Chapter 2

My mother’s voice came through the phone, warm and decisive.

“Alright. One week from now, come back to Miami. I’ll arrange everything.”

“Mm. Thanks, Mom… for arranging the wedding.”

I hung up.

And immediately—

A voice behind me:

“Wedding? Irene… I’m sorry, but your ceremony with the Don has to be postponed. Again.”

I turned.

Adrian’s younger brother was somehow already standing behind me.

He sighed loudly.

“Damn. We could’ve started planning it this time. Why did it change again?”

The look on his face said everything—

awkward, uneasy, and a kind of quiet outrage on my behalf, like even he thought Adrian was pushing it.

“I swear I…”

I knew exactly what he wanted to say.

He was this close to saying it: I swear I swapped it. I left your name in there.

I gave him a calm smile just as Adrian walked over and wrapped an arm around my waist.

“What do you mean, ‘wedding’?”

His voice was commanding, utterly sure.

“You better get that wedding ready. Sooner or later, I’ll draw the slip—Irene will be there. She’ll wait for that day!”

He didn’t even flinch.

“No one else gets my hand if I don’t draw her name. I won’t marry anyone else.”

Once, hearing that would have sent my heart racing.

Now, it just felt cruelly ironic.

His brother let out a half-joking sigh.

“Don, no one waits forever. If one day she marries someone else, you won’t even have a place to cry.”

But Adrian didn’t even register the warning. His confidence was absolute.

“That’s impossible. Irene loves me. She’ll wait. No matter how many years it takes, she’ll wait until the day I draw her name and put a ring on her finger.”

Adrian, you’re wrong.

I’m not going to marry a man who calls me his principessa with his mouth, but spends every thought calculating and using me, all while pretending to be deeply in love.

And even if next year my name appears again...you’ll just switch it out like always, won’t you?

You’ll keep me waiting forever.

A sharp sting shot through my palm. Only then did I realize I’d driven my nails so deep into my own skin.

The hallway door slammed open.

Sera stormed in, breathless. The moment her eyes landed on Adrian, they reddened. She pointed at me, her voice cracking.

“Five years, Adrian! Five years without drawing Irene’s name. It’s fate telling you two can’t be together! Why can’t you just let her go?”

Tears trembled at her lashes. Her voice cracked into a plea.

“Your situation with Irene is already a joke across the Great Lakes. If this keeps going, how are the Marco and Moretti families supposed to keep their standing?”

Adrian’s expression froze over instantly.

“Sera, you’re my secretary. Who gave you the authority to interfere in my private life?”

“I love Irene. She’s the only woman I’ll ever marry. Five years mean nothing. Ten years won’t change a damn thing.”

His voice hardened and cold.

“A family is led by strength. And whoever dares to laugh at us—I’ll make sure they choke on it.”

With that, he pulled me closer and walked past her.

He muttered under his breath, irritated,

“She can’t get a single thing right, yet she nags like someone’s mother. Amazing.”

I let my head rest lightly against his chest and asked, softly,

“If she’s that much trouble… why not fire her?”

One moment earlier he’d wanted to strangle her.

Now his tone flipped instantly.

“She’s just blunt. She hasn’t messed up anything major. Don’t worry, if she ever crosses the line, I’ll make sure she’s gone for good. I’ve been sick of her since we were kids.”

In that moment, something inside me clicked.

In his world, I wasn’t a partner.

I was an NPC, programmed, predictable, trapped in a loop they wrote for me.

How pathetic.

Adrian Marco, it’s been five years.

I’m finally done.

This NPC won’t play her part anymore.