The Don's Last Promise

Married seven years, and after my husband Nathaniel broke another promise to me over his new assistant, I set a glass jar on my nightstand. Every time he broke a promise, I dropped a coin inside. Ten disappointments. That was the final line I drew for myself. The first coin was for the anniversary he forgot entirely, all for her birthday. The third coin was for the date night he promised me, then turned around and took his men to clear out a whole venue for her birthday party. The sixth coin was for the time I got shot by accident, and he just told me to bandage it myself while he carried her into the hospital in his arms. By the ninth coin, Nathaniel finally noticed the jar. He picked it up, gave it a shake, and joked: "Audrey, this is dangerous. The last one, you have to remind me. I can't lose you." So when the tenth time came around, I made a point of reminding him before I left. Our seventh wedding anniversary. Nathaniel promised he'd be home before eleven. At eleven-thirty, Victoria sent me a photo. Nathaniel, sitting in the pet ER with her ragdoll cat in his arms, still wearing the shirt I'd ironed for him that morning. Then she sent a voice message. "It's your anniversary today, Don. If you don't head back soon, that coin jar on Donna's nightstand is going to be completely full." On the other end, Nathaniel laughed. "So what if it's full? She's not going anywhere." "I gave her power, status, gave her everything. She's crazy about me. You think she'd dare leave?" A two-second pause in the recording. Victoria let out a dry laugh. "Really?" I laughed too. I loved him too much, so I was willing to put up with anything. But in the end, that just became something he took for granted. I slid the diamond ring off my ring finger and placed it in an envelope, along with ten cold coins. Nathaniel, there really was no "us" anymore. Chapter 1 Once the envelope was sealed, I set it quietly on the nightstand. At one forty in the morning, the door opened. Nathaniel came in first, cradling Victoria's ragdoll cat with exaggerated care. Victoria followed right behind him, clutching an elegant leather cat carrier, looking terrified. A rival gang hit near her apartment tonight. The security system triggered the alarm. Until her own detail is sorted, she stays here tonight." He glanced at the master bedroom, lights still on. In the guest room, my packed cardboard boxes were stacked neat and orderly. Twelve large moving boxes, holding every trace of my seven years here. Nathaniel spotted them the second he walked in. He kicked the one blocking his path. "Donating books to the church charity again?" Every year around the holidays, I'd sort through my hardcovers and send them to the community library or the church. He never cared. He never even bothered to read the recipient's name on the boxes. So he never noticed that on every flap, I'd written three clear words in thick black marker: Audrey. "Not donating." I set the envelope down. "Then what is it?" The cat in Victoria's arms let out a delicate mewl, and Nathaniel immediately bent his head to check its paws. Satisfied, he turned and instructed his assistant: "Daniel, move these boxes to the storage room off the study." Daniel stepped forward, crouched to lift one, and froze. He hesitated, then said to Nathaniel: "Don, the storage room's tight on space. I don't think it'll fit all these big boxes." "Won't fit?" Nathaniel didn't even look up. "Then throw them all out." For the Don who ran an entire underground empire, my personal belongings had never been worth a second of careful thought. Anything broken, anything discarded, was just decoration he could replace anytime with a black card. He used to be my fiancé. Then he became my husband. And somewhere along the way, his priorities shifted, from me to someone else. His new assistant. His adopted sister. The memories unfold slowly. I think back to three years ago, when he moved my white gardenias, three months in the growing, out to the public hallway, just to free up the sunniest spot for the tropical plant Victoria brought over. By the time I got back from handling clan business out of town, the gardenias had long withered dead in the cold wind. Later, he casually bought me an expensive bouquet of imported roses. He stroked my hair with that perfunctory touch and said: "Victoria's always so reckless. I have a responsibility to look after her, but I promise, I won't hurt you again." But after that, the framed photos, the diffusers in the living room, the armchair I always sat in, one by one they got moved out of the sunniest spots. Every time Victoria visited the estate, a little more of my presence in that house got eaten away. Hearing Nathaniel's words, I set the last two books in the box, taped it shut, and looked up calmly. "Throwing them all out is fine, right?" Nathaniel raised a brow, surprised I hadn't argued at all. "That's it? You're okay with it?" I threw it back. "Okay with what?" He blinked, then laughed. "Fair enough." He'd assumed I'd blow up at him over something this small, another fiery tantrum. Just then, Victoria walked to the guest room door with the cat. She skimmed the boxes along the wall, her gaze landing on the name I'd written myself, "Audrey." "Donna, you've packed so much... going on a trip?" "Not far." "How many days?" I sliced the tape clean. "Hard to say." Nathaniel answered for me, casually. "Where would she go? Two days at the estate down south at most. She's got a vacation villa there. Every time she gets in a mood, she runs off there to clear her head." I'd never said I was going to the estate. But in his eyes, my whereabouts and my decisions were always a script he'd already written. Like the third year of our marriage, when my mother had a sudden emergency and needed major surgery, and he took it upon himself to book me a same-day round trip. "There's an important gala tonight. Show your face, then fly right back." By the time my mother came out of the OR, I barely had time to kiss her forehead before his bodyguards hustled me out. That night, she developed severe post-op complications. They couldn't save her. Later, Nathaniel donated a huge sum to the cemetery and gave her a grand, imposing funeral. In his mind, that astronomical donation had bought off all the regret. The whole thing was settled, done with. "Where's the storage room key?" Nathaniel held out his hand. I slipped the brass key off my ring and dropped it into his palm. He took it, tucked it into his suit pocket without a thought. And never noticed that my keyring now held only a single key. The front door. Victoria leaned against the doorframe, smoothing the cat's fur, her voice sweet with just the right measure of manufactured concern. "Don, cats are sensitive to unfamiliar places, and she's still shaken. I'm a little worried she'll get stressed—" Nathaniel cut in immediately. "Then she sleeps in the master bedroom." Victoria looked surprised. "But then Donna, she might—" Nathaniel cut her off. "She won't mind. As my Donna, protecting core members is our duty." Nathaniel turned, bent down, and pressed an affectionate kiss to my forehead, his voice low and tender. "I know you'll always be the best donna, won't you?" I bent over, pushed the last box gently into the corner. "Fine." The tight furrow in his brow finally smoothed out completely. In his eyes, I'd always be that Audrey who obeyed his every word. Give me a kiss, or a little tender attention, and I'd swallow every grievance and every thorn right back down. I turned and went to the bedroom to grab my coat. On my way out, I heard Victoria's voice from the master bedroom. "Don, why is half of Donna's closet empty? She's not actually angry, is she?" Nathaniel was busy arranging a soft plush bed for the ragdoll cat, not even looking up. "She gets like this sometimes." "Give it a couple days. Once she's bored out there, she'll hang everything right back up." I opened my phone and confirmed the lease on the new apartment. Two days until I left. Chapter 2 After dawn, I went to Vance Group. Seven years ago, Nathaniel was only running underground business in a few small southern cities. After he married me, with my father's resources as the old Don and the backing of an enormous underground money chain, he grew into the underground king of New York. Those years, to help him secure his position, he'd be so exhausted he'd fall asleep at his desk. I'd quietly stick a yellow Post-it over the glaring lamp in front of him. On that Post-it was one sentence. Nathaniel will stand at the top of the pyramid. When he woke, he carefully tucked it into the notebook he carried everywhere, looked at me with all the tenderness in the world, and said he'd keep it for life. As his underworld career soared, to protect his dignity as the sole reigning Don, I willingly followed clan tradition, stepped back into the shadows, and played the low-key Donna behind him. The front desk recognized me and bowed respectfully. "Donna, the Don is in the executive conference room." "I'm here to return something." I set the black access card, the highest clearance in the Vance empire, gently on the counter. Just then, an argument broke out from the conference room. A channel Victoria was handling had hit a legal snag, and the other side was ready to tear up the agreement and walk. Nathaniel spotted me through the blinds and yanked the door open. He strode over, wrapped an arm around my shoulder, bent down to kiss my cheek, and murmured: "Audrey, baby, perfect timing. Help me save this. This deal decides next quarter's profit split across the families. It cannot fall apart." He steered me toward the podium. I looked down at the proposal on the table. It was my project. But on the signature page, the name read "Victoria Lane." Victoria stood in front of the projection screen, dabbing at her tears with a tissue, all fragile. "I didn't know that supply chain would clash with the South American syndicate—" Nathaniel hurriedly pressed the documents into my hands, gave my cold fingers a quick squeeze, and coaxed in a voice only the two of us could hear. "Audrey, sweetheart, just keep them at the table first. Once we're past this, wherever you want to go on vacation, I'll take you." He was trying to use that cheap tenderness to soothe away all my temper. I didn't even lift my eyes. I flipped to the last page, pulled out a black pen, and drew two dark lines across the South America border on the map. "This is the route jointly guaranteed by the Miller family and the Vance family." At the words "Miller family," the other side straightened their suits, their expressions softening. "Audrey, of course we'll always trust your proposal." Victoria went pale, her long nails digging deep into her palm. And Nathaniel held me close, like holding up a beautiful crown. The moment the contract was signed, he immediately had his assistant escort the other side downstairs. I sat back down at the computer, expression calm, and pressed the keys, permanently deleting every trace of the Miller family business dealings from the system. Victoria walked up beside me with a cold smirk. When I looked up, she turned wounded. "I'm sorry, Donna. I really didn't know this proposal was yours. If I had, I never would've dared take credit for your work—" "Doesn't matter." I didn't even look up. "How could it not matter?" She turned, her big watery eyes full of apology as she looked at Nathaniel. "Nathaniel, maybe we should send a company-wide email to clarify, tell the board and the clients that Donna saved the day." "No need." Nathaniel refused fast, without a flicker of hesitation. He walked slowly to my side, his voice soft enough to wring water from, even considerately pressing his hand to my shoulder, bending down to murmur by my ear. "She's the Donna. She doesn't need achievements." He lifted his head to look at me, a certainty in his eyes like he controlled everything. "Baby, you already have me. You're the only Don's wife. Let her have this one, okay? Victoria just joined the core circle. She needs this win to prove herself." The first year of our marriage, I used my family's influence to secure Vance Tech's first hundred-million-yuan round of financing. At the celebration, in front of every partner, every Don, every investor, he raised his glass high and said with deep feeling that Vance Tech was the most dazzling diamond ring he'd ever given me. But ever since Victoria appeared, my diamond got cut, and cut, and cut again. Until all that was left was that offhand line from his mouth: "She doesn't care." I nodded, calm. "Okay." Nathaniel let out a breath of pure relief, and turned to give Victoria a small smile, as if everything had gone exactly according to his script. Then Victoria's gaze landed on the black swan figurine on my desk, the one that symbolized the Donna's power and status. Her eyes were full of wanting. "Don, that figurine is so pretty—" Nathaniel didn't even look. "Then take it." I saw it clearly. Stuck to the bottom of the figurine was that faded scrap of Post-it. Victoria made a show of declining, but her eyes were glued to the notebook and the figurine. "This is something Donna treasured, isn't it? Is it really okay to give it to me?" "She barely comes to the office anymore." Nathaniel was scanning a report, not even looking up. "She won't mind." Victoria stole a glance at me and covered a dry laugh with her hand. All these years, Nathaniel always stressed the Donna's duties to me. But the things that belonged to the Donna, he could hand to Victoria without a second thought. Because he was certain my things would never be reclaimed. And I would never truly get angry. I picked up the executive access card I'd just set down and tossed it straight into the card shredder beside me. The card was cut to pieces in an instant, a harsh grinding sound filling the air. Nathaniel flinched, shot to his feet, and stared at me. "Audrey, what the hell are you doing?!" "Won't be needing it anymore." He drew a deep breath, forcing down his temper. "What exactly do you mean by that?" "Nothing." I picked up the briefcase and coat from the chair and turned. "I've returned what I came to return. You two carry on." Nathaniel, face dark, chased me out of the conference room and shot a hand out to block the elevator doors just as they were closing. He sighed, lowered his stance. "Baby bear, tonight is the top mafia gala in New York. Don't be late." As if the fight just now had been a hallucination. I held the open button quietly and looked at him. "I have other things to do. I'm not going." "What other things could you possibly have?" His face dropped in an instant. "Tonight Victoria just 'landed' the company this big client. Everyone in the core circle wants to meet this new face. You're my wife, and you're the Donna of the Vance family. You have to be there." Through the narrowing gap, I looked at Victoria behind the glass door. She was taking a selfie with the black swan figurine. I pulled my gaze back and nodded. "Fine. I'll go." Only then did Nathaniel let go of the elevator door, satisfied, and patted my forehead lightly. "That's my girl. Be a little more mature." The elevator doors slid shut in front of me. In the mirrored elevator, he straightened his suit, convinced I'd caved again because I loved him. Just like every time before. Out of the company building, I got into the car, pulled out my phone without a flicker of expression, and booked a one-way ticket for the morning after next. Chapter 3 At the New York mafia gala, my seat at the main table had originally been arranged right next to Nathaniel. After Victoria came over, Nathaniel raised a hand and summoned a server to add a chair between him and me. Victoria settled in slowly, elegantly swept her long hair aside, and the thin ruby bracelet on her wrist glittered under the lavish crystal chandelier. That was the bracelet Nathaniel had personally fastened around my wrist at the celebration banquet when the Vance family defeated every rival and officially became New York's number one mafia family, in front of all the family elders and Dons. Even the tiny scratch near the clasp was identical. Back then, Nathaniel had searched half the city's top jewelry workshops to have it custom made, because that shade of red was the color of the Vance family crest, and the color of my birthstone. He'd clasped it on me himself, eyes blazing. "Audrey, I'm giving you this because you and the Vance family are the most precious treasures of my life." Before I left home last night, I'd taken that bracelet off and left it quietly on the master bedroom vanity. So he had seen it. He just turned around and put it on another woman's wrist. Marcus, heir to another family, sitting diagonally across from us, clearly recognized it too. "That bracelet style looks familiar." Victoria hastily raised a hand to hide it under her cuff, looking flustered at Nathaniel. "I was in such a hurry I forgot to bring proper jewelry, so Don lent it to me to get through the evening... Donna, please don't misunderstand." Nathaniel said casually. "It's just a bracelet. She won't care." Marcus turned to me, a flicker of pity in his eyes. The whole table of family elders, investors, and senior officers was watching me, waiting for my reaction. Once, I'd been terrified of embarrassing Nathaniel in public. Even when humiliated, I'd smile and step up to smooth things over, protecting his image as New York's revered, imposing Don. I slowly lifted the water glass in front of me. "It suits her." Victoria visibly let out a breath. A satisfied smile spread across Nathaniel's face, and he raised an eyebrow at me affectionately. "I knew it. That's my Donna." Then he turned his head and casually fetched a glass of iced champagne for Victoria beside him. Looking at that foaming champagne, I suddenly remembered the night four years ago when he'd promised to celebrate my thirtieth birthday with me. Ten minutes before the restaurant closed, he called to say Victoria had gotten drunk at a bar and been harassed by a rival gang, and he had to grab a gun and go handle it immediately. That night, I ate the entire birthday cake alone in the empty restaurant. The next day, he presented me with this ruby bracelet. I'd thought it was belated thoughtfulness, belated amends. Only today did I fully understand. Amends and cherishing were never the same thing. Halfway through the banquet, Marcus brought up the multi-hundred-million-dollar underground freight capacity deal signed that day. Nathaniel smiled and passed the topic to Victoria. When Victoria got to the altered route in the proposal, she paused. "Actually... Donna helped me adjust this part of the details." Nathaniel cut her off. "You led this deal. Irrelevant details don't need mentioning." Victoria blinked, then explained in a small voice. "But the data and the route proposal were Donna's work to begin with..." "She's the Donna of the Vance family. Checking these things for the family business is exactly what she's supposed to do." Nathaniel was clinking glasses with a strange Don from across the room, and said offhandedly. "She's my wife. Keeping an eye on things for us is her duty as the Donna." Marcus nodded along at the right moment and tapped the table, chiming in. "Nathaniel's right. Right now, you and Victoria are the face the Vance family shows the world." I took a sip of water and just wanted to laugh. After Nathaniel spent years brainwashing and indoctrinating his underworld social circle, in the eyes of these gang bosses, I, the Donna, had become a credit card with no limit and no debt ever owed. Anyone could come up and swipe it whenever they liked. As the banquet broke up, Victoria's ragdoll cat suddenly started vomiting in the sports car. Nathaniel hurriedly scooped up the cat and urgently told the driver to pull the car up to the hotel entrance. I stood alone with my suitcase at the bottom of the hotel's wide steps. Nathaniel pulled a luxury car key from his pocket and tossed it to me. "Drive this one back yourself." "My car went in for maintenance today." I looked at him. Nathaniel didn't turn his head, his tone cold and perfunctory. "Then get Daniel to arrange a car for you." Victoria sat in the back of the sports car, clutching the cat, and poked her head out, saying with fake concern. "Don, why don't we drop Donna off on the way?" "The pet hospital is the opposite direction from her place. Not on the way." Only after Victoria was settled did Nathaniel turn back and give my back a symbolic pat, bending down for a perfunctory kiss. "Sweetheart, don't wait up for me tonight." The black sports car roared off in front of me. Not once did he notice that besides my handbag, there was a black rolling suitcase at my feet. And he certainly didn't notice the moving company van already waiting quietly a short distance down the road. I stood there for a long time, until the mover walked over and took the suitcase from me. "Mrs. Vance, the rest of your personal belongings at the house have all been cleared out and loaded up as requested." My phone buzzed, and a text from Nathaniel popped up on the screen. [The cat's fine. We're heading back first.] I shut the phone off without a flicker of expression. The mover turned and asked me, "Mrs. Vance, should we head straight to the new apartment now?" I looked up at the estate on the hill in the distance, the one I'd shared with Nathaniel for seven years, its landscape lights still glowing. "Back to that house first." "Still something to grab?" I pulled the car door open and got in, my voice utterly flat. "One last run." Chapter 4 When I got home, Victoria was there too. She was standing at the master bedroom vanity, pinching that heavy kraft envelope. The coins rattled as she shook it, and she let out a sharp laugh. "Donna. Oh no, wait. Audrey." She turned and waved the envelope, triumphant. "Nathaniel says you never forgive anyone ten times. Have you started counting? All these coins, how many times did you have to get your heart broken?" I held out my hand. "Give it back." "But I don't think you'll actually leave, Audrey." She glanced at the half-empty closet, her voice dripping with contempt and certainty. "You gave him almost everything you had. You don't dare actually walk out that door. You just want him to notice, then wait for him to come coax you back." I didn't waste words on her. I just held my hand out again, calm. "Give me the envelope." Victoria instinctively stepped back. But that step landed right on the ragdoll cat's tail. The cat, badly startled, let out a piercing shriek and lunged at her face. She screamed in terror, flailing her hands, and in the panic she slammed the glass jar that had held the coins straight onto the floor. Crack! Shards of glass sprayed everywhere. Coins clattered and rolled across the room. In the chaos, the cat's paw landed right on a sharp piece, and blood instantly dotted the white floor. The door banged open. Nathaniel rushed in, frantic. By then Victoria was clutching the bleeding cat, three angry red scratches on the back of her hand, sobbing. "Don, Donna didn't mean it, don't blame her—" Nathaniel whipped his head around and stared at me, shock and fury in his eyes. "You threw a jar at her?" I took a deep breath. "I didn't." Nathaniel drew a slow breath. "Then explain the mess on the floor." Victoria grabbed his suit sleeve and hurried to "explain" for me, all innocence. "Forget it, Don. She just wanted to snatch the coins back from me. The cat suddenly jumped at her, she probably just got scared and grabbed the jar—" Nathaniel looked at the scattered coins, and the fury in his eyes slowly turned to disbelief, to sheer absurdity. "Over a few worthless coins? Audrey? Is this really worth it?" "Worth it." I crouched down without a flicker of expression and picked up the coin closest to me. When I stood back up, Nathaniel was looking at me like I was a clown. "I get it now." Like he'd finally cracked some absurd logic, he sneered. "Audrey, you think Victoria stole your spotlight as the Donna? So to get back at me and vent your feelings, you hurt her and her cat?" He'd finally "seen the light." All my silence and compliance today had just been resentment building up, a tantrum in the making. I lifted my head and looked at him quietly. "You believe every word she says?" "She has no reason to lie to me." That line again. Three years ago, Victoria said I hid her thesis draft. He believed her. Two years ago, she said I deliberately failed to tell her team when the move was happening. He believed her. Last year, she said I only checked into the hospital with a high fever to trick him into leaving an important family meeting. He believed her then too. Every time, he thought she was pure and harmless, no reason to lie. Because in this house, the pathetic role that needed "lying" and "throwing little tantrums" to get attention could only be me. Because I was his wife. The Donna, bound beneath his Don authority. Victoria burrowed into his arms, sniffled, and said softly. "Don, don't blame Donna. She probably just cares about you too much. She can't bear to let you go." Nathaniel's face went completely cold. He grabbed Victoria's injured hand. "Tonight I'm taking Victoria to a hotel, and getting the cat's paw treated. You stay here and cool off." A dead silence fell over the bedroom. In his mind, this was already an enormous concession. He thought I'd break down crying like before, rush to grab him and explain the truth, humbly pull my thorns back in, all for the chance that he'd stay with me. But I just quietly put the coin I'd picked up back into the kraft envelope. "No need. I'm leaving." Nathaniel's brows slammed together, clearly deeply displeased with how easily I'd agreed. "Listen to me. I'm giving you time alone to cool off, not giving you a chance to threaten me with the silent treatment and divorce." "Mm." "When you've figured out where you went wrong, go apologize to Victoria." "Got it." His gaze swept past the twelve large boxes and the rolling suitcase already neatly packed by the wall, and the tension in his face actually eased. He smiled. "You even packed your suitcase ahead of time. And you still want to tell me you're not throwing a tantrum to get my attention?" I pulled up the handle of the suitcase and gave him a small smile. "You're right." He loved seeing me bow my head and admit fault. Even when the fault I was admitting was nothing like the one he had in his head. Victoria leaned weakly against him, but her eyes were fixed hard on the envelope in my hand. She asked softly. "Donna, it's so late. Where are you going with your luggage?" "Someone's picking me up." Nathaniel let out a cold laugh at that, his tone full of the contempt and arrogance of a man who controlled everything. "Someone's picking you up? Audrey, in New York, who would dare?" Ding. From the hallway outside came the crisp chime of the private elevator arriving. I didn't say another word. I pulled my suitcase and walked straight out without looking back. Nathaniel stood in the master bedroom doorway and didn't take a single step after me. Behind me, I could faintly hear his soft, low voice soothing Victoria, unhurried. "Stop crying. Tomorrow morning you'll see her in the kitchen making me breakfast like always." "She can't bear to leave me." He said it so casually. But he never noticed that my passport and plane ticket were tucked into the suitcase. I pressed the elevator button. This time, I really could bear it.