Seven Days to Wed My Mafia Ex's Uncle Don

Through a blur of the other driver's frantic apologies, I was lifted onto a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance.

Thankfully, the other driver had slammed on the brakes in time, so my injuries were all external.

After leaving the emergency room, I was wheeled directly into a high-security VIP suite on the top floor.

I didn't recall the Valenti family having any connection to this hospital.

While I was still trying to make sense of it, the middle-aged department head approached with a fawning smile.

"Miss Valenti, Don Moretti himself gave us strict instructions. You are to receive the best care. You and the Don must be very close, then? When you see him, please don't forget to put in a good word for me…"

I couldn't hear the rest of what he said.

A message came through on my phone. I opened it numbly.

It was from Marco. Just a few, cold words.

[Take care of yourself. Stop causing trouble.]

That suffocating feeling washed over me again.

Five years together, and it was always the same cycle of cruelty and kindness.

I was so sick of it. What did Marco take me for?

A pet he could summon and dismiss at will?!

A fire ignited within me. I hurled my phone against the wall.

Ignoring my freshly bandaged wounds, I stumbled out of bed and rushed out of the hospital room.

Behind me, I heard the doctor's anxious shouts.

"Miss Valenti, you have a cast on your leg! You can't be running around right now!"

But the determination to cut ties with Marco immediately overrode any sense of pain.

I limped my way downstairs.

Just as I reached the hospital lobby, I ran straight into Marco.

"Where are you going? You're injured and you're still trying to run out? Elara, do you have to keep making a scene?"

A voice tinged with anger came from above my head.

I recoiled as if I'd been shocked.

I met Marco's emotionless eyes.

"Where I'm going is none of your business. Move."

Marco didn't move, but Sofia, who was trailing behind him, stepped forward.

With her hands on her hips, her eyes glinted with mockery as she spoke.

"Marco, let her go! She's so badly injured and still in such a rush to get out. I bet she's rushing off to some secret rendezvous…"

"Marco, you've found your happy ending, but you can't expect Elara to stay lonely forever, can you?"

Perhaps it was my imagination, but I felt a gaze as sharp as a knife piercing me from somewhere above.

But right now, I didn't have the mind to care.

I shoved Sofia, who was standing in my way.

"Who I'm seeing is none of your business! Get lost! You're in my way!"

I had just come out of surgery and had barely any strength.

But Sofia used the momentum of my push to fall straight backward, letting out a piercing scream.