Too Late—Now I’m Married to Your Enemy Chapter 04

Too Late—Now I’m Married to Your Enemy Chapter 04

My phone vibrated softly.

It was a message from Sofia.

[Are you asleep? I’m so furious I can’t rest thinking about how Don Luca treated you tonight. And that Rosa, she’s always calling him over the tiniest little things.]

I sent back a smiling emoji and told her to get some rest.

[You’re still in the mood to smile? Have you even fought for your own happiness? What did Don Luca even say to you?]

Fight for my own happiness?

I tried that five years ago.

And what came of it?

Maybe that kind of happiness was never meant for me in the first place.

I moved back to Valentino Manor overnight.

Luca assumed I was just throwing a tantrum, so he made no effort to win me back, only shooting off a handful of messages.

[Taking a temporary break is good for both of us. We both need time to cool off right now. I’ll come pick you up once I’m done with my work.]

I drew a deep breath and blocked him across every single one of my contact and social accounts.

Maybe not every separation needs a formal goodbye.

As my wedding date drew near, my arranged marriage partner—Vittorio Rossi, the heir of the Rossi Family from Crimson Harbor—came to meet me.

In the middle of dinner, I stepped out to use the restroom.

As I passed a banquet hall, I caught sight of that familiar face.

No, to be precise, two of them.

A birthday party for Rosa was underway inside the hall.

The candlelight on the three-tier cake lit up her smiling face.

Luca stood right beside her.

Around the corner of the corridor, two guests who had stepped out to smoke were talking in lowered voices.

“Did you hear? Don Luca and Principessa Gina broke up, apparently…”

“I know. Both Principessas of the Salvatore Family are getting married at the end of the month.”

“Then will the Don get together with Madre now?”

“Keep your voice down. Don’t go running your mouth about Madre’s business.”

“I just think it’s a shame. Don Luca and Madre Rosa were really in love back then, if the previous Don hadn’t staked his claim first…”

“Enough. We don’t get to question the Don’s decisions.”

The two stubbed out their cigarettes and went back inside the banquet hall.

I stayed rooted to the spot.

So in everyone’s eyes, the five years I spent with him amounted to nothing more than a pitying afterthought.

So there had been something between him and Rosa, a romance cut short “because the previous Don had staked his claim first”.

He had never told me about any of that.

On some reckless impulse I didn’t turn to leave. Instead, I stepped closer to the door to listen in.

“Don Luca, that shipment on the East Coast at the end of the month… are you going there personally?”

“Of course.”

“What about Principessa Gina’s wedding?”

There was a short, cold silence.

“I don’t have time to act in this farce with her.”

He had just dismissed me and my wedding as nothing more than a “farce”.

Someone else asked, “Word on the street is she’s going to marry the heir of the Rossi Family.”

“Today is Rosa’s birthday,” Luca cut him off sharply, “Drop it.”

“Luca, is Gina leaving because of me…” Rosa’s voice wavered, thick with unshed tears.

“It has nothing to do with you. Don’t overthink it.”

“Gina, there you are.”

The second that voice rang out, every last tie between me and everyone in that banquet hall was severed for good.

I smiled, looped my arm through the gentleman’s outstretched arm, and turned to leave without a single backward glance.

The corridor was long, and the lights were dim.

The man beside me asked in a low, gentle voice, “Are you alright?”

I didn’t answer.

Because I didn’t know how to tell him.

I wasn’t heartbroken.

I’d finally seen the full, unvarnished truth of everything.