Rejected 99 Times, Chosen By The Mafia Don

Eliana's POV:

The moment I finished speaking, Lucas froze with surprise in his eyes.

But he recovered almost immediately, and his frown deepened. He snapped defensively, "Eliana, what the hell are you even talking about? You're nothing more than a nobody who owns a small clinic. Do you honestly think you can live a good life without me?"

His mockery didn't faze me. "I meant every word," I said calmly. "I truly hope you and Bella are happy together. You deserve each other."

They were both trash, and they deserved to stay chained together for life. At least that way, they couldn't ruin anyone else's life.

Lucas' face darkened as he looked at me with cold eyes.

He seemed ready to explode when his phone suddenly rang.

It was the special ringtone he had set for Bella's call.

I had no idea what kind of victim act Bella was putting on over the phone, but Lucas' expression softened immediately. Even his voice became gentle and concerned.

"Bella, don't cry. Everything's fine. I'm on my way."

Lucas ended the call and headed for the door without so much as looking at me.

"You'd better hurry," I said lightly. "Don't make her wait. If she cries too hard and gets sick, you'll have to start worrying about her all over again."

Lucas slipped his phone into his pocket and frowned. Then, he studied me with a sharp, searching look I'd never seen from him before.

I knew exactly what had made him look at me that way.

The old me would've thrown away every ounce of dignity at such a time. I would've grabbed his sleeve and sobbed as I begged him not to leave.

I would've screamed like I'd lost my mind and demanded to know why Bella was so special to him. I would've fallen at his feet if it meant getting one more minute of his time.

This time, however, I was the one urging him to leave and acting like I couldn't bear to be around him.

Maybe he felt a brief pang of guilt. Or perhaps my sudden change had thrown him off.

For once, he actually returned to my side. He took a small velvet box from his suit pocket and tossed it onto the table beside me.

"We'll get married some other time. This is for you. Consider it my way of making up for the delay."

I didn't bother looking at the box. "I don't want a gift," I said softly. "Make me dinner instead. I want soup."

"Why can't you let the housekeeper handle it?" Lucas asked.

"Because I want you to make it." I gave him a moment to absorb my words, then added, "You can consider it our breakup dinner."

"That's enough!" he snarled. "Stop saying something like that."

He looked at me with disgust. "You're being pathetic."

He then stormed out without looking back. His footsteps echoed through the hallway.

As soon as the door slammed shut, I smiled bitterly. I hadn't expected anything else.

Any care he had to give was reserved for Bella and no one else.

For six years, I had convinced myself that if I stayed beside him long enough, I could earn even the smallest piece of his affection. What a fool I'd been.

Soon after Lucas left, my phone rang. Bella sounded smug over the line and clearly wanted to provoke me.

"Well, Eliana," she said. "Looks like you lost again. Oh, about that gift Lucas gave you? You should thank me for it. He spent the entire day shopping with me, so he didn't have time to buy you anything. I'd gotten tired of that necklace, so I gave it to him. I never thought he'd actually turn around and offer it to you."

So, even Lucas' apology gift was nothing more than one of Bella's unwanted items.

"That explains it," I said flatly. "I was wondering why the box smelled like cheap perfume and desperation. Now, I understand. Garbage like that might be valuable to you, Bella, but it's worthless to me. I already tossed it in the trash."

Before Bella could reply, I ended the call and blocked her number. Then, I threw the velvet box into the trash.

At that moment, a sudden wave of dizziness hit me.

I grabbed the nightstand for support. A buzz filled my ears, and cold sweat ran down my spine.

My doctor's instincts took over, and I recognized what was happening. The rain, the cold, and the fever had combined to trigger a severe physical stress response in me.

This was bad. My fingers shook as I searched through my contacts, found the number of the one person I could still trust, and tapped the call button.

The call was answered almost immediately. A man's deep, magnetic voice came through the speaker.

"Eliana?"

I froze for a moment.

Since when had my best friend, Jenny Jones, sounded like a man?

But there was no time to make sense of it.

Drops of sweat fell from my face and splashed across the screen. I couldn't see clearly.

"Help me..." I tried to say more, but all that came from my throat was a broken gasp.

The next second, everything went black, and I fainted.