Chapter 1
The moment the rings were about to be exchanged at the wedding, Ruby Tennyson, my boyfriend's childhood sweetheart, burst through the doors in a frenzy to steal the groom.
Alistair Whitaker, my supposed-to-be husband, halted the ceremony on the spot and ran off with her.
Just like that, he vanished without a trace for two whole years.
Then, two years later, the man had the audacity to show up at my doorstep, bold as brass, announcing he wanted to marry me all over again.
"Kiara, I told you once... my bride will always be you. Running away back then was just me keeping a promise to take Ruby on a trip together. Only... last year, she unexpectedly had my child. I figured, why not set the wedding on the kid's first birthday? It might make her feel a little better to know the kid will be taken care of by you and I."
I could scarcely believe my ears.
I'm a daughter of a powerful family, raised like a princess, cherished by everyone. He had already betrayed me, and now he had the gall to try and make me play stepmother to his illegitimate child?
My stomach churned violently. I clamped down hard on the wave of morning sickness surging up my throat and fixed him with an icy glare.
"Alistair, I'm warning you, don't you dare set foot in my house again. Or you'll live to regret it, I swear."
Quentin Marshall, the man who made all of Sicily tremble.
If he ever found out someone was harassing his wife and child... he would put a bullet in him with his own hands.
*****
Alistair stood before me, still wearing that infuriatingly self-righteous expression.
He let out a weary sigh. "Kiara, it's been two years. How can you still be so stubborn and childish? Why can't you be more like Ruby? She's so much more understanding and kind-hearted than you." He opened the exquisitely wrapped gift box. "Look, even while we were traveling, she thought of you. She picked out this present especially for you. You really ought to thank her." He slid a pink diamond ring from the box onto my finger. "So what if it's two years late? Don't worry, this time, I'll give you an even grander wedding. And Ruby's child, our child, will grow up respecting you as their own mother. You've always loved little kids, haven't you?"
I stared down at the pink diamond, a bitter laugh bubbling up inside me. Then I yanked the ring off and tossed it onto the table. "Since you two already have a kid, why not just get married yourselves? Why come crawling back to me?"
He faltered, taken aback, then chuckled, as if he were watching a child throw a tantrum. "I've already told you, I was just keeping my promise to Ruby. I said I'd marry you, and I will. Besides, we were together for four years. Wasn't marrying me your biggest dream?" His eyes sparkled with infuriating confidence as he spoke.
I snorted coldly. "Aren't you afraid I might have already married someone else these past two years?"
Alistair laughed so hard his shoulders shook. "You, with your heart and eyes filled only with me? How could you ever look at another man?"
Unfortunately for him, he was dead wrong.
During those four years with him, I'd poured every ounce of my foolish heart into him. Between the two of us, I was always the one who made the moves. After all, I'd had a crush on him from the very start. That made him far too comfortable. He got used to me waiting in the same spot, no matter how far he strayed.
What he didn't know was that a heart can flatline.
Two years ago at the wedding, he'd grabbed Ruby and walked away without a backward glance. I stood beneath the flower arch in my wedding gown, a laughingstock for the entire city.
Gazing after him, I turned, picked up the microphone, and said, "The groom is gone. Is there anyone here willing to be my groom?"
No one took it seriously.
Except Quentin.
He emerged from the corner, cutting through the stunned stares, his steps deliberate and steady until he stood right before me. "I will," he said.
Back then, I thought he was just stepping up to help me out only to make a laughingstock of me, but I never imagined he actually meant it.
After the banquet, he cornered me at the car door. "The wedding's done. You're my woman now. What, you think you can just back out?"
With a dizzying mix of sweet talk, deception, and outright threats, I somehow stumbled through signing a marriage license with him, and later, in a complete haze... stumbled right into carrying his child.
Every single guest at that wedding knew I had married Quentin and was carrying his child, but Alistair remained blissfully clueless, still convinced I was that naive little fool who would wait for him in the same spot.
This time, if Quentin hadn't been away on business, he wouldn't have even brushed the front gate before Quentin's men grabbed him by the collar and hurled him out.
I'd had enough. I lifted a hand, ready to summon the butler and show him the door.
But Alistair suddenly spun on his heel, lugging a massive garment box through the doorway. He opened it, revealing a pristine white wedding gown.
"Kiara, your favorite designer... I pulled every string I could to get her to rush this. The wedding's in three days. You'll wear this." He said it like a command, then turned and strode away, his back ramrod straight and infuriatingly confident, as if he had the whole world tucked in his pocket.
I sat there on the sofa, staring at that gown, speechless.
