جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 9

It felt as if someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over my head.Before I knew it, I'd moved quietly to the back seat.Luca didn't notice a thing. He was still asking Avery if her finger hurt.I didn't say a word the whole way back to our apartment.Luca had told me Lorenzetti family rules wouldn't allow me to move into the estate until we were married.So he'd bought me a luxury apartment. Whenever his family didn't need him, he stayed with me.I entered the code without thinking, but the lock gave a harsh error beep.I figured I'd hit the wrong button. I checked and entered it again. Still wrong.I froze.Luca came out of the elevator with Avery. Without a second thought, he entered a new code.It was Avery's birthday.The door opened."Avery said you should change your code often for security," Luca explained as he walked in."That made sense, so I changed it to her birthday."The code to our home was now another woman's birthday.I watched him walk away. For the first time, he

Back at the hotel, I got a text from my bank about a charge.My card had just been charged 50,000 euros.The charge came from the most exclusive jewelry store in Palermo.I remembered Avery saying the day before that she wanted a one-of-a-kind tiara to go with her gown.I looked at the text and couldn't even summon the energy to be angry.I'd given that card to Luca myself.When we first got together, the Lorenzetti name was so big that everyone thought I was a gold digger.I didn't want Luca to think so too. So I did the dumbest, most sincere thing I could think of: I handed him the savings I'd built up over the years.I was so nervous when I told him, "Luca, it's not much, but it's everything I have."Luca had been deeply moved.He'd locked the card in his safe and never touched it.Now he'd deliberately used that card to buy another woman a custom tiara fancy enough to upstage the bride.I didn't call Luca or text him to demand answers.I just waited quietly for the final rehearsal.

When Luca got back to his car in a daze, Avery was sitting in the passenger seat, looking at him with concern."Luca, don't be like this."Nobody knows better than me how much she loves you. She's just throwing a fit this time. She'll be back in a few days."Luca stared blankly at her.It suddenly hit him that he'd once promised this seat would always be Chloe's.Because it was the seat closest to him.From there, they could see each other.Somewhere along the way, Avery had started taking that seat whenever she was around.Then Luca noticed something wedged in the crease of the seat, and he went still.A pair of black lace panties.He had no idea how they'd gotten there.And he had even less idea whether Chloe had seen them.That day, after the jewelry store, Chloe had gotten into the passenger seat out of habit.She'd only sat there for a second before quietly moving to the back.He hadn't noticed a thing back then. He'd been too focused on the ring stuck on Avery's finger.Avery fol

Once Luca knew I was in New York, he stayed.I'd heard he'd cleared his schedule for the next six months and handed the Lorenzetti family's affairs to his underboss for now.Every morning on my way to work, I'd see him standing on the corner, staring in my direction.He never came closer. He just watched me from a distance.Three months flew by. My first collection, Daybreak, got the highest score in the company's internal review.The marketing team was much more enthusiastic than anyone expected, and the presale sold out on the first day.The company decided to strike while the iron was hot. It would auction the pieces and invite industry figures and potential clients.Luca managed to get an invitation too.The day before the auction, I stayed late at work.When I came out of the building, Luca was waiting at the curb.He took a few steps toward me, then stopped."Chloe, I've had time to think. I had someone track down the rehearsal footage, but the photographer said you took the vide