Don Begged, Donna Walked Chapter 10
Looking at his miserable state, I felt nothing inside.
No love, no hate.
It was like watching a bad play that had nothing to do with me.
People who have once been on the verge of death truly change completely.
“You’re too late to give me all this.” I stared at the sparkling diamond ring. It was gorgeous and priceless.
“But to me, it’s just a pretty stone.”
I tried to leave, but he blocked my way at once.
He spoke urgently, trying to explain.
“I’ve already punished Adelaide. You’ll never see her again. I’ll fix everything and make it clear to everyone.”
“I’ll stay with you every day from now on. I can put aside all clan business. If you don’t want kids, that’s fine. We can adopt one, and be a family of three.”
He held my hand, lost in his own fantasy, his voice shaky.
“Caterina, we only have each other. We’re the ones who should be together.”
Right then, someone rushed over and punched him hard in the face.
Caught off guard, Vincenzo Falcone stumbled and fell to the ground.
Sebastiano Moretti stepped in front of me.
He looked at Vincenzo with obvious disgust. “Now you talk about a family of three? Vincenzo, that sounds disgusting.”
“Every scar on Caterina was caused by you.”
“Do you have any idea what she once was? A beloved Vitale heiress, doted on her entire life. Can you even begin to count all the pain and humiliation she’s endured for you?”
Sebastiano gritted his teeth. “I regret holding back back then. I regret letting you have her!”
He raised his fist to hit him again, but I stopped him.
I looked down at Vincenzo and spoke flatly.
“Respect is not earned by kneeling. Love is not something you can take back or make people accept just because you regret it.”
“Your love doesn’t deserve this ring.”
“You don’t deserve me.”
“The second question in that metal box. What is the most important thing in a ten-year relationship?”
“My answer is loyalty.”
He hung his head, his body trembling.
“The second you got involved with Adelaide, you lost all loyalty towards me.”
“A couple without loyalty has no right to get married. Marriage is not a shelter, nor a tool to fix a broken relationship.”
I curled my lips slightly. “Unfortunately, I only figured this out today.”
His hands holding the metal box shook faintly.
“But it’s not too late to understand it now.”
Vincenzo slowly sat up from the floor, blood smearing the corner of his mouth.
“I get it.”
He stared at me stubbornly. “If you leave today, will you come back?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll wait for you,” he said immediately. “I’ll wait forever.”
I turned around and said one sentence.
“Up to you.”
…
Years later, I married Sebastiano in England.
I wore a white wedding dress and walked toward him slowly by the sea.
The priest spoke in a steady, solemn tone.
“…Will you have this woman to be your wife, to love her, respect her and protect her as yourself. Whether in sickness or health, riches or poverty, keep faith with her till death do you part?”
Sebastiano smiled and answered, “I do.”
Tears slipped down from my cheeks.
In the following years, I ran a small independent publishing studio focused on art books.
We had no children.
We adopted an abandoned dog and named it Sunflower.
Vincenzo’s name had long disappeared from my life.
I only saw it once in a while in financial news.
My life was simple and peaceful, consisting of ordinary dawns and dusks.
And every dusk, I would hear Sebastiano’s key turning the lock when he came home.
This was the best ending of my life.