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He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding
He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding
Author: Katerina

Chapter 1

Author: Katerina
When I returned to the private lounge, Sienna was surrounded by people taking photographs.

The vintage Valenti brooch glittered against her silver dress. Our wedding photographer stood nearby, capturing close-ups while several women admired the stones.

One of Damian’s cousins lifted his whiskey glass.

“That’s quite a prize, Damian. If I hadn’t seen the invitations, I might think Sienna was the woman you planned to marry.”

Sienna’s eyes immediately turned red.

“Please don’t say that. Alessandra will think I’m trying to take something from her.”

Every person in the room looked at me.

Damian was sitting near the center of the lounge. When he saw me standing by the door, his brow moved slightly.

“Why are you standing over there?” he asked. “Anyone looking at you would think someone had mistreated you.”

I almost laughed.

I was the one they had humiliated, yet even my silence was being treated as a scene.

Damian held out his hand.

Normally, I would have crossed the room and sat beside him. I would have smiled until both families believed nothing was wrong.

This time, I did not move.

Damian’s expression tightened.

Luca stood first and walked toward me. He had gentle features and always seemed to be smiling, even when he was settling the disputes my father never allowed to reach a courtroom.

Until I was twenty-one, I had believed Luca was the one person who would never embarrass me.

Now he leaned closer and lowered his voice.

“Alessandra, don’t put Damian in an awkward position in front of both families.”

I looked at him. “Have I said anything?”

Luca paused.

Across the room, Sienna touched the brooch and began to unfasten it. Her tears fell faster as she looked between Damian and me.

“I’ll give it to Alessandra. This is her wedding dinner. I shouldn’t keep something that upsets her.”

Her fingers had barely reached the clasp when Damian spoke.

“Leave it on.”

He turned to me.

“She drew the winning key. The prize belongs to her.”

I gave a quiet laugh.

The room fell silent.

Damian’s eyes grew colder.

Luca frowned. “It was a game, Alessandra. Do you have to make it this unpleasant?”

He took half a step toward Sienna, putting himself between us.

“Sienna has struggled with feeling unwanted since she was a child. She was finally happy tonight. Can’t you let her have this?”

There it was again.

It had not always been this way.

Before Sienna and her mother joined our family, Damian remembered every promise he made to me, and Luca was the friend who always stood on my side.

Then my father married Sienna’s mother, and every disagreement began ending the same way. They stopped asking what was fair and started asking what would keep Sienna from crying.

She needs it more.

You are stronger.

Let her have it.

I looked at Sienna.

She stood close to Damian with tears still clinging to her lashes. But when our eyes met, there was no fear in hers.

The corner of her mouth moved slightly.

Then Damian stood and came toward me.

Damian raised his hand to touch my hair, the same gesture he always used when he wanted me to stop arguing.

I turned my head away.

Someone behind him drew in a sharp breath.

Damian’s hand remained in the air for a second before he lowered it.

His expression darkened.

“I’ll be at the bridal atelier tomorrow at ten.”

I looked up at him. “You remembered?”

He stared at me as if I had asked something ridiculous.

“When have I ever forgotten a promise I made to you?”

I could have answered him.

Instead, Sienna coughed softly from across the room.

Damian turned away from me at once.

“What’s wrong?”

Sienna shook her head and touched the skin beneath the brooch.

“It’s nothing. My neck feels a little itchy. I’m probably not used to wearing it.”

Damian crossed the room and examined the faint red patch near her collarbone. He immediately picked up his coat and draped it around her shoulders.

“I’m taking you to the hospital.”

“You don’t have to.” Sienna looked toward me. “Alessandra is already upset. I don’t want to ruin her evening too.”

“You’re not ruining anything,” Damian said.

Luca glanced at my face and sighed.

“Don’t fixate on this, Alessandra. Damian is marrying you. Sienna is only our little sister.”

I looked at him.

“Does a sister accept a vacation chosen by her sister’s fiancé?”

The faint smile disappeared from Luca’s face.

“Do you have to say it like that?”

Damian looked back at me, his voice turning cold.

“That’s enough, Alessandra.”

Suddenly, I had nothing left to say.

Even after they deliberately gave Sienna the vacation I had planned and left me with an empty case, they still expected me to smile and say that I had terrible luck.

By the end of the evening, the skin beneath Sienna’s brooch was slightly red.

Damian took her to the hospital.

Luca stayed behind to take me home.

“Don’t take what happened tonight too seriously.”

“You know Damian. He sounds cold, but he cares about you.”

“He’ll attend your fitting tomorrow. In two days, he’ll marry you.”

Luca rested his hands on my shoulders.

“You’ve already won, Alessandra. Stop competing with Sienna over small things.”

I looked directly at him.

“What did I win?”

Luca froze.

His mouth opened, but no answer came.

Because even he could not name a single thing that truly belonged to me.

I gave a small, bitter laugh.

“Apparently, nothing.”

That night, I booked a one-way flight for the morning of my wedding.
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  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 10

    When the elevator reached the top floor, Martin had already sent the board documents into the conference room.I locked the sapphire comb inside my mother's old desk and took my place at the head of the table. Twelve directors were waiting for my decision on the company's next acquisition.I rejected my father's plan to sell the company and approved the lakefront hotel renovation my mother had begun developing. When the final transfer document reached me, I signed without hesitation.Martin collected the papers. “Evelyn always believed you would return.”“She never pressured me.”“She wanted you to choose the time yourself.”Over the following weeks, I moved into a company apartment and learned the Chicago properties and clients. My mother's team treated my arrival cautiously, but no one questioned my judgment because my wedding had been canceled.Clara, the operations director, reminded me to eat between meetings. She never demanded an explanation for my departure from New York or mad

  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 9

    After the plane left New York, I lowered the window shade and opened the company files Martin had sent.Evelyn Russo Holdings operated hotels and commercial properties from its headquarters near the Chicago River. Martin had supervised the board while everyone waited for me to marry and decide whether to sell my shares.I had accepted that plan without asking what I wanted.Damian expected me to join the Valenti charitable foundation after our wedding. My father thought selling the company would be easier, while Luca had offered to find a buyer. Their advice had always sounded reasonable.Sunlight broke through the clouds as the plane descended into Chicago. For the first time, I looked forward to a meeting no one else had arranged for me.Martin waited outside baggage claim with a folder and a black coffee.“Evelyn told me you never take sugar.”“Thank you.”He did not ask about the wedding or suggest that I rest. The board was already waiting, and the transfer of authority could be c

  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 8

    When Luca reached Alessandra's apartment building, the manager was removing her access from the resident system.“Miss Russo left before dawn with one suitcase and her personal files,” he said. “She revoked the visitor permissions issued to you and Mr. Valenti. Her attorney will arrange for the remaining property.”Damian gave Luca the backup code to the apartment.The rooms still looked ready for a wedding. The ivory satin wedding shoes Damian had sent remained inside their cream-colored box on the dining table beside the apartment keys, while unopened gifts lined the wall. Half the bedroom closet was empty, but Alessandra had left the expensive jewelry behind. She had taken only what she needed to begin somewhere else.Standing in the quiet apartment, Luca understood that she had departed without expecting either man to follow.Alessandra rarely asked anyone to care for her. She managed her career and handled the strain between two powerful families without complaint. After Sienna e

  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 7

    Hotel security sealed the bridal suite and called back everyone involved in the styling test.Sienna remained at the vanity in her silver bridesmaid dress. She insisted that she had not taken the sapphire comb and had no idea how it disappeared.Damian stood across from her with the empty jewelry case in his hand.“I am asking you one more time. Where is the comb?”“I already told you. The stylist removed it, and I never touched it again.”Luca stepped between them. “She just left the hospital. Security is checking the records, so give them time.”Damian picked up the ceremony book and threw it onto the table in front of Luca. The pages opened to the changes made to the welcome film and family reading.“You said she felt excluded, so you let her alter the film. Then you approved a reading that allowed her to address both families before the procession.”He turned to the photograph of Sienna wearing the sapphire comb.“She used Evelyn's heirloom for the wedding footage. When Alessandra

  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 6

    When the event director informed me that Damian had reached the hotel, I had just returned to the car outside my family's cemetery in Queens.Before heading to the airport, I asked the driver to change our route and wait for forty minutes. I followed the wet stone path toward my mother's grave with the ceremony book inside my bag.The vows I had revised countless times were tucked between its pages. Now the hotel staff were dismantling the ceremony, and those promises would never be spoken.Rain began falling as I reached the grave. Evelyn still looked young in the photograph set into the stone. I wiped the water from its edge, opened the ceremony book, and placed my vows beneath her picture.“The comb is missing,” I said quietly.“I left it in the hotel safe because I thought it would be protected. Damian allowed the stylists to use it on Sienna, and now no one knows where it is.”I held the paper in place when the wind lifted one corner.“The wedding is canceled. I am not marrying hi

  • He Chose Her, So I Canceled Our Wedding   Chapter 5

    The jewelry box slipped from Damian's hand when the event director finished speaking.The lid struck the marble floor, and the emerald ring rolled against his shoe. Alessandra had admired it during a private appointment with the jeweler, and Damian had assumed it would make up for the appointments he had missed.The amusement disappeared from Luca's face.“You said the wedding was canceled?” Damian asked.The event director handed him her tablet. “Miss Russo called at two this morning. By four fifteen, the reception, photography, band, transportation, and decorations had all been canceled. She accepted every contractual penalty.”Alessandra's electronic signature appeared on each confirmation. She had left nothing open for reinstatement.Damian called her several times, but a recorded message said the number was unavailable.“Where did she go?”“Miss Russo released the bridal suite. She did not use a hotel car or a Valenti vehicle.”Luca began calling Alessandra's assistant and the doo

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