I Married The Wrong Don—He Was The Real Boss Novel by Astra Marlowe _ Novel



I Married The Wrong Don—He Was The Real Boss Novel by Astra Marlowe _ Novel

I Married The Wrong Don—He Was The Real Boss Chapter 01

The daughters of the Thorley family were always destined to marry into the Reynard family.
The Thorley bloodline was the key. According to the Old Don's Omertà, the true heiress would wear the crown of the Donna, ruling the Reynard syndicate by her husband's side, wielding immense control of the docks and the blood-money within the syndicate.
In the second year after the Thorleys reclaimed me, we held a selection to determine our grooms for a marriage of convenience.
To punish me for Christine Thorley, the girl who'd stolen my life, my brother Jamir rigged the bowl. To protect his precious Christine, he made sure I pulled the black slip—the mark of a dead-end marriage.
As a result, I was now officially bound to marry Derick Reynard, the disgraced second son, a bastard born of a mistress, even though I was the true heiress.
Mocking murmurs rippled through the room.
"Well, isn't this interesting?" someone sneered. "The Thorley daughter is born to rule and ought to be marrying the heir, Karson Reynard. Instead, she's paired with the broken one. Derick, the Don’s bastard who can barely string a sentence together. What a waste of a Thorley womb. How embarrassing."
Jamir leaned in, scoffing under his breath. "That's the price you pay for stealing the groom meant for Christine.
"She cried her eyes out. I just embarrassed you a little to cheer her up.
"Don't worry, you'll still get to marry Karson."
He kept talking, but I had already picked up the slip of paper.
"I don't need a redraw," I said, my voice cutting through the laughter like a blade. "The slip is marked. I belong to Derick Reynard. Isn't that right, Don Ruben?"
A stunned silence dropped over the room.
***
At the head table, Ruben looked visibly alarmed and stepped in at once. "Derick is a simpleton and unfit for marriage. This selection is invalid, Aubie. You may choose again."
My parents and Jamir immediately grew anxious. Jamir stepped closer, scrambling to explain himself.
"I was just mad because you upset Christy," he whispered frantically. "She's been told her whole life she'd marry Karson—and now you've taken that away from her."
His words tightened something in my chest.
I was the biological daughter; Christine was nothing but a thief who had stolen my life.
Her father—our family's own soldato—had switched us at birth. While I struggled as a street rat in the gutters of Sicily, she was raised drowning in wealth and affection.
I gripped the slip of paper, my voice determined. "Jamir, do you really believe I took something that belonged to Christine?"
"You—"
"Besides, I'm not marrying Karson," I cut him off. "I'm marrying Derick, exactly as the paper dictates."
"The man is an idiot son," Jamir hissed, dropping his voice. "Are you seriously throwing a tantrum in front of the Reynard family? Don Ruben already gave you a chance to draw again."
Lowering his voice further, he pressed on. "You're the subject of the Blood-Vow that Don Ruben values above all else. You're meant to marry the heir. Marrying a fool makes no sense.
"Stop being stubborn. Everyone knows you should marry Karson."
Jamir kept begging me to reselection, reminding me that Ruben had already offered a way out—that I couldn't risk the future of the Thorley family.
But my expression remained unmoved as I looked straight at Ruben.
"I won't redraw. I won't break the family's rules," I stated firmly.
"Aubrey!" Jamir snarled.
As he flushed red with anxiety, Karson walked over with a sneer.
"Enough," he declared. "A marriage arrangement is not a transaction to be revised at will.
"Ms. Thorley is right. The results are final. Christy is my chosen bride."
Chaos erupted in the room at Karson's words.
My parents' expressions darkened with unease, while the surrounding guests watched with open fascination, drinking in my humiliation.
"Well, so much for becoming the heir's wife," someone murmured nearby. "Don Ruben gave her a chance for reselection, and she refused. Now Mr. Karson has rejected her outright. She'll just have to live with it."
Everyone had assumed the selection was merely a formality—that I would end up with Karson no matter what.
And now, because I refused to bend, I had thrown that expectation away.
Ruben struck his cane sharply against the floor. "Aubie is the trueborn heiress. Do you intend to defy the family code?"
"Father," Karson replied. "Christy's name is already on the Thorley family registry. That Blood-Vow is nothing but a fabrication."
He smiled faintly, though his eyes turned ice-cold.
Fixing me with open hostility, he continued, "Someone probably spread those rumors to elevate themselves.
"The Reynard family built its power on violence and weapons—not on some fairy tale about a woman bringing fortune."
"But..." Ruben hesitated. He clearly wanted to believe the Blood-Vow, but Karson's absolute certainty was making him second-guess himself.
Karson squeezed Christine's hand as he announced, "Christy and I were never meant to be in the same world.
"But fate brought us together and helped us understand each other. I love her, and she's the only one I ever want."
Emboldened by his declaration, the crowd laughed at me even louder.
"Well, looks like the real heiress is going to marry a brain-damaged fool."
"Look at Mr. Thorley. He's totally humiliated."

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