My Best Friend's Dad Married Me

When the boy I had loved in silence for five years dropped to one knee and proposed to the very girl who had bullied me, the entire room burst into laughter at my expense.

"That fat, ugly Lydia Prescott actually thinks she has a shot with a mafia boss?"

In a single night, I became the city's favorite punchline. I fled in humiliation.

The next time I appeared, I had transformed. The weight was gone, and so was the ridicule. I stunned everyone into silence.

Miles Calloway begged through tears for another chance, but I simply slipped my arm through the arm of the mafia godfather beside me and smiled.

"Sorry. I'm married."

The man rumored to be cold-blooded and untouchable pulled me closer and declared with chilling certainty, "Lydia is my wife."

The room erupted.

Only my best friend, Annie Sinclair, gasped, "Lydia, you seriously locked down my dad?"

......

"Eight tonight. Seaview Crest Hotel ballroom. Dress nice."

When a message from Miles, my childhood friend I'd been secretly in love with for five long years, popped up, my heart stuttered in my chest.

He had been acting strangely secretive lately, constantly preparing something, even asking about my preferences more than once. I let myself indulge in a fragile hope. Was he finally going to confess?

I put on my prettiest dress and arrived early, nerves twisting in my stomach.

Only to find Tessa Hawthorne clinging to Miles's arm, her body angled close in intimate familiarity.

"Well, if it isn't Lydia. All dressed up like this… Don't tell me you thought Miles was confessing to you?"

"Dream on. Look at yourself. Do you seriously think Miles would ever choose you? The only one worthy of him is Tessa."

Tessa blushed and waved a hand coyly. "Don't say that. Lydia is technically the mafia princess, after all."

They didn't take it seriously at all. If anything, they only laughed louder.

"Her dad's been dead for years. Mafia princess? Please."

"If anyone here's a princess, it's Tessa."

Their mockery burned. I instinctively looked to Miles, silently begging him to defend me.

Instead, I caught the flicker of irritation and disgust in his eyes.

He looked away almost immediately, his expression softening as he leaned in to whisper something in Tessa's ear.

It felt like a needle had pierced my heart.

The roses, the lavish decorations, the bold, passionate proposal. None of it had ever been meant for me.

I was nothing more than a clown who had wandered into someone else's fairy tale.

My vision blurred, but I stubbornly remained where I stood, refusing to accept what was unfolding.

How painfully ironic.

The man who had promised my dying father he would protect me for life was now kneeling before the girl who had humiliated me.

The ache in my chest made it hard to breathe.

But I didn't even have the courage to question him. Compared to the radiant, confident Tessa, I truly was fat and ugly.

The moment Miles