The Don's Unwanted Bride

CHAPTER 16

Hayden’s POV

I snorted in disbelief, shaking my head as the words settled in the air like a time bomb that had just gone off. “What the hell did you just say?”

Donovan didn’t flinch. “She’s Alyssa Martini, boss. The woman you were supposed to marry six months ago, the one who disappeared.”

I stared at him, completely thrown off. My heart pounded in my ears as I took the folder he handed me. My hands weren’t trembling, but they were clenched tight enough to snap the spine of the file. I opened it fast, flipping through the pages until her picture stared back at me. Alyssa Martini.

I blinked hard.

It was her.

I hadn't seen her properly before the wedding. It was a blind arrangement, a Mafia alliance crafted for power, for wealth, for stability.

I had only caught a glimpse of her once, at Federico’s anniversary party. She had been standing beside Nicolai, her father, radiant in a red dress. She slipped away before I could approach.

Now I understood why she looked so damn familiar when she showed up here.

She was the girl who disappeared.

She was the girl who broke the alliance.

She was the woman I just slept with.

“Shit,” I muttered under my breath, letting the file drop to my desk as I raked a hand through my hair.

Images from the intimacy flashed through my mind, her bare skin, her trembling lips, the way she whispered my name like it was something sacred.

And then it hit me like a freight train.

The bow and arrow. Her stance. The confidence. Fearlessness.

She wasn’t just some runaway, she was trained. She was a Mafia Princess. I’d seen it now, clear as day. I’d just been too distracted by her doe eyes and vulnerability to see the storm behind them.

“How the hell did I not know?” I said out loud, pacing.

Donovan stood by the door like a soldier awaiting orders. “We assumed she was out of the country. We had nothing to go on. Then she showed up here, looking like a stray.”

That was the part that gnawed at me the most. She looked so lost when she first came. Her clothes were torn, her face pale, her eyes hollow like she’d been running from something darker than the past. But now I was starting to think she wasn’t running from something.

She was hiding.

“Does Nicolai know where she is?” I asked, even though I already suspected the answer.

Donovan shrugged. “I don’t think so. If he did, I doubt she’d be here.”

That made sense. Nicolai wasn’t exactly the type to let things slide. If he knew where she was, she’d be on the first flight back to Sicily, or in a grave.

“And she didn’t know who I was?” I murmured to myself, my voice low with disbelief.

“She didn’t act like it,” Donovan replied carefully. “Unless she’s a damn good actress.”

My jaw clenched. “She’s been lying to me this whole time. She knew. She had to know. You don’t forget the man you left at the altar.”

“Maybe she didn’t see your face either.”

I turned and looked at him. “You believe that?”

Donovan didn’t answer. That told me everything.

I slammed my hand against the desk. “Goddammit!”

If she knew me, she would've left.

My blood was boiling. All the little moments we’d shared were now tainted; her soft laughter, her curiosity, the way she touched me last night like it meant something. And I fell for it. I let my guard down. I let her in.

“She played me,” I muttered, more to myself than to Donovan.

“She also gave you her virginity,” Donovan pointed out. “Not something a woman does if she’s playing you.”

I looked at him sharply. “You think that makes it better?”

“I think it makes it confusing,” he admitted.

No kidding.

I was supposed to marry her. She was meant to be mine in a political arrangement I never asked for, but I accepted it because it was what the business needed. And when she ran, she didn’t just humiliate me. She broke trust. She wrecked alliances. She fractured years of diplomacy with Nicolai.

I cut ties because of her. And now, she was in my bed.

I looked back down at the file, flipping through every damn page like it would offer a different ending. Same birth date. Same goddamn eyes.

Alyssa Martini.

Andrea.

Her voice echoed in my head. “My name is Andrea.”

Liar.

And yet, even now, my gut twisted in ways I didn’t understand. Why didn’t she say anything? Why run? Why disappear and live like a fugitive?

What was she afraid of?

“Boss,” Donovan said quietly. “What do you want me to do?”

I took a deep breath, inhaling through my nose to calm the fire inside me. I needed answers. I needed to see her face and hear the truth from her mouth. Every damn word of it.

“Bring her here,” I said. “Now.”

Donovan didn’t hesitate. “Right away.”

I watched him walk out, then grabbed my phone to call Nicolai. But my finger hovered over the call button. Something made me stop.

Would Nicolai even know she was here?

If he did, he would’ve come for her by now. He wouldn’t just let her be a maid in my estate. He would’ve dragged her out of here himself, even if it meant breaking down the gates.

Which meant this was a secret.

A big one.

I set the phone down, my mind racing. If Alyssa didn’t know I was Hayden, then she didn’t just run from her wedding. She ran from everything, her name, her life, her legacy.

Why?

And what the hell had she gotten herself into that she would rather live as a fugitive than as the wife of a Don?

My thoughts were interrupted when Donovan returned.

He didn’t even knock. He just threw the door open.

My pulse kicked up.

“She’s gone,” he said.

I stared at him. “What?”