All Chapters of A Ring for a Dead Bride A Mafia Don Driven Mad by Regret: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing outside the door.I reached out to push it open. My hand passed through the glass.I walked into the shadows behind the flowers and found myself curled on the floor, my forehead resting against the base of a stand.Footsteps sounded in the hallway. Luca was back.Adrian followed him, along with Nico, a childhood friend who now ran the Vitti family’s fleet of cars.Celina hurried to meet them, her eyes red.“She still won’t talk to me.”She turned toward the conservatory, her voice soft and pleading.“Elena, if you don’t want me here, I’ll go. Just don’t keep Luca waiting, okay?”Adrian saw her clutching her wedding ring. His expression hardened.“You don’t have to go anywhere.”Then he called to me through the door.“Mom’s here. Everyone’s waiting. Whatever this is about, come out and we’ll talk.”Nico leaned toward the glass. Through the flowers, all he could see was my bowed head and part of one shoulder.“Try talking to her again, Luca. Sh

Two months earlier, Celina had carried flowers for an event into my workroom, claiming it was the right temperature to keep them fresh.To make room, she had moved a wedding portrait I was restoring. My late father was in it.A bucket tipped over. Water soaked the canvas, and the freshly restored surface was scratched.When I arrived, she was standing in the doorway with the bucket, crying that she hadn’t known how much the painting meant to me.Luca came in and saw my hands shaking as I worked on the canvas. He asked Celina to leave, then closed the door for me.That night, he took back her spare key.The next day, she returned the flower shop’s supply contract, laying Marco’s old work ID on top of it.She said she didn’t want to cause any more trouble between us.In the end, Luca had his manager give the contract back to her. He told me she shouldn’t lose her livelihood over one mistake.He promised the manager would accompany her on deliveries from then on.Yet today, Celina had arr

Celina caught the armrest.“She said not to lift it in front of the guests.”Luca stopped.“Her eyes are swollen, and her makeup’s a mess. You know how much she hates being photographed like that.”I had said something like that once.After my father’s memorial service, I had hidden in the car and cried.Luca had tried to wipe my tears, but I wouldn’t let him lift my black veil. There were still reporters outside.Celina had been in the front seat.Now she was giving him my own words back, using them to keep my face hidden.Nico glanced at the guests inside and agreed that they should wait until there were fewer people around.At last, Luca lowered his hand.“All right. Whatever you want.”He took off his jacket and replaced Adrian’s with it, carefully covering my shoulders and hands.When his fingers brushed my skin, he frowned and pulled the collar a little closer around me.I didn’t move.He took the wheelchair and pushed me into the dining room.Conversations fell quiet. People sto

My mother reached us before anyone answered him.“Elena.” She sank to her knees, catching my face between her hands. “Sweetheart, look at me.”Luca kept rubbing my back, as if I had choked on something and only needed a little help.Then my mother put two fingers against my neck.“Call an ambulance.”Nobody moved quickly enough.“Now!”Nico fumbled for his phone. A guest who identified herself as a nurse pushed through the crowd and told Luca to lay me flat.He tightened his arms.“She was just—”The sentence stopped there.I had just been sitting. Just been sulking. Just been keeping everyone waiting.There was no last thing I had said that he could repeat to her.“Put her down,” the nurse said. “I need room.”For once, he obeyed without a second instruction.The nurse began working on me.Luca knelt beside her, staring at the place where her hands pressed against my chest.My mother kept saying my name. She wasn’t screaming anymore, and that was worse.Celina stood behind the wheelch

By the time Luca returned, the musicians had gone. The last guests were leaving through the front gates.Inside, the chairs still stood pushed apart. Someone had laid my veil on the empty chair where Rosa should have sat during the ceremony.Celina waited in a side room with the consigliere.She stood when Luca entered.“They won’t let me go home.”Matteo remained by the door. Celina looked at him, then held out her hands to Luca.“Tell them. It was supposed to be beautiful.”Luca did not take them.“Why was the door locked?”“She wanted privacy.”“Did she ask you to lock it?”“I thought that was what she meant.”“Then why didn’t you open it when she hit the glass?”Celina began to cry.“She was angry. You saw her.”“Yes,” he said.His hand went to his pocket.“I did.”The recording was still on his phone, between a photograph of the table settings and a picture I had sent him that morning.He opened it.White roses filled the screen. Behind them, I stood with one hand braced against t