All Chapters of He Bet on My Love, Then Lost Everything: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

I set the frosting-smeared napkin on a silver tray and unpinned the enamel badge on my dress that read FUTURE MRS. CALLOWAY.Sabrina was still laughing. She leaned against Luca and asked, “Elena’s really mad this time. Who’s volunteering to talk her down?”Luca raised his whiskey toward Adrian. “Her fiancé, obviously. They’re getting married at St. Patrick’s next Saturday. Might as well get used to it now.”Adrian didn’t come to me right away. He stared at the buttercream on his fingers as if the sight had finally caught up with him. Phones were still pointed in our direction, though, and he’d never lower his head with an audience watching. He cleaned his hand with a monogrammed handkerchief before approaching me. “All right, sweetheart. That’s enough.”He said it as if I’d caused the scene.“What’s enough?” I asked. “Your game, or my reaction to it?”His expression flickered, but Luca stepped in before he could answer. “Don’t turn this into something it isn’t. Would Adrian have spent

After I treated the burn, I came back to find all three of them still in my apartment.“This is my apartment. You’re the ones who need to leave.”Adrian’s face changed. “I’m the man you’re marrying next week.”“Not for much longer.”For one naked second, panic broke through.Then Luca glanced at him, and Adrian’s pride snapped back into place.“Fine.” He grabbed his jacket. “You get one night. Come to the office tomorrow, and we’ll clean up the damage from the party.”At the door, he looked back at me.“You love me, Elena. Don’t make a decision you’ll regret.”Sabrina left between them. I watched the three of them disappear down the hall.Once, Luca had been the person I trusted most in the world.We had grown up together, and I had loved him for ten years. When Luca and Adrian were struggling to keep Calloway Harbor alive, I stayed beside them while they rebuilt it. Money and connections from my family quietly opened doors neither of them knew belonged to me.Then came the cruel joke

Mamma took me straight to the airport. By the time Adrian realized I wasn’t going back to the penthouse, my flight to Milan had already taken off.Adrian arrived at the airport anyway. He called me dozens of times...Adrian waited outside the airport until sunrise. He called me dozens of times and had his assistant contact private aviation companies to track my itinerary. He only stopped after Valentina warned him that continued surveillance could be treated as harassment.By the time he returned to Tribeca, the penthouse’s electronic lock had been changed. The building manager handed him a cardboard box. “Ms. Vitale revoked your guest access. These are the personal effects she left for you.”Inside were his shaving kit, several shirts, a spare car key, and the unfinished book of wedding vows.He stood in the hallway without moving. The first time he’d stayed over three years earlier, I’d cleared half the closet for him. He’d joked that he didn’t own enough to justify all that space. B

When the lawsuit reached discovery, investigators recovered the group chat in full. From the college fundraiser video to the bedroom proposal stunt and the engagement cake, every joke had left a trail.Sabrina came up with the ideas. Luca turned them into games their entire circle could join. Adrian stayed quiet—or joined in—whenever he had the power to stop them.The messages from the night of our engagement party were especially clear.[Sabrina: What if she loses it in front of everyone?][Luca: She won’t risk the wedding.][Adrian: Don’t take it too far. She’s been under a lot of pressure.]Five minutes later, Luca had needled him.[Luca: Don’t tell me she’s already got you whipped.]Adrian had replied with a thumbs-down emoji.There were hundreds more. Sabrina had once posted a photo of me sitting alone at dinner after Adrian missed our anniversary.[Sabrina: Five minutes until she starts crying. Any bets?][Luca: Three.][Adrian: Knock it off.]Two minutes later, when Luca sent a

One year later, the Genoa waterfront project opened to the public. The century-old brick walls of the warehouses had been preserved, while the seaward side had been replaced with sheets of glass. Harbor lights came alive along the coast as the press filmed me cutting the ribbon.My mother stood behind the crowd and raised her glass from a distance. She had never needed a stage to remind anyone who held the room.The project outperformed our first-year projections, and the board voted to place me in charge of Vitale Holdings’ next round of North American investments. When I returned to New York, it wasn’t for any man.At the opening press conference, a reporter asked whether the scandal surrounding my canceled wedding had inspired the project’s focus on public space. A year earlier, I would have smiled and changed the subject to protect everyone else.“No,” I said. “The project existed before the engagement ended. I’m simply done shelving my work for people who treat my loyalty like an