Chapter 4: The Wedding That Wasn't His

Andrew had barely stepped into the house when a sharp slap shattered the silence.

His head snapped to the side. Heat spread across his cheek, but what left him frozen wasn't the pain. It was the sight of his father standing before him, his face red with fury.

"Idiot!" his father roared. "Your entire plan has failed. Your uncle saved that girl!"

Andrew pressed a hand to his stinging cheek. "W-What?"

"Your uncle!"

"Uncle Ale?" Andrew stared at his father in disbelief. "How is that possible? Isn't he still overseas?"

"I don't know exactly when he returned." His father tossed a tablet onto the table. "But he's definitely here now."

With trembling hands, Andrew picked up the tablet.

A photograph filled the screen.

Alejandro stood in a perfectly tailored black suit, one arm wrapped around Evelyn's waist. She wore a simple white wedding dress, her hair elegantly styled, and a sparkling ring on her left ring finger.

Beneath the photograph was a recently published news article.

ALEJANDRO ROMANO OFFICIALLY MARRIED! WHO IS THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN WHO MANAGED TO CAPTURE THE ROMANO HEIR'S HEART?

Andrew read the headline once. Then twice.

His eyes remained fixed on the woman's face beside his uncle.

"Evelyn..."

Her name escaped his lips like a curse.

Impossible.

Evelyn was supposed to be at home, mourning her canceled wedding. She was supposed to realize that no one would want her after what Andrew was about to do to her reputation.

Not standing beside Alejandro Romano.

Not wearing a wedding ring.

And certainly not becoming a woman who now officially carried the family name Andrew had always wanted to command.

"How does she even know Uncle Ale?" he demanded, his voice rising. "They've never even met!"

His father let out a short, humorless laugh.

"That's your problem, Andrew. You were so busy planning how to humiliate a woman that you failed to realize you were giving her a way out."

Andrew shook his head. "No. This has to be a misunderstanding. Eve couldn't possibly have married Uncle Ale."

"Then go ask her yourself." His father pointed at the tablet. "But before you do anything else stupid, remember one thing."

Andrew raised his head.

"From today onward, the woman you wanted to destroy is Alejandro Romano's wife. If you lay a finger on her, you won't just be dealing with him. You'll be dealing with the entire Romano family."

Andrew looked at the photograph again.

Alejandro appeared calm, almost cold. Yet his hand rested firmly around Evelyn's waist, as if he would never allow anyone to take her away from him.

For the first time, Andrew felt something far worse than anger.

Fear.

Because he knew exactly what his uncle was like when someone touched something he considered his own.

And now, Evelyn was his wife.

Andrew was still standing there when his father left the room.

His gaze returned to the photograph on the tablet. The longer he stared at it, the harder it became to accept that the woman who was supposed to be his wife was now standing beside another man.

And that man was his own uncle.

No!

This couldn't happen.

Andrew slammed the tablet onto the table before rushing out of the room. He needed an explanation. He needed to know how Evelyn could have married Alejandro in such a short time.

And, more importantly, when had his uncle returned?

The door to Gorge Romano's study swung open without a knock.

The elderly man, who had been reading some documents, looked up. His brows immediately furrowed when he saw his grandson striding inside.

"Have you lost all your manners? Can't you even knock anymore?"

Andrew ignored the reprimand.

"Grandfather, when did Uncle Ale return?"

Gorge placed the documents in his hand on the desk. "Why are you asking?"

"How could Evelyn marry him? Wasn't Uncle Ale still overseas? How did they even meet and get married so quickly when that was supposed to be my wedding?"

Gorge studied his grandson for a moment before letting out a short sigh.

"If it was your wedding, why did you give someone else the chance to take her from you?"

Andrew fell silent.

"I never intended to run away," he protested quickly. "I only stepped out for a while to—"

"To meet your woman?"

Andrew immediately snapped his mouth shut.

Gorge's gaze grew sharper.

"Do you think I don't know what you've been doing? Do you think everyone in this house is so foolish that they can't see your relationship with that woman?"

"Grandfather, it's not what you think."

"Then what is it?" Gorge interrupted. "You abandoned your fiancée on your wedding day, then expected her to keep waiting for you after you humiliated her in front of everyone?"

Andrew clenched his fists.

"I just wanted to teach her a lesson."

"A lesson?" Gorge let out a bitter laugh. "You call playing with a woman's feelings a lesson?"

"Still, you should have waited for me!" Andrew raised his voice. "You shouldn't have replaced me with Uncle Ale. Evelyn was supposed to be my wife!"

"Your future wife?" Gorge repeated coldly. "Until when? How long were we supposed to wait for you? Until you completely ruined the Romano family's reputation in public?"

Andrew fell silent.

"Did you expect me to let you trample on the great Romano name I've spent decades building? A name you merely inherited the moment you were born. After growing up enjoying everything that name has given you, you think you can carelessly gamble with the reputation I've protected for decades just to indulge your own foolishness?"

"Grandfather, I—"

"Don't think I don't know about your plan, young man. Don't assume we know nothing."

Andrew looked up.

"W-We? What do you mean, Grandfather?"

Gorge leaned back in his chair. His face still showed the disappointment he could barely conceal.

"You're asking why I allowed Alejandro to take your place?"

Andrew didn't answer.

"That question shouldn't be directed at me. It should be directed at the woman whose name you should never have put at stake in front of the public."

Andrew's jaw tightened.

"So you simply allowed Uncle Ale to marry Evelyn? You knew she was my fiancée!"

"And you knew she was your fiancée, yet you still chose to betray her."

"That's different!"

"How is it different?" Gorge snapped. "Did you think Evelyn would keep waiting for you after you treated her like garbage? Do you think a woman must continue accepting humiliation simply because she once promised to marry you?"

Andrew fell silent. For a moment, he couldn't find an answer.

Gorge picked up his documents again, as though the conversation was already over.

"Listen carefully, Andrew. Alejandro didn't steal anything from you. You were the one who let her go."

"But, Grandfather—"

"And from now on, don't ever disgrace this family with your foolish actions again. Evelyn is Alejandro's wife now. Respect that."

Andrew stared at his grandfather in disbelief.

He had come looking for answers, but instead, he had been confronted with an even more painful reality.

No one in this family was on his side.

Even his own grandfather had chosen to stand with Alejandro and Evelyn.

Andrew clenched both fists. His gaze hardened as he recalled the wedding photograph.

He wasn't finished with Evelyn.

If that woman thought marrying Alejandro would make her the winner, Andrew would make sure her happiness wouldn't last.

Andrew returned to his room with heavy, angry steps.

The moment the door closed behind him, he swept everything off the desk, sending objects crashing to the floor. A crystal vase shattered into countless pieces. Books and picture frames scattered across the expensive carpet.

But even that wasn't enough to release his fury.

"Damn it! Bastard! How the hell did I let this happen?"

He kicked a chair, sending it tumbling across the room.

"Aaargh!"

Andrew gripped his own hair. His breathing grew ragged, his face flushed with the anger burning inside him.

"What the hell happened behind my back? How could I have known nothing about this?"

His gaze returned to the phone lying on the bed. Evelyn and Alejandro's wedding photograph was still displayed on the screen.

The woman was smiling beside his uncle.

A smile that should have belonged to him.

"Evelyn..." he hissed. "Since when have you been planning all this?"

He paced back and forth, trying to piece together a sequence of events that made no sense to him.

"Did you already know about my plan?"

Andrew stopped walking.

"No. Impossible."

He shook his head firmly.

"How could she have found out? Only Caroline and I knew about the plan. There's no way Evelyn could have known."

He looked at the photograph on his phone again.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.

"Uncle Ale must have been pressured by Grandfather to take my place."

Andrew gave a small nod, as though he had finally found the answer he had been searching for.

"Yes, that's it. That's exactly what happened. They couldn't have planned all this deliberately."

He began constructing one excuse after another.

"Grandfather must have panicked when my wedding was canceled. He didn't want the Romano name to be tarnished in public. And Uncle Ale was the only unmarried member of the family who could save the situation."

Andrew rubbed his face.

"And Eve..."

A faint smile began to form on his lips.

"Eve must have been forced to go through with the wedding because she was afraid of disappointing her parents. There's no way she actually wanted Uncle Ale."

The longer he entertained the thought, the more convinced he became of his own conclusion.

He even started laughing softly.

"Hahaha... So that's what happened."

Andrew picked up his phone and zoomed in on Evelyn's photograph. Her smile looked so peaceful, but he refused to believe she was genuinely happy.

"Eve must be waiting for me."

He nodded firmly.

"She's probably hoping I'll come and get her tonight."

Andrew then dropped onto the edge of his bed. His anger gradually faded, replaced by the comforting conviction that this was all just a temporary misunderstanding.

Tomorrow, he would go see Evelyn.

He would explain everything and ask her to come back to him.

After all, Evelyn had once loved him so deeply. Andrew was certain those feelings couldn't possibly disappear just because of a wedding that had taken place under duress.

There was just one thing he failed to realize.

The woman he was waiting to come back to him was now legally another man's wife.

And that man was Alejandro Romano.