My Ex Told Me to Get Married? Too Bad I Had Married His Uncle! Chapter 03

My Ex Told Me to Get Married? Too Bad I Had Married His Uncle! Chapter 03

Sienna had changed, too. Five years ago she’d stood behind Dante in a washed-out dress so pale it was almost white, head bowed, wearing that look — like the whole world had wronged her and she was too gentle to say so.

Now she was draped in designer from head to toe — a sapphire necklace from the Lucchesi jewelry line around her throat, heels high enough to turn her into a different woman entirely.

Her gaze flicked to Dante first, then to me. Her eyes were already rimmed red.

“Vivian, is this still about the invitation?”

“You were gone for five years. When Dante said he wanted a wedding, everyone just assumed it was me. The invitation wasn’t meant to humiliate you.”

“If you need someone to blame, blame me. I couldn’t help it.”

“I spent five years watching him destroy himself over you. Drinking until he ended up in the ER. Calling your name when he was too far gone to know what he was saying. I’ve always known it was you he loved.”

“So I’ll back off.”

One tear slid down her cheek. Right on cue.

Dante pulled her against his chest without missing a beat, and the look he turned on me could have frozen glass.

“I really thought five years would’ve changed you, Vivian.”

“But you’re still the same. Still going for the throat.”

I held his gaze. “Did I say a single word?”

He hesitated — his voice dipping lower — but he didn’t let go of Sienna.

“You don’t have to. The way you look at her says enough.”

“She didn’t grow up like you, Vivian. She didn’t have a family name or a safety net. Everything she has, she clawed her way to. You’ve been a Moretti your whole life — you don’t understand what it feels like to be that exposed.”

“You owe her an apology.”

A smile cut across my face.

“One — she’s no blood of mine.”

“Two — whatever she’s been through, that’s not on me.”

“Three — do you really want me to tell everyone standing here how her grandmother died?”

The blood drained from Dante’s face.

“Enough.” His voice had an edge now. “If you ever want to be part of the Lucchesi family again, you won’t bring that up. Ever.”

The private room door swung open behind them.

A handful of guys in expensive suits filed out — sons of allied Families, every one of them, the kind who swaggered through Chicago’s underworld on their fathers’ names.

“Dante, she starting shit again?”

“You disappeared to Europe without a word, and Dante nearly drank himself into a hospital bed over you. He’d be dead in a ditch by now if Sienna hadn’t held him together.”

“Sienna’s the one we respect. Five years she stood by him. She looks more like a donna than you ever did.”

“Doesn’t it embarrass you, crawling back to steal someone else’s wedding?”

Sienna pressed herself tighter against Dante’s chest, eyes glistening — but I caught the faintest curl at the corner of her mouth.

She lifted her wrist, slow and deliberate, and unclasped a black rose bracelet.

The mark of the Lucchesi donna.

“Dante’s mother gave this to me.”

“She said only the future donna deserves to wear it.”

“So it’s yours now.”

Dante caught her hand and fastened the bracelet back on her wrist himself.

“What my mother gave you is yours. That’s the end of it.”

“Sienna, stop putting yourself through this.”

Sienna’s eyes brightened — and then Dante kept talking.

“I’ll make it up to Vivian later. That pink diamond from the auction last week wasn’t bad — I’m thinking of having it set into a brooch for her.”

As if I needed his jewelry. As if that was what any of this was about.

I drew a slow breath and let each word land on its own.

“Dante, I’m married.”

I watched his face.

“And I have two children.”

The corridor went dead silent.

Dante let go of Sienna and closed the distance between us in two strides.

“That’s not funny.”

“Be jealous. Throw fits. I don’t care. But don’t make up a husband and kids just to hurt me.”

His voice dropped, like he was rationing out his last scrap of patience.

“I had people check. The civil registries still list you as unmarried.”

“And children? Not a chance.”

“Unless you’re telling me you were pregnant with my kid when you walked out.”

The crowd behind him burst out laughing.

“Two kids? Come on. She’s really reaching now.”

“She knows she can’t compete with Sienna, so she made something up.”

But Sienna wasn’t laughing. Her face had gone pale.

She was staring at me, and for the first time, the fear in her eyes looked real.

I pulled out my phone to settle it once and for all.

The screen lit up with an incoming video call before I could even open my gallery.

Two round little faces crammed into the frame, cheeks squished together, eyes so wide and bright they looked like they ran on sugar and sunlight.

“Mom!”