All Chapters of The Wedding He Stole From Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I returned to the bridal room and sent Adrian one message.The wedding is canceled.His call came less than ten seconds later.“Elena, have you made enough of a scene?”His voice was low.“Livia slit her wrist. The doctor said she can’t be upset again. Are you really going to fight her over a ceremony right now?”The ring box sat open on the vanity. Inside were the bands I had picked up myself, our names engraved along the inner edges.“Adrian, today is our seventh anniversary. It is also the wedding we spent six months preparing.”“I know.”“But this is a life-or-death matter. You have always been the sensible one. Help her get through this.”I said nothing.“She has severe depression. Her only obsession is to wear a wedding dress once and marry me once.”“It has no legal force. The Moretti marriage papers have not changed. You are still my fiancée.”Legally, maybe. But in the Moretti world, whoever stood beside the Don at that altar became his Donna in the eyes of the family.He paus

Chapter 2

The table was already set with wine, bread, and cold appetizers.I sat in a corner and picked up a honeyed fig. The sweetness spread across my tongue, then turned bitter.Adrian gave the dress to Livia.She was taken backstage by two attendants. When she came out again, the banquet hall erupted in applause.The dress had been made for my body. Livia was shorter and thinner than I was, so the bodice gaped slightly at her waist and the hem dragged over the marble floor. The Moretti black eagle, stitched to sit over my heart, now hung crooked across hers.No one cared.My mother covered her mouth as if she were watching a miracle.Adrian stood before Livia and looked at her for a long time.“Livia, you’re beautiful.”The relatives clapped harder.“She looks like a princess,” my aunt said.“No, like a real Moretti bride,” someone else added.Livia lowered her lashes and leaned closer to Adrian.“Will Elena be angry with me?”“This was supposed to be her wedding. I took her place.”Adrian a

Chapter 3

After leaving the hotel, I went to Southbank House, the place Adrian had prepared for us after the wedding.It was the Moretti family’s riverside safe house. There was an armory belowground, an escape route through the garage, and a top-floor bedroom overlooking the river.Adrian had once said it would be our home after the ceremony.I pressed my thumb to the lock.【Access denied.】I tried again.Still denied.The door opened from inside.Nico, Adrian’s underboss, stood behind it.“Elena.”I looked past him.The living room had changed.My embroidery frame had been moved to the corner and covered with a dust cloth. The wedding sketches on the table were gone, replaced by medicine bottles, therapy notes, and a humidifier.Above the fireplace, there had once been the wedding crest I designed for both families.The black eagle and the trailing vines had taken seventeen drafts.Now a painting of white irises hung there.Livia’s favorite flower.Nico closed the door.“Don Moretti ordered us

Chapter 4

They all thought I was sensible.They all thought I could not leave Adrian.So my wedding could be given away. My dress could be given away. Even the safe house meant to become my home could be given away.The next morning, Adrian sent a message.Nico said you went to Southbank House last night.Livia is only staying there for a while. You don’t need to be angry over this.A few minutes later, another message arrived.I’m free this morning.Didn’t we agree to visit Mrs. Bellamy after the wedding?Mrs. Bellamy had been my first teacher at Vale Atelier.Seven years ago, she was the first person who told me I should stop repairing other women’s dresses and start putting my own name on my work.She liked Adrian.She used to say that a man willing to wait outside my studio until midnight could not be entirely heartless.I looked at the screen and did not reply.Still, I changed clothes and went to her workshop.Not to give Adrian another chance.Only to give seven years a proper ending.At

Chapter 5

The air in Santa Fe was dry and sharp, carrying the scent of sage and mineral dye across the yard.I lived in a small room behind the textile workshop.At dawn, I learned to boil dye, rinse cloth, and hang thread with the other apprentices. At dusk, I sat in the courtyard and sorted patterns under the cottonwood tree outside my window.The quiet felt unfamiliar.Back in New York, Adrian was still standing inside Vale Atelier.He stared at the torn draft of the black eagle crest on the table, his frown deepening.He thought I had only found another place to hide.It had happened before. After our arguments, I would go to Mrs. Bellamy’s workshop or lock myself in the embroidery room until midnight. He would come with dessert, lower his voice, and I would always give him a way back in.Adrian set the hazelnut cake on the table and called me.The call went straight to voicemail.He tried again.The same result.He opened our chat and typed:Elena, stop this.A gray circle appeared beside t

Chapter 6

Adrian began looking for me.He went to the coffee shop I used to visit, the old bookstore near Vale Atelier, and Mrs. Bellamy’s workshop.No one told him where I was.My number was dead. My chat account was unreachable. My client files had been transferred, and the atelier lease was gone.I had vanished from his life like a cut thread.On the third night, Nico entered Southbank House and found empty bottles on the living room floor.Adrian sat before the fireplace, holding the torn draft of the black eagle crest.Nico frowned.“Don, you can’t keep doing this.”Adrian did not look up.“She erased everything.”“Maybe Elena only needs a few days to cool down.”“She took her passport, cash, and property papers. She closed her atelier and moved her clients.”Adrian lifted his bloodshot eyes.“That isn’t cooling down.”Before, when I was angry, I would only disappear for a few hours. Adrian never had to truly search for me. He knew I would come back.This time, I had left no road open behin

Chapter 7

Adrian shoved open the courtyard gate and strode in.Before I could move, he knocked the wildflowers from my hand and pulled me behind him.“Who are you?”His stare fixed on the young man in front of me.“Stay away from my fiancée.”Everyone in the courtyard stopped working.The young man froze, one hand still half raised.“Elena?”He looked at me.“Is he a friend of yours?”I pulled my wrist free. Adrian had held it hard enough to leave a faint ache.“I don’t know him.”“Just someone asking for directions.”Adrian turned sharply.“Elena, what did you say?”I ignored him, bent down, picked up the flowers, and handed them back.“Mateo, I’m sorry.”Mateo took them, his expression stiff. He stepped back, but Adrian’s eyes stayed on the space between us.“You disappeared for days to come here and meet him?”“Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you?”“Do you know everyone is worried sick?”I looked at him.His jaw was dark with stubble, his eyes bloodshot, and his shirt collar wrinkl

Chapter 8

I walked to the front of the workshop.My mother stood beside a black sedan, with a driver and two guards behind her.Her suit was expensive, her makeup perfect, but her voice cut across the street.“I raised that daughter myself, and now she’s hiding here while her family falls apart.”“She won’t even acknowledge her own mother.”People had stopped to watch.The moment she saw me, she rushed over and raised her hand.I stepped back.Her slap missed.“Elena, you dare dodge me?”“Pack your things and come back to New York.”“Livia’s wrist hasn’t healed. She can’t finish the iris gown.”“The association exhibition needs it tomorrow. If we miss the deadline, Vale Atelier will owe a massive penalty.”She stared at me as if I were an employee.“You’re finishing it tonight.”Adrian stood beside her, as if he had found a reason I could not refuse.“Elena, this isn’t a small amount.”“If Vale Atelier falls, your mother and Livia will suffer.”“You may be angry with me, but you can’t abandon yo

Chapter 9

Adrian stared at the old phone in my hand.For the first time, panic broke through those cold, controlled eyes.“No,” he said hoarsely. “Recordings can be faked. Livia wouldn’t do this.”“Then have them examined.”I put the phone away.“Find the truth yourself.”Then I looked toward my mother and the guards behind her.“Now take your people and leave.”My mother grabbed my wrist.“Elena, Mom was wrong.”Her voice shook. She no longer sounded like Mrs. Vale, the woman who only knew how to give orders.“I shouldn’t have favored Livia. I was fooled too.”“But Vale Atelier can’t collapse. That penalty will ruin us. The house, the shop, the equipment—everything will be taken.”Tears slid down her face.“Help your family. Please.”I looked down at her.This woman had given birth to me. She had taught me my first stitch, then erased my name from every piece I made.I felt no pleasure.Only exhaustion.“Mom,” I said, “this is the last time I’ll call you that.”“I taught Vale Atelier everything

Chapter 10

Hope lit Adrian’s eyes.Because I had not walked away, he seemed to think there was still a chance.He crossed the hall quickly.“Elena.”People turned.He stopped in front of me and took a ring box from his coat pocket.Inside were the rings we had once meant to exchange at the wedding.“I know I was wrong.”His voice was rough.“I should never have left you at the altar.”“I should never have let Livia wear your dress.”“I should never have assumed you would always wait for me.”“Elena, let’s start over.”“I can stay in Santa Fe. You can work, and I’ll help you.”“If you don’t want Southbank House, I won’t keep it.”“If you don’t want to see the Moretti family, I won’t go back.”“Just give me one more chance.”Slowly, he knelt.A low stir moved through the exhibition hall.Adrian Moretti had never bowed his head to anyone.Now he was kneeling in the middle of the room, holding a ring that had come far too late.I looked at him.At the red in his eyes. At his thinner face. At the hand

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