He Bet I’d Crawl Back—My New Husband Was Waiting Outside Chapter 04

He Bet I’d Crawl Back—My New Husband Was Waiting Outside Chapter 04

The next day.

At the private hospital.

Tessa rested her hand on her belly and asked, careful and small:

“Sebastian, is our baby okay?”

Sebastian pulled her into his arms immediately.

“The doctor says perfectly healthy. The fire yesterday didn’t affect the baby at all.”

“Thank God.”

Tessa leaned against his chest and let out a breath of relief.

“You haven’t said a word since we walked in. I thought something was wrong with the baby.”

That offhand remark made Sebastian go still for a moment.

Against his will, his mind conjured the image of Ginevra in the middle of that inferno, the way she’d

looked at him.

No tears.

No cries for help.

Just a coldness that made something in his chest seize up.

Sebastian checked his phone again.

He’d sent over a dozen messages.

Ginevra hadn’t replied to a single one.

In the past, no matter how badly he ignored her, she was always there the moment he needed her.

And now she’d learned to use disappearing as a threat.

Sebastian scoffed inwardly.

He finished lunch with Tessa, made sure she was safely back at the estate, and then headed to Varenna Group headquarters.

The moment he stepped into the top-floor office, his assistant informed him:

“Don Marcello is back. He’s requesting all senior management in Conference Room One

immediately.”

Sebastian was already turning on his heel. He gave a distracted order over his shoulder.

“Buy a few of the latest handbags. Pick out a jewelry set too.”

The assistant nodded at once.

“Understood. I’ll have them delivered to Miss Reed’s residence.”

Sebastian stopped walking,

“Send them to the old Bellucci house.”

In his mind, once Ginevra left the estate, she had nowhere to go but that empty old house.

A week later. Late at night.

Sebastian finally finished dealing with corporate matters and came home.

On the living room couch, a woman in a silk nightgown was curled up in a ball.

He shrugged off his coat and started in with his usual mockery:

“Ginevra, how many times have I told you. I’ll come home when I’m done. You don’t need to wait up

eyery–”

He got closer and realized it was Tessa.

His voice died mid-sentence.

Tessa flinched under his dark stare.

“Sebastian, Ginevra still hasn’t come back. I’ve sent her so many apology messages and she hasn’t replied to any of them. Maybe I should just move out?”

Seeing she was about to cry again, Sebastian frowned and pulled her into his arms.

He pressed a perfunctory kiss to her forehead.

“Don’t overthink it.”

“Whether Ginevra accepts it or not, this is your home now. Yours and the baby’s.”

Half an hour later.

The man who had just made that promise stood alone on the terrace, smoking.

He’d quit a long time ago.

Tonight he was going through them one after another.

At the very bottom of his contacts, Ginevra’s number sat in silence.

His thumb hovered over the call button for a long time.

He finished two cigarettes. In the end, he only sent a warning.

[Tomorrow is Grandfather and Grandmother’s fiftieth wedding anniversary gala.]

[Don’t throw a tantrum at the event, and don’t cause trouble for Tessa and the baby.]

The next afternoon.

The Varenna estate was draped in warm golden string lights

. A band stage had been set up on the lawn, and guests from every corner of New York’s elite were arriving one after another.

Corporate investors, politicians, tech founders, and old-guard family members now wearing expensive suits instead of shoulder holsters all stood in the same grand hall, glasses raised, making conversation.

To the outside world, the Varenna family was a business-transformation success story.

But inside the dim study of the main house

Don Marcello was still receiving family

members the old way.

One asked him to deploy security assets. Another wanted a cybersecurity subsidiary to scrub a file

that shouldn’t exist. A third brought the name of a traitor and waited for the Don to decide whether

that person would live to see tomorrow.

Outside those doors, it was a different world entirely.

Francesca Varenna, in a silver-gray gown, personally welcomed every guest. She danced with elderly friends, reminded the kitchen to bring out each person’s favorite dish, and managed to

separate rival factions before arguments could start, all without anyone noticing.

For the past several years

the person who had always stood beside her, remembering every detail, handling every small

crisis, had been Ginevra.

Today, there was no one at her side.

Sebastian arrived with Tessa on his arm, the two of them looking every bit the devoted couple.

Francesca glanced at Tessa once.

She did not let her touch the brooch that symbolized the family matriarch.

When Marcello emerged from the study, his first words were:

“Where is Ginevra?”

Under his grandfather’s unreadable gaze, Sebastian pressed his lips into a thin line.

For once, he covered for me.

“She’s been working on an anniversary gift for the past few days. I could see how exhausted she

was, so I told her to rest. She’ll be here soon.”

Two hours passed.

The gala had reached the gift-giving portion of the evening.

Ginevra still hadn’t appeared.

The unease inside Sebastian grew heavier by the minute.

He stepped into a corner and dialed my number again and again.

All he got was the cold, automated voice of the system prompt.

That was when a courier, flanked by security, walked into the ballroom.

He carried three packages.

The first box contained a hand-embroidered

piece. The image depicted the small chapel where Marcello and Francesca had been married fifty

years ago. The stitching was impossibly fine and delicate. One look and anyone could tell I had spent

months on it.

Francesca’s eyes turned red as she opened the second gift.

Inside was the heirloom jewelry set she had personally placed in my hands on my wedding day.

Only the wife of a formally recognized Varenna heir was entitled to wear it.

The moment the jewelry

appeared, the entire ballroom went silent.

Everyone knew what returning it meant.

Sebastian’s face turned ashen as he walked to the last box.

It was large.

Inside were only two things: a set of divorce papers and a medical report.

The report was clear.

The car accident and miscarriage nine years ago had caused permanent damage to my body.

I would never be able to have children of my own.

Marcello finished reading the report and slapped Sebastian across the face in front of every person

in that room.

“You bastard!”

“If I’d known you would treat her like this, I never would have agreed to this marriage!”

“You destroyed a wife who could have stood beside you and held this family together.”

“And you destroyed yourself.”

Francesca clutched her chest, barely able to stand.

Family members rushed to help the old Don and his wife out of the room.

Every guest had the good sense to leave.

Only Sebastian remained, standing alone in the empty ballroom.

He stared at the divorce papers in his hands.

After a long, long time, he tore them to shreds, his face completely blank.

He ignored Tessa’s sobbing pleas, snatched the car keys from his driver, and drove himself to the old Bellucci house.

The place was pitch dark, inside and out.

Sebastian parked at the courtyard gate.

He rolled down the window and smoked through the entire night.

Until his throat was raw and his voice was gone.

He never saw a single light come on.