Two Years of Marriage, I Never Got My Wedding Ring Chapter 34

Two Years of Marriage, I Never Got My Wedding Ring Chapter 34

I lowered my head and opened it.

The first page was the list of wedding guests I had never been allowed to invite.

The second was the photo from the day I tried on my wedding dress.

The third was a photocopy of the $29.99 receipt from the street market.

After that came a detailed record of every public event I had attended for the Ricci family.

Which table I had sat at, on which day.

What I had worn.

What ring had been on my hand.

Who had been rude to me.

What situations I had smoothed over for the family.

The next section listed the things I actually liked.

Coffee with no sugar.

A dislike of heavy perfume.

A dislike of being called Mrs. Ricci by people who wouldn’t even look me in the eye.

A preference for thin rings over large, heavy diamonds.

I turned to the last page.

A blank card was tucked inside.

Alessio said, “The rest isn’t filled in yet.”

I looked up at him.

His hands were clenched at his sides.

“I was hoping to ask you, slowly, from now on.”

The entire ballroom was watching.

Alessio, who hated any public display of emotion, was standing under the brightest lights at his family’s gala, wearing a cheap ring and laying bare two years of his own failures for the world to see.

I closed the booklet.

“Alessio.”

“Mm.”

“Are you doing all this out of guilt, or out of love?”

He looked at me, his eyes deep and unreadable.

Below the stage, the only sound was the click of camera shutters.

Alessio didn’t answer right away.

He took a new ring box from the inner pocket of his suit jacket.

He didn’t open it.

“I want to answer that question with this.”