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Chapter 10
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Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 12
A month later the first snow fell in New York.By the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Castellano estate, I was curled into the sofa under a cashmere blanket, a cushion in my arms and a thick stack of financial statements spread beside me.Albert came over, set a hot chocolate by my hand and squeezed the back of my neck. "Still on the Vittori liquidation report?""Mm hm." I didn't look up. "Grandfather's people have taken over everything under old Vittori. Once the accounts are settled, I can cut ties completely."Tucked into the last page of the liquidation report was a court order confirming restitution.The court had ruled that my mother's blue diamond necklace was estate property disposed of unlawfully, and someone would bring it back to New York the following week.I don't intend to wear it again.When it comes back, I'll put it beside my mother's photograph.Not to remind me of what was taken from me, but to tell her that I've taken back, one piece at a time, everything that was s
Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 11
Marco De Luca.His chest was heaving as though he had run the whole way. "Ariana..." I watched him take two steps forward, his voice wrecked. "Don't marry him."The room went silent for a beat, and then erupted.Whispers surged from every direction. My grandfather stood up in a fury to go at Marco, and his men held him back.My first reaction was to look back at Albert. He squeezed my hand lightly."Choose with your own heart. I won't interfere with your decision."I pressed his fingertips. "Wait here for me.""What are you doing here?" I looked at Marco, and it was remarkable: as I asked, I found myself completely calm, as if he were a total stranger.He came two steps closer, and he looked terrible. Dark circles under his eyes, unshaven, a wreck of a man.His lips worked, and at last he got it out. "I had the wrong person, Ariana. The one I've always loved is you, not Isabella."I looked at him quietly and gave him nothing."She stole your white dress. She stole everything of yours."
Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 10
On the wedding day I stood in the dressing room in a custom-made ivory gown, and Mrs. Castellano came in to fix my veil herself.Her eyes were red, and she fussed with my skirts while she talked. "If only your mother were here. She would be overjoyed."I reached out and hugged her. "Thank you.""Silly girl." Mrs. Castellano patted my back. "From today you're one of the Castellanos. And if anyone dares mistreat you..."She drew a finger across her throat.I couldn't help laughing, and a tear slid out of the corner of my eye.I had no father to walk me down the aisle that day, but Albert said he would come in with me."In case you're nervous, we won't come in separately. I'll walk in with you."He stood at the door in a black suit looking at me, and I noticed for the first time that his eyes were a very deep hazel green, like a forest after rain, still and clear.I had always thought his eyes were black. Now I could see it was only that the light had been too low, and I hadn't dared look
Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 9
The day I saw the news, I went to the hospital as usual. It started pouring while I was on the way, so I arrived later than usual.When I pushed the door open with the smell of rain on me, Albert was lying there as quietly as ever.I put the box down on the table beside the armchair and took off my rain-soaked coat. "I brought you a blueberry muffin.""I'll leave it by your bed. If you wake up today you can taste it." I sniffed."That bakery makes a wonderful one. I went out of my way to get it. If you don't finish it today, it goes in the bin tomorrow."After I said that I didn't speak again, only sat looking out at the rain over Central Park.Maybe it was because I'd been unlucky enough to get caught in the rain, or maybe I was sorry he couldn't get up and taste that wonderful blueberry muffin, but my tears spilled over and wouldn't stop.It was strange. I hadn't cried in a very long time.I didn't cry when the broken glass cut me open. I didn't cry when they took me, gave me ninety-
Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 8
In the end, Marco never opened the door to the rose hall.I don't know what he felt.What I do know is that every record he retrieved that night was later preserved in the evidence the De Luca family submitted to the Commission of the Five Families.The old house cameras had caught Isabella stealing my white dress before the party.Only then did Marco learn that the figure he had carried in his memory for years had been me from the start.He went back through my whole childhood file.Frame by frame.His own bodyguard sent me messages in secret.He said his boss had stirred up the entire East Coast, digging through every record about me.And then every night he would take it out and read it word by word.I told him not to tell me any more.Reading all of it gave me no satisfaction at all.The truth didn't give me back three years, and it didn't take ninety-nine marks off my back.He finally saw me, not because he had learned how to love someone, but because Isabella tore off her own mas
Three Years of Loving You, Now I Choose the Empire Chapter 7
Two days later Grace sent me footage that had leaked out of the De Luca estate.After watching it, I realized that the surprise had never taken place.Marco had Isabella brought into the lounge beside the rose hall on the excuse of a rehearsal for a birthday party.The orchestra was in place next door, the ring was hidden in the lift platform, and they had even rehearsed three times the exact message the drones would display when she entered the garden.Isabella knew none of it.She thought the microphone was off. While she was trying on a gown she boasted to the friend who had come with her. "Of course Marco will marry me. That white dress when we were children was my sister's to begin with. I took it and wore it once, and didn't he decide I was the one who saved him?"Her friend, alarmed, told her to keep it down, yet she only grew more pleased with herself. "My mother was the one who switched Ariana's mother's medication before the delivery. She shouldn't have insisted on holding on
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