The Cripple's Sacred Deception

On the eve of my wedding, my fiancé, Silas Volpe, boasted to his friends in a private booth at a club. He had lost a bet to his mistress, Odessa Monroe, and as a result, he crossed out the groom's name on our families' sacred marriage contract and replaced it with his brother's, Caius Volpe.

A friend whistled, leaning back against the velvet sofa to tease him, "Just for a bet with Odessa, you switched the contract to Caius? Aren't you afraid the Marino family's Principessa will have your head?"

Silas scoffed. "She took a car bomb for me. She'll get over it. I've already publicly canceled our wedding five times. What's one more humiliation? Besides, Caius is a cripple. What woman would touch him? When Alessia finds out the truth, she'll come crawling back to me, begging. She'll be mine again, right where I want her."

I stood behind the one-way glass of the private booth, and every word he spoke sent a chill through my veins.

For our families, the marriage contract is a sacred, inviolable bond. The names of each couple represent an alliance of power and the sanctity of our families' bond. And Silas had treated this solemn vow as a cheap joke.

I didn't cause a scene. I simply turned and disappeared into the shadows of the hallway.

On the day of our wedding, Silas strode into Trinity Church only to be met with echoing silence. It was completely deserted. He frantically dialed my number.

Across from me, my true groom waited. Dressed in my Vera Wang couture wedding gown, I faced him, holding my phone to my ear. "My wedding is about to begin," I said calmly. "Did you call to wish me well?"

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1

On my wedding day, I was preparing to marry the man Silas Volpe had chosen for me. But he would be the one to regret it.

...

My mother gripped my hand, her voice taut with anxiety. "Alessia, are you sure about this? Caius Volpe is crippled. He can’t even manage on his own. Silas is your fiancé, the future Don of the Volpe family."

I cut her off. "My mind is made up. Silas and Caius are both of the Volpe bloodline. Since Silas doesn't want me, why should I humiliate myself?"

For our families, the marriage contract was everything. Each union was a sacred pact between two powerful dynasties, a tradition that upheld our honor and power.

I never imagined Silas would treat it like a game.

I pressed my hand to my mouth, forcing back the sob clawing at my throat. Five years. I had wasted the best five years of my life on a man who didn't deserve them.

From the moment I first saw him at seventeen, I had given him everything. I had even taken a bullet for him—or rather, a bomb. I had pushed him out of the way of a car explosion meant to assassinate him, and the shrapnel had torn through my back. I almost died.

Although I survived, the explosion left permanent, grotesque scars that snaked across my back, throbbing on rainy days.

When I learned I was to be married to Silas, I was ecstatic, too deliriously happy to sleep for nights on end.

I truly believed my happy ending was finally within reach.

Yet, Silas postponed our wedding again and again, each time with a different excuse. And every excuse had a name: Odessa Monroe.

The first time, Odessa sprained her ankle at a club. Without a word, Silas abandoned me and a hall full of guests, rushing to her side at a private hospital.

The second time, Odessa threw a tantrum backstage, complaining that the bridesmaid dress I had chosen for her wasn't dazzling enough. Silas canceled the wedding again, this time to find her more exquisite jewels.

This farce had already played out four times. This was the fifth.

At first, the family pitied me. But as the cancellations mounted, they began to whisper that I was the problem.

They whispered that I was cold and heartless, and that was why Silas despised me.

They claimed I was barren, unable to bear children, and that this was the real reason he wouldn’t go through with the ceremony.

The rumors spread like wildfire, growing more vicious with each retelling, until I could hardly hold my head up at family gatherings.

I begged Silas to set the record straight.

But he would just pat my head and murmur, "Don't listen to them. What matters is that I know the truth."

At first, his words moved me. It wasn't until later that I discovered Silas himself was the source of those rumors. He wanted to divert all attention to me to protect Odessa from scrutiny.

Every betrayal was another knife to the heart, carving away at it until nothing but fragments remained.

I’m done wasting my life on you, Silas. I’m done.