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Chapter 11
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The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 11
A year later, I moved out of the Lakeview penthouse.I didn't sell it. I wasn't brave enough for that all at once. I locked the door, handed the keys to a property manager, and moved into a smaller place with white walls, old wood floors, and windows that caught the morning sun.The first night there, I slept badly. The second night, I slept a little better. By the end of the month, I stopped waking up to check whether Luca had come home.Healing didn't arrive like a victory. It came in small pieces: a full meal, a dress that wasn't black, a morning when I looked in the mirror and didn't feel abandoned.Dante stayed. He stayed by remembering my appointments, buying the tea I pretended not to like, and sitting through evenings without asking me to be happier than I was. When I pulled away, he let me. When I reached for him again, he was there.One evening, after dinner at a tiny Italian place with red candles and terrible parking, he walked me home and stopped at my door."I love you,"
The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 10
Sophia asked to meet me two months later at a quiet cafe by the lake.She wore a loose cream coat, pale and tired, with one hand resting on her stomach. She looked less like the glowing bride from the church and more like the girl who had once cried on my sofa.When she saw me, her eyes filled. "You came.""Only for a little while."We sat across from each other. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. The lake beyond the window was gray, and rain ran down the glass in thin lines.Sophia twisted her napkin. "I keep thinking about every time you cried over him and I told you to move on. I didn't know I was sleeping beside the answer.""You didn't know," I said."I should have." Her voice broke. "You were my best friend. I should have asked more. I should have asked his name, his face, anything. I thought I was protecting you by not pushing. Maybe I just didn't want your grief to touch my happiness."That was the first thing she said that felt completely true.I didn't answer, and she ke
The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 9
The next few weeks passed in a strange silence. Sophia sent messages I couldn't answer. [I'm sorry.] [Are you eating?] [Please tell me you're alive.] Sometimes I typed replies and deleted them.Luca didn't come to the penthouse, but his presence stayed everywhere. His ring remained in a small dish by the entryway. His coat was still in the closet. His name was still on old emergency papers, old insurance forms, old fragments of a life I had been too afraid to dismantle.I removed them slowly.The first time I threw away his whiskey, I sat on the kitchen floor and sobbed. The first time I changed the gray sheets to pale blue, I felt guilty, as if I were cheating on a dead man.Dante came by often, but he never forced himself inside my life. Sometimes he left groceries at my door. Sometimes he drove me to doctor's appointments and waited in the car with the radio off. Sometimes he sat across from me and talked nonsense about Valenti business until I laughed despite myself.One rainy
The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 8
By morning, Sophia had packed two suitcases. She stood by the door with swollen eyes, refusing to let Luca's guards touch her bags. Luca hovered near her as if she might break if he looked away for too long. I stood across the room in the same dress from the night before, too tired to change."We'll go to the Rossetti house," Sophia said. Her voice was hoarse. "I don't think any of us should be under the same roof right now."I nodded.She took one step toward me, stopped, and wrapped her arms around herself instead. "Elena, I swear, if I had known...""I know," I said again.She cried harder. "That doesn't make anything better."No. It didn't.Luca watched us both with a face so strained it almost looked painful. When Sophia went downstairs with the guards, he stayed behind."I need to explain," he said. "After the crash, Sophia saved me. The Rossettis hid me in Malta because my own family was compromised. I remembered pieces at first, not everything. By the time I knew who I was, th
The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 7
Luca was waiting in the living room.He sat in the dark with a cigarette burned almost to the filter. When I stepped inside, his eyes moved over my dress, my bare finger, my tired face, and something violent passed through him before he buried it."Did he make you cry," he asked, "or did you save that part for me?"I set my purse down with shaking hands. "Nothing happened.""You came home at dawn from Dante Valenti's suite, and nothing happened?""Nothing happened," I said again.He stood, crossing the room in a few hard strides. "You expect me to believe that?"I stepped back until my shoulder hit the wall. "You believed it three years ago with one phone call. Why not now?"The words hit him. "Don't turn this around on me. I came back to find you. I heard him answer your phone like he belonged there. Do you know what that did to me?""Do you know where I was?" My voice cracked. "I was in the hospital because I hadn't slept, hadn't eaten, and had followed another false lead for you. Da
The Fiancé My Best Friend Stole Chapter 6
The elevator doors closed before my knees gave out. I pressed one hand against the mirrored wall and tried to breathe. For a few seconds, I almost went back. Even after everything, some ruined piece of me still wanted him to follow and explain.The doors opened on the private floor. Dante was already there, leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets."He sent you up," he said.I nodded."Are you here because you want to be?"That simple question nearly broke me. Luca had not asked what I wanted in five years. No one in that room had. I looked down at the card and whispered, "I don't know where else to go."Dante's expression changed. He took the card from me and opened the suite door, then stepped aside without touching me. "Then come in, sit down, and breathe. That's all."Inside, the room was quiet and too expensive, with the lake black beyond the windows. Dante poured water instead of whiskey and pushed the glass toward me. I held it with both hands and cried before I co
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