Chapter 1

My engagement banquet was about to begin, and my best friend Mia came rushing in, white as a sheet.

"Ava, nobody from the Moretti family showed up. Not a single one."

Don Victor Moretti's parents, his uncles, the key capos—none of them.

I was worried something had happened to them. But the second I picked up my phone, Victor's friend Tommy Vale burst out laughing.

"Ava, you actually believed it?"

The room went silent for one beat.

Tommy was laughing so hard his shoulders shook.

"A month ago we made a bet—if someone told you Victor wanted to get engaged, would you fall for it? And you didn't just fall for it, you went ahead and planned the whole damn banquet."

The guys around him erupted.

"The Boss hasn't even said yes, and you've already crowned yourself Mrs. Moretti?"

I looked at Victor.

He stood in the middle of the crowd, expression lazy, like this was nothing more than a harmless little prank.

He reached out and patted my head.

"You really thought you were already the lady of the Moretti house?"

In that moment, the laughter in the room was ice water, pouring down over me from above.

I turned to Mia.

"Mia, you knew about this?"

Her eyes flashed with panic, and she immediately looked away.

"Ava, they were just having fun. They didn't actually mean to hurt you."

I looked around at all those gloating faces, and I shook Victor's hand off me.

Then I opened my phone and sent a message to Adrian Cross.

"You've always wanted to be with me, haven't you? You have thirty minutes. Come to Starfall Hall and get engaged to me."

After I hit send, I walked back to the vanity mirror.

Victor came over, a flicker of impatience already in his eyes.

"Ava, that's enough. Go tell the officiant to cancel the whole thing."

For the first time, I didn't do what he wanted.

I looked at him and spoke slowly, deliberately. "Who faked an engagement and lied to me for a month? Who waited until the banquet was about to start before telling me the truth? Every single one of you knew, and I was the only one kept in the dark. Was that fun for you?"

The room went quiet. People exchanged glances.

They'd probably never seen me angry before.

I kept going. "A month ago, I hand-folded a thousand favor boxes for the guests. You were all in the group chat saying I was too desperate to marry into the Moretti family."

"Two weeks ago, you revised the guest list three times, saying you were running simulations. I stayed up all night cross-checking names while you were at a bar, placing bets on what time I'd have a breakdown."

"Before Christmas, you said you were taking me home to meet your parents. I spent three months picking out gifts. Right before we left, you told me they'd gone to Europe on short notice."

I looked at Victor.

"I doubt you ever even told them I wanted to meet them."

"Watching me run around in circles for you, time after time—that must have been hilarious."

Victor's expression went cold.

"Everyone just thought your reactions were funny. They were messing with you a little."

"It was just a joke. Do you really have to blow it this far out of proportion?"

"Everyone showed up for you today, didn't they? Don't make this ugly."

I let out a cold laugh.

"Whether you were worried about me or just wanted to watch me make a fool of myself—you know the answer to that."

The air went briefly still.

Tommy muttered, "It's not like Victor isn't going to marry you. He just wanted you to stop being so eager."

I stared at Victor.

"So the fake engagement—that was your idea?"

Victor nodded.

"It was my idea."

"You were pushing too hard. You kept bringing up marriage. It was a lot of pressure."

"Besides, becoming the future lady of the Moretti house isn't that simple. You need to win over the people around me first."

He said it casually, like he was deciding what wine to order tonight.

I suddenly remembered last winter.

I'd been working late, and around midnight I posted on social media, half-joking: "God, I'd kill for soup from that place on South End."

Half an hour later, Victor showed up outside my building in his pajamas, carrying an insulated bag.

Inside was a bowl of soup, still steaming.

His nose was red from the cold, but he said, "I was passing by. Picked it up on a whim."

I found out later that the diner had been closed for hours.

He'd driven across half the city and knocked on the owner's door at home.

Back then, he'd gone to any length for me.

And now, he'd spent a month building a lie, putting my heart on display for everyone to laugh at.

I smiled. "Don't worry. I won't be clinging to you anymore."

Victor frowned.

His friends immediately crowded in, trying to smooth things over.

"There you go, Ava."

"When the Boss is ready to marry you, he'll marry you. What's the rush?"

Hearing that, Victor slipped back into his usual nonchalance.

"Also, you need to stop dredging up old grievances. Everyone teases you because they think of you as one of us."

I lowered my eyes.

All these years, Victor's friends had made me the butt of their jokes constantly.

He always said they didn't mean anything by it. But it wasn't until today that I understood—they dared to do it because Victor allowed it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mia sitting on the couch, head bowed. Her phone screen lit up, and her fingers flew across the keyboard. Above the chat window, the name looked like mine.

My clutch vibrated once.

Before I could pull out my phone, Mia's finger suddenly hovered above the send button.

Two seconds later, she hit unsend.

The screen went dark.

I took out my phone. All I saw was a single notification.

"Mia Lane unsent a message."

I looked up at her.

She avoided my eyes and pressed her phone face-down against her knee.

I didn't push it.

I looked at Victor.

"The only reason they dare treat me like this is because you don't care about me."

The expression on Victor's face finally cracked.

Nobody dared say a word.

Mia spoke softly. "Ava, I'm sorry. Please don't be mad. Victor will give you an even bigger engagement banquet later."

I turned to her.

"So you went along with them and lied to me?"

She clutched her phone tighter and dropped her head.

"I'm sorry."

"I heard the apology."

I said, "But I don't forgive you."

The color drained from Mia's face instantly.

She didn't say anything else. She just retreated to the corner of the dressing room and picked up an empty favor box from the couch.

One I'd folded by hand.

She set the box on her knees and pressed both palms flat against it, holding it there for a long time.

Just then, the officiant knocked and stepped in.

"Twenty minutes to start. Are the bride and groom ready?"

I looked up.

"Could you push it back fifteen minutes? We've had a small hiccup."

Someone snickered. "She still won't give up."

The officiant sensed something was off and looked to me for confirmation.

I nodded.

My phone screen lit up. A message from Adrian Cross.

"Fifteen minutes."

I nodded to myself.

"That's enough."