Chapter 3 - The Wedding Without a Groom
Canceling a private wedding would have been difficult.
Canceling ours was impossible.
Three hundred and eighty guests were already seated.
Reporters waited outside.
Business leaders occupied the first rows.
Both families had spent months advertising the marriage as something historic.
Now my father wanted to quietly announce a “medical emergency.”
“No.”
Alaric stared at me.
We stood behind the ballroom doors.
“You’ve made your point.”
“No, Dad. You’re making another decision for me.”
His face tightened.
“What do you want?”
“I’m going out there.”
“In your wedding dress?”
“Yes.”
“To tell three hundred people you’re refusing to marry Cassian?”
“Yes.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“God help me.”
Dante stood several feet away.
He hadn’t spoken for ten minutes.
I looked at him.
“You think this is stupid.”
“No.”
“Dangerous?”
“Yes.”
“Embarrassing?”
“For Cassian? Extremely.”
I smiled despite myself.
My father didn’t.
“This isn’t funny.”
“No,” I said. “It isn’t.”
The orchestra stopped.
Whispers spread beyond the doors.
Then Cassian appeared at the opposite end of the corridor.
He wasn’t alone.
His father, Vittorio Valtieri, walked beside him.
Vittorio looked at me.
“Tell me this misunderstanding is finished.”
“It isn’t a misunderstanding.”
“Young lady—”
“I’m not marrying your son.”
Vittorio turned toward my father.
“Control your daughter.”
Something surprising happened.
Alaric looked at him.
“No.”
Vittorio blinked.
“What?”
“I said no.”
For the first time that day, I saw my father choose me.
Cassian’s eyes moved toward Dante.
“This is because of him.”
“No,” I said.
Cassian pointed at Dante.
“He came into your bedroom.”
“To help me.”
“He wants you.”
Dante’s expression remained unreadable.
Cassian looked around at the security men.
“Ask him.”
I turned toward Dante.
“Do you?”
Dante was silent.
That silence answered too much.
My heartbeat changed.
Cassian laughed.
“There.”
Dante finally spoke.
“My feelings have nothing to do with her decision.”
“Feelings?” I repeated.
Dante looked at me.
Wrong moment.
Very wrong moment.
But something passed between us.
Cassian saw it.
His face tightened.
“You think he’s rescuing you?”
“No.”
I stepped closer.
“I’m rescuing myself.”
Then I pushed open the ballroom doors.
Hundreds of faces turned.
I walked down the aisle alone.
No music.
No father escorting me.
No groom waiting at the altar.
Just me.
When I reached the front, I turned toward the guests.
“My name is Sofia Lisandra.”
A murmur passed through the room.
“This was supposed to be my wedding.”
Cassian entered behind me.
“Sofia.”
I continued.
“But I cannot marry someone I fear.”
The room became silent.
Cassian stopped.
“My family arranged this marriage for reasons that had very little to do with love.”
Vittorio shouted from the back.
“That’s enough!”
I looked directly at him.
“No.”
One word.
The same word I had been afraid to say all my life.
“I will not marry Cassian Valtieri.”
Nobody moved.
Then a woman in the third row stood.
My mother.
She looked at me with tears in her eyes.
And started clapping.
One clap.
Then another.
My father stared at her.
Slowly, another guest joined.
Then another.
Within seconds, half the ballroom was standing.
Not everyone.
Certainly not the Valtieris.
But enough.
Cassian’s humiliation was complete.
He walked toward me.
“You’ll regret this.”
Dante appeared beside the aisle.
Cassian stopped.
I looked directly into my former fiancé’s eyes.
“No.”
May you like
Then I smiled.
“I think regret is what I almost married.”
