Home / The Don’s Wedding Betrayal / Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

All Chapters of The Don’s Wedding Betrayal: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

41 Chapters

Chapter 11

“Get the car.”Half an hour later, Julian stood outside Claire’s mother’s old apartment.He rang the bell for a long time.No one answered.He called the number he knew by heart.The call wouldn’t connect.He tried again.Nothing.An upstairs neighbor, woken by the noise, called through a closed door to ask who was there.Julian didn’t answer. He pressed his palm against the dark green door.He had come here three years earlier, just after Claire lost her father.She had opened the door with swollen eyes and asked whether he wanted coffee.She had been wearing an old sweater, holding a sheet of paper covered in things she needed to do.Her father was gone, she had said. There was still so much to handle.At the time, Julian had only thought it sounded exhausting.Now, standing outside, he couldn’t remember why he hadn’t given her even the time it took to drink a cup of coffee.The call disconnected again.His hand slowly fell.He had always assumed she would be waiting somewhere.That

Chapter 12

“The Morettis kept those docks and freight operations stable for three years.”“Any management fees owed will be calculated.”William pushed another document across the desk.“But looking after someone’s house doesn’t give you the right to evict the owner.”Julian opened the file.Several managers had jointly requested that the businesses involving Carter assets be separated and accounted for independently.One name was particularly familiar.Arthur.Claire had mentioned him more than once. Her father had trusted him, she had said. She hoped Julian wouldn’t make things difficult for him.Julian had told her not to teach him how to do his job.Now the man who had always lowered his head so carefully in Julian’s presence had signed this request.“They knew she was gone.”Julian looked up.“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”Noah hesitated.“Arthur contacted me about confirming next quarter’s arrangements with her. You were in France. You said that if she wanted to make a scene, no one was to co

Chapter 13

Three folders lay on the long table in the study.The blue one concerned my personal assets. The gray one covered proposed business arrangements between the Carters and the Valentes. The thinnest addressed our life after marriage.Declan didn’t take the head of the table.He sat beside me, letting his coffee go cold.When the attorney finished, I asked, “If we separate someday, will the business agreements remain valid?”The room went quiet.Declan’s uncle Enzo leaned back.I didn’t withdraw the question.I had paid too much to learn how to ask it.The attorney opened the relevant clauses. The agreements were between companies, he explained. Their termination provisions were independent of our marriage.“And if Declan objects to my selling some of my own assets?”Enzo finally spoke.“Claire, once two families are joined, every decision affects both sides.”“I understand that.”I met his eyes.“But being affected by something isn’t the same as owning it.”My palms were damp.I had alway

Chapter 14

We married on a rainy Saturday.There was no livestream, no guest list full of people to be wary of, no family representatives waiting to sign agreements.Declan had asked how many guests I wanted.“Not many.”“All right.”“And we don’t need a huge venue.”“Of course.”The night before the wedding, I finally asked whether he intended to agree to everything I wanted.He was dimming the bedside lamp.He turned toward me.“No.”My stomach tightened.“If you tell me you’re hiding something that hurts because you want to make me happy, I won’t agree to that.”That night, I didn’t dream about the broken necklace.We had chosen the small chapel of a private castle beside the Rhine.Martha came to help with my veil.As she fastened a clip, her hand paused.“Too tight?”I shook my head.She loosened it anyway.Neither of us mentioned the last time.But when she lifted scissors to trim a loose thread inside the veil, my shoulders flinched.Martha immediately stopped.“You don’t have to please an

Chapter 15

Declan’s vows contained no grand promises.“I can’t promise you’ll never be sad again.”He looked at me, his voice lower than usual.“But when you are, you won’t have to prove you have the right to be.”My tears fell at once.He looked briefly alarmed and started to reach for me, but the minister was already reminding us to exchange rings.I laughed through my tears and slipped his ring onto his finger.After the reception, his mother brought out an old photo album.Halfway through, I found my mother seated at a piano, my father standing behind her.In one corner, I held sheet music under one arm while reaching for a cherry.Farther back, a teenage Declan stood by the window, looking in my direction.“He was so quiet then,” his mother said. “I asked why he didn’t go and talk to you.”“What did he say?”“That you were reading music and he shouldn’t interrupt.”I looked up.Across the room, Declan was crouching to tie Luca’s shoelace.I waved him over.He came immediately.Behind him, Lu

Chapter 16

My fingers turned cold.“How did he find us?”“A guest posted a photograph after leaving. His people contacted them and got the address.”Declan stood.“Keep the guests inside. Don’t let him in.”Leon nodded.“He says he has something from William to hand over personally.”I took out my phone.“Let him speak to my attorney.”I wouldn’t listen to another reason Julian supposedly had to see me.The call connected quickly.“He’s here,” I said. “Please tell him all further contact goes through you.”Before we reached the reception room, raised voices sounded nearby.Footsteps followed.Then a door was shoved open.Julian appeared at the end of the corridor.He wore no jacket. His cuffs were creased, his eyes bloodshot.His gaze moved from my hair to my wedding dress, then to my ring.His face changed.As though he had finally seen something he had refused to believe.“Claire.”I remained beside Declan.“Please leave.”Julian stepped forward. Security stopped him.“I only want to talk.”“Th

Chapter 17

The color slowly drained from Julian’s face.“What do you want me to do?”“Leave.”“You weren’t like this before.”I gave a small, humorless smile.“Before, I was afraid you’d leave.”Something flickered in his eyes.“So you are still angry.”“I’m telling you I’m not afraid anymore.”The reception-room door opened.Luca stood inside, holding an unfinished dessert.Declan turned immediately.“Go back inside, Luca.”The boy retreated. The door closed.Julian’s jaw tightened.“Even his family. You’ve already—”He stopped.His gaze returned to my ring.“Take it off.”His voice was low, but it was an order.Declan finally spoke.“You’ve disrupted enough.”The air between them changed.“This is between her and me,” Julian said.“You’re standing at our wedding.”“She was supposed to—”“She isn’t something anyone owns.”Declan hadn’t raised his voice.Julian lunged forward anyway, reaching for me.Security moved at the same time.Declan stepped between us first and pushed him back.Julian stum

Chapter 18

Julian was still talking.“The necklace. The dinner. The wedding. I can make it all right.”I looked at him.“You nearly got someone killed.”He stared.“And you’re still asking whether I’ll go home with you.”The corridor fell quiet.I didn’t wait for an answer.Inside the reception room, Luca stood in his mother’s arms, white-faced.He looked at my hand first.I hid the bloody one behind my back.He said nothing. He only reached for my waist.He was shaking.I crouched and held him, suddenly desperate to cry.Not for Julian.Because he had ruined an evening that should never have been ruined.We didn’t spend the night at the castle.The guests were escorted away separately. The children went first, to somewhere safe.Before leaving, Declan’s mother hugged me.“Don’t make this your fault.”I nodded without meeting her eyes.She gently lifted my face.“You weren’t the person who came here with a weapon. You don’t have to apologize for him.”Dawn was breaking when our car left.A fresh

Chapter 19

Leon placed a timeline on the table.It listed the errors in judgment, the instructions people had failed to follow, and who had called the authorities once the danger became clear.“This was my responsibility,” he said.Declan stood by the door.“I approved the security arrangements. It wasn’t yours alone.”They didn’t choose one person to blame and call the matter finished.As I read, the shapeless fear inside me began to acquire boundaries.This hadn’t happened because I hadn’t been careful enough.Someone had accepted money. Someone had hesitated. Someone had failed to stop what they should have stopped.“May I keep this?”“Of course.”That evening, I went to see Luca.He was arranging models on the rug. When he saw me, he hid an airplane behind his back.I didn’t ask why.After a while, he whispered, “Will that man come back?”I couldn’t comfort him with something I didn’t believe myself.“We’re fixing what went wrong. We won’t let him get in the way he did that night.”“My brothe

Chapter 20

The therapist moved the tissues closer.After a long silence, she said, “Sometimes what overwhelms us isn’t only being hurt. It’s discovering that we never had to be hurt that way at all.”Declan waited in the car afterward.He didn’t ask what we had discussed.He handed me a warm paper bag.“I passed the bakery. You said these weren’t too sweet.”I took a bite.Steam brushed my face.“Next time, I’d like to drive myself.”He nodded.“All right.”“You won’t worry?”“I will.”I looked at him.He folded the top of the bag for me.“But worrying isn’t a reason to stop you.”We talked for a long time after dinner.He admitted that when something happened, his instinct was to make decisions first.“You were protecting me,” I said.He shook his head.“That doesn’t mean I can’t get things wrong.”We discussed what required immediate action, what needed my input first, and when we should tell each other we were afraid.There were no vows.We simply worked through the details of the life we want

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