Chapter 4

For several seconds after leaving Nico, I remained in the empty corridor with my back pressed against the closed door. My knees felt weak, and my lips still carried the warmth of his kiss. I could hear the distant music coming from the reception hall, but it sounded muffled, as though I were standing underwater.

I forced myself to move before someone found me there.

The nearest bathroom was empty. I locked the door behind me and gripped the marble counter with both hands, gathering enough courage to face my reflection. The woman staring back at me looked nothing like the bridesmaid who had entered the reception earlier.

My eyes were red, my cheeks were wet, and the lipstick I had carefully applied that morning was almost completely gone.

Nico had removed every trace of it.

The thought made my stomach twist.

I opened my small handbag and pulled out my makeup. My hands trembled as I cleaned the smudged colour from beneath my lips and reapplied concealer around my eyes. I added another layer of lipstick, covering the evidence of what had happened in that room.

One careful stroke after another.

By the time I finished, no one would have known that the groom had kissed me less than fifteen minutes after marrying my cousin.

I stared at myself and tried to practise a smile. The first attempt looked painful. The second looked empty. On the third, I finally managed something that might convince people who weren’t paying close attention.“There,” I whispered to my reflection. “You’re fine.”

It was becoming easier to lie to myself

.I left the bathroom through the rear corridor and entered the reception hall from a side entrance. The main doors would have attracted too much attention, and the last thing I needed was someone wondering where I had been.

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice me.

The celebration had only grown louder in my absence. Music filled the enormous hall while wealthy guests moved beneath crystal chandeliers, holding glasses of expensive champagne and discussing business disguised as friendly conversation. Every table had been decorated with white roses, black candles, and gold-edged plates. Even the smallest details looked as though they had cost more than most people earned in a year.

Politicians, businessmen, celebrities, and men whose names never appeared in newspapers had come to celebrate the union of the Romano and Contini families. Some had arrived to offer genuine congratulations. Others were there to ensure Nico remembered their loyalty.

This wasn’t simply a wedding.

It was a display of power.

I returned to my place near the edge of the room and tried to disappear among the guests. Leon stood several feet away, speaking to an older man in a grey suit. The moment he saw me, his attention shifted.

His gaze moved over my face, silently asking whether I was all right.

I gave him a small nod and forced myself to smile.

I’m fine.

The lie passed between us without words.

Leon didn’t look convinced, but he respected my answer. He returned his attention to the man beside him, although I noticed that he continued checking on me from across the room.

Minutes later, Nico appeared.

The conversations around him changed immediately. People moved aside to make space for him as he entered the reception hall, his jacket perfectly arranged and his expression calm. There was no sign that anything unusual had happened.

No sign that he had kissed me

.No sign that I had cried in front of him.

No sign that he had placed his hand over my mouth to keep me hidden.

He walked directly toward a group of guests waiting to congratulate him.An influential businessman shook his hand, and Nico smiled before accepting a glass of whiskey from a passing server

.He looked relaxed.Happy, even.

I stood across the room watching him laugh softly at something one of the guests said.He carried himself with the same effortless authority he had shown at the altar.Every person around him listened when he spoke. They leaned closer, eager for his attention, while he gave each of them exactly enough charm to make them feel important.

How could he behave as though nothing had happened?

Fifteen minutes ago, his mouth had been on mine. His hands had held my waist, and he had looked at me as though losing me would destroy something inside him.Now he was smiling beside his bride as if I didn’t exist.

Perhaps that was another skill powerful men learned: how to ruin someone’s life and return to a celebration without allowing the destruction to touch them.

“Arie.”I turned at the sound of Uncle Angelo’s voice.He stood beside Bianca and Nico, gesturing for me to join them.My heartbeat stumbled.I wanted to pretend I hadn’t heard him, but several people were already looking in my direction.

Refusing would only attract attention, so I lifted my chin and walked toward them.

Each step felt like another performance.

Bianca stood beside her husband with one hand resting lightly on his arm. The diamond on her finger glittered beneath the chandeliers. Her face glowed with happiness, and the smile she gave me was so genuine that guilt tightened painfully around my chest.

Nico watched me approach.His expression remained unreadable, but his eyes moved briefly to my lips. He noticed the fresh lipstick. Of course he did.

Uncle Angelo placed one hand on my shoulder. “Come and congratulate your cousin properly. You disappeared before we could take the family photographs.

”“I needed some air,” I said.My uncle studied my face for a moment, but before he could question me, I turned toward the newlyweds.“Congratulations on your wedding, Bianca.” I made myself look at Nico next. “And Mr. Contini.”The formal name was deliberate.Something hardened in his gaze.“I wish you both a wonderful life together,” I continued.

Every word pierced me as it left my mouth

.A wonderful life.A happy marriage.A future filled with everything I had once been foolish enough to imagine for myself.

Nico continued watching me. “Thank you.”His reply was brief and cold enough that no one else would suspect we had ever been anything more than strangers connected through family.

Bianca stepped forward and wrapped her arms around me.I froze before forcing myself to return the embrace.“Thank you for everything, Arie,” she whispered. “I couldn’t have managed this wedding without you.”My throat tightened.She pulled back, still holding my hands. Her happiness was almost childlike, as if she had just been given the entire world and couldn’t believe it truly belonged to her.

“You look beautiful,” I managed to say.“So do you.” She smiled. “I’m glad you were beside me today.”Guilt struck me so fiercely that I struggled to breathe.Bianca had no idea what had happened upstairs.She didn’t know that her husband had left their reception to meet me. She didn’t know that I had allowed him to kiss me. She didn’t know that while she stood downstairs accepting congratulations, I had been clinging to Nico’s shirt and wishing, for one terrible moment, that he still belonged to me.

I felt like a cheater.

Worse, I felt like I had betrayed the family that had given me a home.

After my father died, Uncle Angelo and my aunt had taken me in without making me feel like a burden. They had given me a room, paid for everything I needed, and allowed me to become part of their family when I had nowhere else to go.

Bianca and I had never been inseparable. We were different in too many ways. She loved attention, expensive parties, and rooms filled with people, while I preferred quiet corners and conversations that meant something. Yet she had always been kind to me. She had shared her clothes when I needed them, defended me when relatives made cruel remarks, and stayed outside my bedroom on the nights when grief had made it impossible for me to speak.She had never treated me like an unwanted guest.And I had kissed her husband on her wedding day.

I gently pulled my hands from hers.“I’m happy for you,” I lied.Bianca’s smile widened, and my guilt deepened.

Nico said nothing, but I could feel his eyes following me as I stepped away.

I spent the rest of the reception avoiding him. I spoke when someone addressed me, smiled when photographs were taken, and lifted a champagne glass during the speeches without drinking from it.The entire evening became a performance.

Hours later, the guests began moving outside to see the newlyweds leave. A black Rolls-Royce waited at the bottom of the wide stone steps, its polished surface reflecting the lights from the mansion. Security guards stood around it while photographers gathered near the entrance.I remained at the back of the crowd.Bianca emerged first, holding the front of her gown as she carefully descended the steps.

She laughed when the guests cheered, then turned and waved at us. Nico followed behind her, one hand placed at her waist to steady her.The same hand that had held me.I wrapped my arms around myself.Nico opened the car door for Bianca, and she slid into the back seat beneath the folds of her white dress.

Before joining her, he stopped.His gaze moved over the crowd until it found me.Even from that distance, I felt the command in his eyes. Stay.

That was what the look meant.He expected me to remain exactly where he had left me. He expected me to wake tomorrow, answer whenever he called, and accept whatever small pieces of him he decided to offer.

I held his stare without smiling.Then Nico entered the car, and the door closed between us.The Rolls-Royce moved slowly down the driveway while the guests continued waving. Bianca’s hand appeared behind the tinted glass one final time before the car disappeared beyond the gates.

She was leaving as Mrs. Contini.

She was beginning her new life with the man I loved.I stood beneath the cold night sky until the sound of the engine faded completely.

Then I reached into my dress and touched the phone hidden inside its pocket

Nico believed I would stay.He believed I still belonged to him.But by the time the sun rose, I would be gone.