Chapter 2

“Miss De Luca, are you happy with this gown?” the attendant asked expectantly as she adjusted the dress around me. “It was designed by William, an Italian designer, and there’s only one like it in the world.”

I looked at myself in the mirror and thought of all the times I had imagined standing beside Enzo in a wedding dress, exchanging vows with him in front of the priest.

Now, it all seemed foolish.

“Cancel the order.”

The attendant froze. “What?”

“I’m not taking this gown. Please cancel the order.”

“But... this is a one-of-a-kind gown. If you give it up, someone else will probably reserve it very soon. Are you sure you don’t want it?”

“Yes, I’m sure.” I took off the wedding dress and handed it back to her. “Thank you.”

The attendant stood there holding the gown, disappointment written all over her face.

I put on my coat, picked up my bag, and walked out of the bridal boutique without looking back.

I found a café nearby, sat down, and booked a flight out of the country. The confirmation arrived on my phone soon afterward.

The flight was scheduled for three days later, on the day of the wedding.

That worked perfectly. I had plenty of time to pack my things and say goodbye to everything here.

I took a deep breath and felt some of the tension leave my body.

I would not be showing up at the wedding three days from now, because this time, I was done waiting.

When I returned to the estate, I went straight to the bedroom.

The room was quiet, and Enzo was probably still with Emily.

I opened the wardrobe, took down a suitcase from the top shelf, and began packing my clothes.

By the time Enzo pushed open the door, I had just finished packing.

“You’re back.” He took off his coat and looked at the suitcase on the floor. “What are you doing?”

“Just clearing out some old clothes.”

I gave him a casual answer as I closed the suitcase, pushed it into the wardrobe, and covered it with several coats.

“Did you find a wedding dress you liked today?”

“No.”

“Oh...” Enzo fell silent for a moment before speaking again, this time with a hint of caution in his voice. “Linda, I made a few changes to the wedding.”

I turned to look at him.

“We were originally going to have it in Sardinia, but Emily said she thought it would be safer to hold it here at the estate. Most of the family will already be here, so if anything happens, we’ll be able to deal with it immediately. I thought she had a point, so I changed the venue.”

Sardinia was where Enzo and I had met seven years ago, and he had once promised that one day, he would give me the grandest wedding there. He knew perfectly well how much that place meant to me.

When we first started planning the wedding, Sardinia had been the very first thing I decided on, and no matter how many times the rest of the arrangements changed afterward, the location had always remained the same.

Yet all it took was Emily saying she would “feel safer at the estate” for Enzo to change it.

“That’s fine. We’ll do it your way,” I said.

Enzo looked surprised, as though he had not expected me to agree so quickly.

“You’re... not angry?”

“No.” I closed the wardrobe door without looking at him. “You’re right. The estate is safer.”

Enzo let out a relieved breath.

“Linda, thank you. You really do understand me better than anyone. Emily has been in a terrible state lately, and with the wedding preparations on top of everything else, I’ve been exhausted.”

Then he seemed to remember something.

“Oh, right. There’s one more thing.”

I stopped what I was doing and turned back to him.

“I canceled the part where Buddy brings us the rings.”

Buddy was a golden retriever I had brought with me from the De Luca family.

We had grown up together, and after all the years he had spent by my side, he had long since become part of my family.