The door shut with a sharp sound, completely cutting off the scene outside. What remained was only the muffled noise of laughter, cheering, and chaos drifting in from beyond, as if the world on the other side of that heavy oak had nothing to do with me anymore.
I leaned quietly against the window, my gaze falling on the lively crowd below. The courtyard of the Moretti estate was bright and festive, strung with lights that caught the crystal stemware of capos and their wives, full of joy and excitement, but it felt distant, like something I was no longer part of.
My friends gathered behind me, their anger impossible to hide. One of them clenched her fists and snapped, "This is going too far! If this wedding doesn't happen, then so be it. Who even cares anymore?"
But as soon as the words left her mouth, she glanced at my expression and swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say. The room fell into an awkward silence, no one daring to push further.
In everyone's eyes, this wedding had never been Dante's idea. They all believed it was something I had chased after, something I had begged for. The alliance bride so grateful to the Family that she'd accept any terms, any humiliation, just to stay close to him.
Not long ago, though, it was Dante who had brought up marriage first. He had said he wanted to marry me, and without hesitation, I agreed.
Back then, I had believed it so completely. I thought that after eight years of waiting, enduring, and loving him, I was finally about to step into my long-awaited happy ending.
But everything that happened today felt like a bucket of ice-cold water poured over my head, shocking me awake from a dream I didn't even realize I was still clinging to.
Elena, my best friend, who had already stood up for me earlier, was so frustrated that she could barely contain herself. Her eyes were filled with anger and disbelief.
"You've been humiliated like this, right in front of everyone, and you still want to marry him?" she demanded.
I turned my head and looked at her quietly. Then, in a calm and steady voice, I said, "Then I won't."
As the words left my lips, I raised my hands and began removing the golden hairpins from my hair one by one, along with the jewelry I had so carefully put on for this day. Each piece clinked faintly against the vanity, small sounds that carried more finality than anything I could have said.
Elena froze for a second before quickly stepping forward to stop me, her expression full of shock. "Are you out of your mind?" she blurted out.
She studied my face carefully, as if trying to find a trace of impulsiveness or breakdown. But all she saw was calm, a kind of unsettling calm that made her sigh softly in the end.
"Forget it," she murmured, her voice turning gentler. "As long as you're happy. Maybe… maybe after the wedding, he'll settle down."
Elena had known me since we were children. She had watched every step of my relationship with Dante unfold, from the very beginning until now.
Back in college, Dante was the kind of person everyone noticed immediately. The Moretti heir, handsome, confident, surrounded by admirers wherever he went. Men stepped aside when he crossed a room. Women lingered at the edges, hoping he'd look their way. And me? I was just a quiet, bespectacled girl, struggling to get by, trying to survive each day.
To make things worse, I was dealing with depression.
The day I graduated from high school, my father passed away. Not long after, my mother remarried and left me behind, giving me only two hundred dollars as if that was enough to cut all ties and send me into the world alone.
When my results came out, I received both good news and bad news at the same time. I had been accepted into a top university, something I had worked so hard for. But I had no way to afford the tuition.
Even if I applied for loans, the cost of living alone felt overwhelming. Every day was a struggle just to keep going. There was no family name behind me, no one to call, no protection of any kind.
The pressure from both life and studies drained me completely. I felt small, weak, and inferior. People around me mocked me, excluded me, and treated me like I didn't belong.
I kept my head down and stayed silent most of the time, avoiding interactions as much as possible. The only person who stayed by my side was Elena.
With my withdrawn nature and fragile mental state, I became an easy target. My dorm mates and classmates isolated me, and some of them even took pleasure in bullying me.
