All Chapters of The mafia king’s substitute husband: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

THE CORRIDORElian freezes where he stands. His whole body has gone cold, shaking in a way he can't stop, and some part of him is genuinely waiting for the ground to open up and take him, because that would be easier than what's happening instead.Salvatore already knows about Matteo. He's known since the first hour the wedding started falling apart, though nobody in this house has any idea of that yet, and he has no plans to say so. He isn't losing a groom today. He's getting the one he actually wanted, the boy who once saved him on a schoolyard and grew, without ever meaning to, into the only person Salvatore decided he would marry. None of that reaches his face. He keeps it buried under something colder, something that looks, to everyone watching, like a man reacting to bad luck instead of a man watching a promise finally come true.What are you still waiting for?" His father's voice, clipped, already moving past the moment like it costs him nothing. "Go in and get dressed. Mr. Sal

THE VOWSHe can feel every eye in the room, the staff, the hired witnesses, his father standing too straight, his mother refusing to look at him at all. None of it feels real. It feels like something happening to someone else, someone standing exactly where he's standing."Say it," Salvatore mutters, low, only for him. "Now."Elian's mouth opens. Nothing comes out.Salvatore's hand closes around his, hard enough to hurt, hard enough to make the point without a single word attached to it. Say it."I…" Elian's voice cracks. He forces the rest out before it can fail him completely. Salvatore says his own vow the way he says everything, flat, fast. The ring goes on. "Done," Salvatore says, to no one in particular. He's already checking his watch again. "Good. Now we can go."He doesn't wait for a reaction. He takes Elian's hand, and pulls him straight toward the door, out past his father, out past his mother.Elian is pulled into the car. They pull away from the house, toward Salvatore