Lahat ng Kabanata ng Replaced at the Altar, Returned as an Heiress: Kabanata 1 - Kabanata 8

I left the chapel while the reception continued. Guests gathered in the garden with champagne, as though the real bride had never arrived.The DeLuca driver opened the car door without asking why the wedding had ended early. Everyone knew what had happened, and no one believed I deserved an explanation.As we entered Manhattan, the sedative made the nausea worse. My hands turned cold.Matteo knew I could not take sedatives. Two years earlier, I had suffered a severe reaction to anesthesia, and the doctor had warned him that similar drugs could cause breathing problems.Today, he had only said the dose was small.When I returned to the Upper East Side townhouse, the housekeeper looked surprised to see me alone.“Miss Vale, is the reception over?”“Matteo still has guests to entertain.”I went upstairs and rushed into the bathroom. I vomited until my stomach was empty, but the cramping continued and red marks spread along my arms.My phone kept vibrating.Someone had posted a photograph

After leaving the medical center, I had the driver stop at a private bank near Fifth Avenue. I placed several private documents inside a secure vault.It was already dark when I returned to the Upper East Side townhouse.Sofia opened the door herself, carrying herself like the true mistress of the house.“Isabella, the staff couldn’t find another pair of slippers. You can wear the disposable ones.”I looked down.She was wearing my Venetian velvet slippers, custom-made for my smaller feet and embroidered with silver vines. Her heels hung over the edges, yet she deliberately walked past me in them.Matteo sat at an antique card table with several heirs from allied families. Chips, whiskey, and unopened cigars covered the surface.He glanced at me, then returned to his cards.I changed into the disposable slippers and entered the drawing room. Cold air immediately swept in from the terrace.The fireplace had been extinguished, and every French door stood open. December air cut through th

Only the fire could be heard in the drawing room.Matteo stared at the announcement on the screen as though seeing the woman in the photograph for the first time.The face belonged to Isabella.The name beneath it was Isabella Venturi.Sofia broke the silence first.“This is impossible. If she were really the Venturi heir, why would she spend years in New York pretending to be an orphan?”No one at the card table agreed with her.The Venturi family rarely revealed its internal affairs, but it controlled major Mediterranean shipping routes, a European private bank, and extensive holdings across southern Italy. The DeLucas held considerable power in New York, yet even they treated the Venturis with caution.The men who had mocked Isabella slowly set down their glasses.Several of them remembered saying that she had nowhere to go without Matteo.Matteo took the phone and read the announcement again.The public statement was brief. Isabella had lived in America under her mother’s surname,

“You let her enter the chapel in my wedding gown and wear the crown that was meant for me. She drugged me with something that could have stopped me from breathing, and even after you found out, you decided it was not serious enough to punish.”I put my phone away.“She entered my home, wore my shoes, and wrapped herself in my clothes. Your friends humiliated me in front of you, and you remained seated at the card table.”“I did not sleep with her.”“Is that the only form of betrayal you understand?”Matteo froze.“You never gave her your body,” I continued, “but you gave her my dignity, my wedding, and my position within the DeLuca family. Every time she wanted to humiliate me, you made certain she had the opportunity.”“I can deal with Sofia.”“You only deal with her after you lose something.”Matteo pressed his fingers against his temple. For the first time, exhaustion entered his voice.“I admit that I was wrong. I should not have allowed her into the chapel, and I should have stopp