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All Chapters of Seven Years, Just Friends: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

9 Chapters

Chapter 1

The reunion ended at midnight.I had already ordered a car. According to the app, the driver was a few blocks away. Some of the guys from our year stumbled past me, laughing and shoving each other into a waiting cab.Luca and Chloe came out last.Their shadows stretched across the pavement beneath the amber streetlights. Chloe was flushed and unsteady. Luca’s bodyguard moved toward her, but Luca lifted a hand, dismissing him.“Easy, Chloe.”There was mild exasperation in his voice. His arm hovered at her waist, ready to catch her.A little rabbit-shaped purse hung from his shoulder. One of its soft ears drooped over the strap.Chloe rummaged inside it and pulled out a cat-ear headband. She held it above his head for a moment, considering, then put it on him.“I’ve been dying to do that.” She giggled. “You look adorable.”Luca Moretti, who could silence a room full of armed men without raising his voice, let her adjust the ears.And smiled at her.I looked down at the keys in my hand.M

Chapter 2

By the time Luca came home, I had showered and changed into pajamas.I was sitting on the sofa, staring at my phone.Without thinking, I had reached for the account where I used to write about us. A few lines before bed. Something he’d said. A photograph of his hand beside mine on the table. Proof, however private, that we had a life together.Then I remembered.There was no account anymore.Seven years was long enough for a habit to outlive the thing that had created it.“Why are you still up?”Luca set a cake box on the coffee table and slipped off his jacket. I smelled mango before he opened the lid.“Luca. I’m allergic.”His hand stopped on the coat hanger.“Forgot.”“You didn’t forget. You never bothered to remember.”He came over and smoothed a hand over my hair, as if that settled it.“Don’t do this. It slipped my mind.”I blinked until the sting in my eyes eased.For the past two years, he had brought home mango cake when he was late, when we’d argued, when he wanted to stop an

Chapter 3

I thought I ought to be angry.What I felt first was confusion, a dull blankness that made familiar objects look slightly wrong. The table. My cup. The little crescent a spoon had left in the foam.My mother always said I was stubborn. Once I chose a road, I would keep walking long after any sensible person had turned around.For seven years, I had done exactly that.I had cried in locked bathrooms. Stayed awake after arguments that lasted until dawn. Accepted being invisible because Luca’s world was dangerous, because the timing wasn’t right, because there was always one more reason to wait.I had found a way to make every hurt sound like something love could survive.Now I couldn’t do it anymore.Across the café table, Maya’s eyes filled as I told her what had happened.“What the hell is wrong with him?”She grabbed her phone. Her hands were shaking.“I don’t care whose family he runs. He doesn’t get to treat you like this.”Maya was one of the few people who knew about us. She had s

Chapter 4

The box was heavy. I had to rest it on the edge of the dumpster before tipping it in.For a second, a photograph caught against the rim.Then it fell with everything else.I brushed my palms against my jeans and checked my phone.Another message from Mom, gently circling back to the question of marriage.I had raised it with Luca several times over the past two years. His answer was always some version of Not yet. After the next deal. When things settle down. There’s no rush.He had never asked how long I was willing to wait.I typed a reply.We’re not getting married. I’m leaving him.Then, before I could change my mind:That man you wanted me to meet. Can you arrange it?The next morning, I handed my resignation to the personnel director at Moretti Holdings.He looked at my signature, then at me.“Ms. Bennett. You’re leaving? Does Mr. Moretti know?”He lowered his voice on Luca’s name. Everyone in the building knew which part of the Moretti empire appeared on the letterhead and which

Chapter 5

“Elena?”It took him a long time to get the name out.“Jesus. You okay?” Ben asked when Luca picked up the phone again. “Yeah, Elena. The one Chloe posted about at the reunion.”Luca said nothing.“Quick, right? I thought she was still into you. She looked pretty wrecked that night. None of us knew what to say.”His throat felt dry.Married.The word made no sense.He and Elena weren’t getting married. They hadn’t planned anything. She had brought it up a few times, but he’d explained why they needed to wait.“Ben. You’ve got it wrong.”He heard his own voice steadying.“She’s not getting married.”A pause. Then a sigh.“Look, man. You said you weren’t interested. Why does it matter?”Neither of them spoke for a few seconds. Ben ended the call.Luca opened Elena’s profile.There was nothing there for him to see.He stared at the blank space where her photographs should have been. He couldn’t remember when he had last checked it.A message from Ben appeared: a photograph of a thick ivor

Chapter 6

Luca threw a few things into a bag and headed downstairs.He would bring her back.Seven years of standing beside each other couldn’t disappear in a week. Elena was kind. She always had been. If he could get there in time, if he could make her hear him, there had to be something left to save.“Luca.”He stopped at the curb before he realized whose voice it was.Chloe stood beside the waiting car. She saw the disappointment in his face, and her own face changed.“Where are you going?”He reached for the door.“To her? Is that it? You haven’t called me. You barely answer my messages. What has Elena—”“Nothing.”He drew a breath.“She hasn’t said anything. She hasn’t even fought with me.”Chloe went still.“This thing we’ve been doing,” he said. “Pretending we’re together. It ends now.”“Why?”The word broke into a sob.“Luca, you know how I feel.”She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and pressed her face to his back.“You don’t have to tell me. She’s making you feel guilty a

Chapter 7

“Elena Bennett, do you take Nathaniel Reed to be your husband, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?”I looked at the man in front of me.There was such tenderness in his face that I felt my shoulders loosen.“I do.”Applause broke around us.Nathaniel smiled as he slipped the ring onto my finger, his hands careful and steady. When he bent to kiss me just beside my ear, my eyes filled before I could help it.Later, I turned my back to the waiting guests and tossed my bouquet.We had held the wedding outdoors on an island off the Massachusetts coast. The weather had given us one of those rare, clear days when the sea seemed to hold all the light in the sky.Maya stood beside me in her bridesmaid’s dress, a crown of flowers slipping a little over one ear.“I can’t believe you did this before me,” she said, crying. “We said we’d get married together.”I brushed a tear off her cheek.“Sorry. I got impatient.”She laughed through another sob an

Chapter 8

I didn’t expect to see Luca after the wedding.It was seven in the evening. Nathaniel had gone to get the car, and Maya was telling me about a man she’d met at the reception when she stopped midsentence.Luca stood beneath a streetlamp beyond the entrance.I didn’t know when he had arrived or how long he had been waiting. Without an invitation, the venue staff hadn’t let him through. Apparently, he had allowed that to stand.His hair was disheveled. There was dust on the hem of his trousers. I had never seen him look so unsure of what to do with himself.“What are you doing here?” Maya asked.She stepped in front of me, her arms lifting a little as though she could physically keep the whole of my past away.I took her hand. For a moment, all I felt was love for her.Luca looked at my dress, then at my face. Something flickered in his eyes.“Ellie.”His voice was rough.“I never agreed to break up.”Maya’s hand tightened around mine.“I know I haven’t been paying enough attention. I kno

Chapter 9

He came to see me several more times.The most desperate visit was about the company.For a moment, I almost laughed. He still didn’t know I had resigned.My equity in the legitimate business had been sold through our lawyers as well. It had brought me enough money to start over comfortably. At least the work I had put into those years hadn’t vanished with the relationship.Luca lowered himself to his knees in front of me.The sight should have meant more. The head of the Moretti family, kneeling on an ordinary doorstep, asking instead of giving orders.Mostly, I was tired.“I fired Chloe,” he said. “Your office is waiting for you.”He looked up at me.“Please come back. Even if you won’t give me another chance, the company is yours too. You put everything into it.”I showed him the copy of my resignation I had kept.His signature sat at the bottom, quick and confident.“I left weeks ago, Luca. You approved it.”He stared at the page.“I’m not coming back to the company. I’m not coming

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