Rejected By The Don, I Crowned Myself Chapter 01
Every big name in the city was in that ballroom the night Nico Caruso walked out of our wedding.
He left to find Tatiana Mancini, the ex who’d disappeared from his life five years ago, back when he was still learning to walk again.
The ballroom went dead silent. Hundreds of the city’s elites stared, and not a single one looked
away.
My fingers clamped onto the lapels of his tuxedo. I was the future donna of the Caruso family, and I wouldn’t fall apart in front of these people.
“Please. Not now.”
Something flickered behind his eyes. Then he peeled my fingers off, one by one, and shook his head. “I’m sorry. I have to.”
“I need to know why she left.”
The ballroom erupted into chaos as he walked out. He never once looked back.
My father, who’d had a heart condition for years, was shaking with rage. Before I could reach him,
he collapsed.
“Dad!”
I nearly lost it, but I held myself together long enough to get him to the hospital.
I was slumped against the wall outside the emergency room when my phone buzzed. Two messages.
The first was from Tatiana. [Told you. The second I came back, you never stood a chance. You lose.
Again.]
The second was from Nico. [Give me a month. I’ll end things with her, and then it’ll just be
- me. I swear.]
you and
I stared at the screen until the words blurred. A bitter smile pulled at my mouth. Not this time.
Three grueling hours. The surgical light above the ER doors stayed stubbornly red.
ne Dad had a triple bypass surgery two years ago. He’d warned me then that Nico was wrong for me.
I didn’t listen. I was so sure Nico loved me that I treated my father’s judgment like background noise. Now every ounce of that certainty felt like a fist closing around my throat.
My mother was crying beside me.
“If your father doesn’t make it through this, I…”
“Mom, no.” I cut her off before she could finish. I needed to believe my own words. “Dad’s going to be fine.”
But my voice cracked on the last word, and I had never been this afraid in my life.
My phone buzzed again. Tatiana. She’d sent a video, filmed inside a hotel room.
In the video, Nico burst in looking like he’d driven through a storm and straight through hell to get there. He got right in her face.
“Why did you come back?”
Tatiana said nothing. He was the one who broke first, his eyes rimmed red.
“You disappeared. No goodbye, no explanation, nothing. And now you just show up and blow my whole life apart?”
“Is this a game to you? How is any of this fair?”
I walked down the empty corridor. The man on the screen was unraveling, and I realized I didn’t recognize him.
My best friend had told me more than once that Nico never showed me real emotion. I always brushed her off.
“He’s the head of a family. Men in his position don’t wear their hearts on their sleeves. I get it.”
But now I was watching him shake, watching him cry, watching him beg.
None of it was for me. All of it was for her.
I closed my eyes and swallowed the ache down. Then I made myself keep watching.
On screen, Tatiana never said a word. She just stood there, watching him fall apart.
Wearby.
Then, just like that, the anger drained out of him. He gave her this broken, helpless smile and pulled her into his arms.
“You’re here. You’re actually here…”
Tatiana settled against his chest. Over his shoulder, she looked straight into the camera and smiled.
The video cut out. I let out a hollow, broken laugh.
Thunder cracked outside. Rain hammered the windows, and my tears finally came with it. So this was the truth.
That was what Nico looked like when he was in love. And in five years, he had never once looked at me that way.
I wiped my face and walked back to the emergency room. The doors opened just as I got there.
I rushed forward, my eyes swollen and raw. “How is he? Is he okay?”
“He’s stable. But I need you to understand something. His heart cannot handle another episode like this. No stress, no shocks. None.”
Every muscle in my body locked tight. I nodded. “It won’t happen again. I promise. Thank you.”
They wheeled my father out, and my mother broke down, sobbing with relief.
I looked at him. He looked so small in that bed.
I wanted to scream at myself for being so blind. We followed the gurney into the ICU.
A few minutes later, the door opened. A man in a white coat walked in. “Miss Romano? Don Caruso sent me. I’m a top cardiologist. How’s the patient doing?”
At the same time, Nico texted me. [I’m sorry. I didn’t think it would affect your father like that. I sent a heart specialist over. He’ll be fine.]
My hands were shaking around the phone. Five years together.
And he didn’t even know what was wrong with my father.
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep from screaming.
“That won’t be necessary. You are dismissed. And you can tell the Caruso family to stay out of our business.”