
He Faked Death, I Married The Don He Faked Death, I Married The Don Hua Jian Mafia
“I was arranging white lilies on the cold marble of my husband's grave when I saw a ghost. Walking through the cemetery gates was a man who looked exactly like my dead husband, Dante. Logic said it was his twin brother, Matteo. But a wife knows the slope of a man's shoulders. She knows the arrogant tilt of his chin. My husband hadn't been blown up in a car bomb three years ago. He had faked his death to steal his brother's rank, his fortune, and his mistress. For three years, I had forced our son, Leo, to kiss a photograph goodnight. We lived in a damp, peeling apartment, surviving on the "charity" of the Family. Meanwhile, Dante was living in a mansion, driving cars that cost more than my life, playing house with another woman. When he came to our cramped apartment to drop off the monthly "pension" money, pretending to be Uncle Matteo, he didn't look at me with love. He looked at his watch. When Leo ran to hug him, shouting "Papa," Dante peeled the boy's small arms off his expensive suit like he was removing a piece of lint. "Don't call me that," he snapped. "I am your Uncle." My grief turned into ice. He chose another woman's comfort over his own son's hunger. I grabbed Leo's hand and walked out the door. "You walk away, and you get nothing!" Dante shouted after me. "You'll be on the street!" I didn't stop. I walked straight to the black SUV idling at the curb. The window rolled down, revealing Salvatore Vitiello. The Don. The most lethal man in the city. "Get in, Elena," he commanded. I opened the door and slid onto the leather seat next to the devil himself. As we drove away, leaving my husband in the dust, I realized I had just traded a liar for a killer. And I didn't regret it for a second.”
1

Chapter 1

19/01/2026

2

Chapter 2

19/01/2026

3

Chapter 3

19/01/2026

4

Chapter 4

19/01/2026

5

Chapter 5

19/01/2026

6

Chapter 6

19/01/2026

7

Chapter 7

19/01/2026

8

Chapter 8

19/01/2026

9

Chapter 9

19/01/2026