The Delayed Wedding: I Refuse It

The day before the holiday, I gave the household staff the week off.

Agnes was still in the kitchen before she left, packing desserts into a bag while talking to herself with a smile. "Miss Vanessa finally got what she wanted this time. Mr. Moretti even booked that seaside villa in Amalfi."

I was texting Vanessa, asking her to come over later to try on the bridesmaid dress. Without thinking much of it, I asked, "Got what?"

"The wedding," Agnes said naturally. "Isn't Mr. Moretti taking Miss Vanessa to Italy?"

My fingers froze above the screen.

Two seconds passed before I looked up at her. "Whose wedding?"

The smile on Agnes's face slowly froze.

She looked at me as if she had only just realized something was wrong. "You... didn't know?"

For a moment, I almost laughed at how absurd it sounded.

"Agnes, Luca and I signed the family marriage registry three years ago. Next week is only supposed to be the ceremony."

The kitchen fell silent.

Agnes opened her mouth, embarrassment spreading across her face. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I thought you knew."

She hesitated, then lowered her voice. "A while ago, when I was cleaning the study, I heard Mr. Moretti mention it to his lawyer. He said the marriage registry in your hands was never officially submitted to the family council."

My heart sank.

Three years ago, Luca had handed that document to me himself.

He said the Moretti family was unstable, that we could not announce the marriage yet. Once he entered the inner circle of the Five Families, he would hold a proper wedding.

So for all these years, I never pushed him.

I even turned against the Castellano family for him.

Thinking back now, maybe he had never planned to truly let me through the doors of the Moretti family in the first place.

I went back to the bedroom and pulled the document out from the bottom drawer.

The black wax seal was still perfectly intact.

But beside it, where the family council's certification should have been, there was nothing.

Luca's call came in while I was still standing in the bedroom, staring at that marriage registry.

"Baby, I have to go to Italy tomorrow," he said, his voice low and lazy, like he was coaxing me. "The wedding may need to be pushed back a few days. When I come back, I'll give you an even grander ceremony. Okay?"

The rain outside was heavy.

I held the edge of the document and suddenly remembered the final deadline my father had given me last month.

If the Moretti family still refused to publicly acknowledge the marriage by this holiday, the partnership between Castellano and Moretti would be terminated immediately. And I would have to go home and accept the alliance marriage my father had arranged.

After a few seconds of silence, I answered softly, "Okay. I have other plans for the holiday anyway."

Luca seemed to pause. He probably had not expected me to