Share

Chapter 3

Author: Helen
That evening, Luca came home early.

He saw the necklace box on the floor, and my untouched dinner.

"Victoria was here?"

"She was."

"She said you hit her."

I looked at him. "You're here to take her side?"

"No. I want to know what happened."

"She said the two of you were in a hotel room for two hours."

Luca frowned. "She kept watch at the door while I met a witness inside. It involves the family. I can't tell you."

"Why can she know?"

"Because she's my lawyer."

"And because she doesn't hold you back. Right?"

He fell silent.

I knew I had hit the mark.

Luca was exhausted. His eyes were bloodshot, stubble had grown on his jaw, and there was a fresh cut on the web of his right hand.

Before, when he was hurt, I would tend to it. Now I needed someone's help just to get from the sofa to the medicine cabinet.

"Eve, I have never once thought you held me back," he said.

"Then why don't you tell me anything?"

"Because I don't want you touching any of this."

"But you're willing to let Victoria touch it."

"She knows how to handle it."

After those words, we both went quiet.

He explained quickly. "I don't mean you can't. I just—"

"I understand."

I turned the wheelchair and went back to the bedroom.

That night, the pain came on suddenly. I fell from the bed to the floor and couldn't reach the call button.

Luca was on the terrace on the phone.

I heard him say to Victoria, "I really can't hold on much longer."

Victoria asked, "Because of her?"

He paused a few seconds, then said, "Everything."

I lay on the cold floor and made no sound.

It was ten minutes before Luca came in and found me. His face went white. He carried me back to bed and called the private doctor.

The doctor gave me a painkiller injection.

As I drifted, I felt Luca holding my hand the whole time.

"I'm sorry," he kept saying. "Eve, I'm sorry."

But the next morning, Victoria's call took him away again.

I opened my phone and saw photographs of the two of them at last night's gala.

Luca in a black suit, Victoria beside him, her hand on his arm, the two of them facing the reporters together.

The headline read: Moretti and Vale Families May Be Joined by Marriage.

In the photograph, they really did look like a match.
Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 18

    Eve's letter arrived a month later.There was no forgiveness in it, and no blame.She wrote only a few small things.She said she always remembered me warming her dance shoes in winter.She said she had never regretted building the company with me.She also said we had once planned to go to Sicily. If I had the time, I should see the sea at Cefalù for her.The last line was: Luca, stop waiting for me.I took her ashes to Sicily.I rented an old house in Cefalù with a view of the sea. Every morning, I set out two breakfasts.One for me, one for her.At first, I knew she was dead.Later, I often forgot.I would see a figure in the street, think it was her, and chase it for blocks. I would hear her calling me in the middle of the night and run barefoot to the shore. I would talk to an empty chair all day.The doctors said I had severe post-traumatic stress, depression, and hallucinations, and needed to be hospitalized.I refused.I was afraid that if I went into a hospital, Eve wouldn't b

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 17

    After the interrogation, the police showed me Victoria's phone.It held every message she had sent Eve.Every day she had told Eve where she and I were and what we were doing. Most of it was true, and some of it was invented. She turned business dinners into dates, a night at the port into a night together in a hotel, and a photo of me choosing a ring for a client into wedding preparations.Eve rarely replied.The last time, she wrote only one line: You win. Please be good to him from now on.Victoria answered: The dead have no right to make requests.That message was dated two days before Eve died.I stared at the screen, my hands shaking too hard to hold the phone.So she had known all along that she would die.She bore the illness alone, and still worried about whether the Vale family would take revenge on me. She drove me away not because she didn't love me, but because she loved me too much.And what was I doing?I was tired because her words were harsh, angry because she refused

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 16

    The lawyer also gave me a box.Inside were the photographs Eve had left, her dance shoes, and our old ledgers. Every item was labeled with who it should go to. Before she died, she had arranged everything. The only thing she hadn't arranged was a grave for herself."Where is her body?""Donated to the research center, as she wished.""Who signed for it?""She did."I didn't even get the chance to hold a funeral for her.She didn't want me to see her after death, and she didn't want me keeping vigil at a grave. I knew she was protecting me, but that protection took away even my last goodbye.In the box was a photograph from when we were young.On the back, she had written: This was my happiest day.That day was only the company's opening. We had no money to celebrate, just one discount pizza. I had even spent the whole evening in a temper because a client was late.I didn't remember what I had said to her.She had kept that day as her happiest for ten years.I pressed the photograph to

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 15

    Dr. Grant refused to see me.I waited outside the clinic for six hours, and in the end I stopped his car."Tell me where Eve is.""She doesn't want to see you.""I know she's ill."The doctor's expression changed.I had only said it to test him, but his reaction gave me the answer."What's wrong with her?""I can't say.""She was in terrible shape when she left. Why did you let her go alone?"Dr. Grant stared at me, and anger slowly rose in his eyes."Mr. Moretti, isn't it a little late to be asking now?""What do you mean?""She was waiting to die from the first day she was admitted. You came every week, and you never once noticed."My mind went blank.The doctor took me into his office and brought out a file.Invasive spinal glioma. Late stage. Expected survival three to six months.The date of diagnosis was the day before our anniversary.The night I forgot to come home.I had walked in with Victoria's lipstick on my collar and told her I'd been in meetings all day and was tired.Sh

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 14

    Before the footage was recovered, I went home first.After Eve left, her room had stayed locked. Before, I hadn't dared go in, afraid of seeing the marks the wheelchair had left. That day I opened the door, and found the nightstand full of unopened pain patches.At the bottom of the drawer was a rehab schedule.In the first year after the accident, she had completed every session. In the second, she began missing them. In the third, after every date she had written the same line: Didn't stand up today either.The last page read: Luca said it didn't matter again today, but I can see he's disappointed.I had never once been disappointed in her.I only hated myself for not being able to save her.But I never said so. I thought that looking after her every day, paying her bills, finding the best doctors, was enough to prove what I felt.Only now did I understand. What she needed wasn't the bills. She needed me to tell her that whether or not she could stand, she was still the Eve I loved.

  • After I Died, My Fiancé Went Mad   Chapter 13

    [Luca's Point of View]Halfway through setting up the wedding venue, I got a call from St. Alban's.The nurse said Eve had left the facility."Where did she go?""Ms. Hart asked that it be kept confidential. She has authorized her lawyer to handle all the paperwork."I rushed to the sanatorium at once.The room was already empty. The sheets had been changed, and the cabinet held nothing. The only thing she had left was the wedding plan I had sent.The first page had been torn out. Nothing else was touched.I thought she was still angry with me.I called her. The number had been disconnected. Her lawyer told me only that she had gone to another city and didn't want to see me again."How is her health?" I asked."That is private information.""I'm her family.""You two separated."I had no answer to that.Victoria was pleased when she heard."She's finally come to her senses," she said. "Luca, you should move on too.""Do you know where she went?""No."She answered too quickly.I though

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status