A wedding dress for the wrong bride Novels & Stories

If you enjoyed Billionaire's Regret: Finding Her, I'd love to invite you to read my latest novel, Billionaire's Mistake: Claiming the Wrong Bride. I hope you'll fall in love with this new story just as much. In Ardenia’s shipping world, everyone knows Calder Rook. After losing his wife, the powerful shipping tycoon remained single for twenty years and was never seen with another woman. Then Nola Avery entered his life. Nola was supposed to marry Calder’s second son, but on the wedding night, she and her sister entered the wrong rooms. By morning, Nola had slept with Calder, while her sister had ended up with the groom. Rumors soon claimed that Nola had seduced Calder on purpose and forced her way into the Rook family. His admirers mocked her, certain that a young outsider like her would never survive among the cold patriarch and his difficult children. They were wrong. Nola turned the Rook mansion upside down. She challenged Calder, dealt with the Rook children one by one, and somehow won over the entire family. Calder, the untouchable man no woman could approach, began spoiling her beyond reason. Three months later, photos showed Nola leaving the Rook mansion in tears. The haters celebrated, convinced she had finally been thrown out. Then another report appeared. Calder had abandoned a multibillion dollar project to chase after his wife. “Baby, come home.” His father joined in. “Come back, my daughter in law. I will buy you ten yachts.” The Rook children quickly followed. “Don’t leave us, Nola. We’ll listen to you from now on.” Nola: “...”

I've died on my wedding day. When I'm in the middle of getting cruelly tortured by the thugs, my parents, older brother, and my fiance are all comforting my younger adopted sister, Arianna Capuano, who's bawling her eyes out. Before I die, I've called them for help. But Diego Atzori, my fiance who's the next Don of the Atzori family, sounds extremely angry at me when he picks up the call. "Carlotta Capuano, Arianna's life is more important than our marriage! Stop putting on an act just to attract attention!" The call goes dead. My life is also entering its countdown. I can only lie in my own puddle of blood, my body broken and mutilated, until I stop breathing entirely. No one can find me at home. They think I'm just throwing a tantrum because the wedding has gotten canceled. Perhaps I've chosen to run away from the altar just so I can attract their attention. What they don't know is the fact that I've never left home. In fact, I've died in the basement of my own house. I died right beneath their feet.

On the night before the wedding, my fiancé suddenly asked me to give up the ceremony for his first love, Sofia. I turned it down cold in my former life, only to become the Chicago mob’s godmother at a lavish wedding. When Sofia heard the news, she was heartbroken and jumped into the sea to take her own life. Vincent blamed me for Sofia’s death. For the next thirty years, the words he said to me most often were: “Elena, if I had married Sofia that day, she wouldn't have died.” On his deathbed, he told our children: “Don’t bury me with Elena.” The year after he died, I fell gravely ill and passed away. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the night before the wedding. Over the phone, Vincent's voice came again: "Sofia needs this title more than you do. Everyone knows I love you, so they respect you—but Sofia's different. She's just a poor orphan girl..." Before he could finish, I calmly replied, “Fine, I agree.” I turned and signed the papers to cut ties with the family. I flew to Sicily, home to the Salk Institute that I had always looked up to. In this life, I refuse to be his appendage.

BLURB When my father couldn’t pay his debt to the mafia, my sister was promised to Lucien Moretti, the most feared don in Milan. But on the wedding day, she ran. So my family shoved me into her shoes and sent me to the devil wearing my sister’s wedding gown. Now I’m trapped in a marriage built on lies with a man who terrifies me as much as he obsesses over me, trying to escape and dreading the day he discovers I’m not the woman he was supposed to marry. But how am I supposed to run when Lucien touches me like he’d burn the world for me and his obsession starts feeling dangerously close to love? Girls my age are falling in love, going to parties, and surviving the world. I’m stuck surviving Lucien Moretti. And I am starting to understand that when he finally says my name like he knows the truth… It will be the last thing I ever hear.

“You're wasting my time!” Dominic yanked the dress off her violently, causing her body to jolt forward. She almost bumped into Dominic, but he quickly dodged her, causing her to stumble and fall onto the floor with a thud. Belladonna cried out in pain as her knees hurt from hitting the floor, as did her hands, which had to support her body abruptly. She writhed in pain, but Dominic just stared at her without any pity. “It hurts. Can you not treat me so harshly?” she pleaded. “It hurts? You’d better endure the pain because you will get more pain after this. Don’t blame me, blame yourself for agreeing to replace Bianca. You’re just an unwanted bride for me. So I will never treat you as my wife!” ************************************ Belladonna Marino was forced to replace her runaway sister on her wedding day, marrying Dominic Costa, the man who was supposed to belong to someone else. She had no choice but to agree. She did it out of gratitude to the family who raised her, never expecting that the price would be her dignity. Dominic never wanted her. He despised her. He humiliated her, tormented her, and reminded her every day that she was nothing more than an unwanted replacement. Living as his wife was hell— until the day his true bride returned, claiming she was finally ready to marry him. Knowing her role was over, Belladonna chose to leave. But what happens when the man who once hated her realizes too late that the woman he broke is the only one he ever loved?

I go to the boutique my son has invested in to pick up the gown I've ordered for a banquet. Just as I'm about to leave, the manager, Wendy Reed, stops me and says that I still owe them money. She pulls out the bill. I look down at it and see that the boutique is charging me 300 thousand dollars for their creativity, 500 thousand dollars for fabric therapy, and one million dollars for their chief designer's mental wellness. On top of other expenses, the price totals up to two million dollars. I laugh incredulously and send a message to my secretary. "Withdraw our funding from my son's company and this boutique!"

On the day I went to try on my wedding dress, Enzo had said he would come with me—but he never showed up. The train of the gown was too long. I stood alone in front of the mirror, bending over again and again to fix it more than a dozen times. The third time I stepped on the hem, my phone finally buzzed. 'Natalie just came back and isn't used to the weather here. I'll go pick her up. You try on the dress first.' The next second, a new post popped up on social media. Natalie had uploaded a photo. In it, Enzo was crouched in front of her, one hand wrapped around her slender ankle as he carefully fastened the strap of her high heels. The caption was only one line. 'He still couldn't bear to let me bend down.' When I tapped into the post, I saw that Enzo had already liked it. The bridal assistant sensed the shift in the air and tried to comfort me in a low voice. "Ms. Blackwood, Mr. Beck really cares about you. He was worried you might secretly diet and hurt your health, so he specifically told us not to alter the waistline any further." I smiled. He cared about me, yes. But his care had never stopped him from favoring someone else. I lowered my head and looked at the wedding dress on my body. Then it suddenly struck me. The thing that did not fit had never been the dress. It was this wedding.

On the day of my wedding, my parents suddenly show up at my house with my fiancé, Yoseph Caldwell. They say they've decided the bride is going to change. "Your sister's terminally ill, and her only wish is to marry Yoseph. You're her younger sister, so be generous and help her out." Yoseph chimes in calmly, "Don't worry. It's just a ceremony. Once she passes, you and I can still get the marriage certificate." When I refuse, my parents tie me up. "We'll let you out once the wedding's over." But not long after they leave, an intruder breaks in and brutally murders me. By the time they finally remember me, all that's left is my rotting corpse.

On the night before the wedding, New York was washed in cold rain. The rehearsal at St. Patrick's Cathedral had been set for seven o'clock. Under the vaulted ceiling, the white roses, black satin bows, and silver candelabras had all been arranged exactly the way I wanted. But by the time the rehearsal ended, he still hadn't shown up. At 11:17 that night, I finally got a message from him. [Sophia is pregnant. Although the baby isn’t mine, I can’t let her child be born carrying the name of an illegitimate child.] [I went to City Hall with her tonight and made it legal.] [The wedding is still happening tomorrow.] [That piece of paper is just a formality. The person standing at the altar will still be you.] [Don't let outsiders know too much. And don't ruin her reputation.] I stared at those lines for a long time. In the end, I replied with a single word. [Okay.] I don't want the wedding and you.

On the eve of our wedding, I find out that the wedding invitations have Travis Somerson's and his assistant, Victoria Cademere's names printed on them instead of mine. I demand an answer from Victoria, who bursts into tears and tells me that she has accidentally mistyped the bride's name as hers. Travis calls me right away. "It's just a naming mistake, Harper! Must you make such a huge deal out of such a small mistake?" He even calls me a petty and jealous woman who can't even tolerate the presence of a female employee in his vicinity. Five minutes later, Victoria uploads another social media post. Apparently, not only has she uploaded a photo of the wedding invitation, but she also adds a couple photo of her and Travis being lovey-dovey. The caption reads, "Mr. Somerson told me that even if I screw up, he'll be there to help me settle everything." If a female employee were to provoke me in the past, I'd have forced Travis to fire the former. But this time, I no longer care about him anymore.