The Delayed Wedding: I Refuse It

By the time the car reached the Castellano estate on Lake Como, dawn was beginning to lift over the water.

The road curved through cypress trees and wet stone walls, down toward a pale villa sitting above the lake. There were no marble lions, no men standing around with guns on display, no expensive noise meant to impress visitors. Only quiet guards, dark windows, and the kind of order that did not need to announce itself.

It was nothing like Luca's high-rise apartment in New York. Moretti's wealth felt loud by comparison. Moretti liked power where people could see it—sports cars, cigars, metal cuff links, the sharp glitter of a family still trying to prove it belonged.

Castellano never had to prove anything.

When the car stopped in front of the main house, Alfred was already waiting on the steps with two men behind him. He lowered his head when he saw me.

"Miss Castellano. Welcome home."

Agnes stood behind me with her old handbag clutched to her chest, frozen in place. I could not blame her. In New York, I was only the quiet woman living in Luca Moretti's apartment. Here, the doors opened before I touched them.

I handed my suitcase to Alfred. "Give Agnes a room."

Alfred did not ask questions. "Of course."

My father was in the sitting room, reading through documents beside the fireplace.

He was not reading a newspaper. Cedric Castellano did not waste mornings on headlines. On the table in front of him were port tax reports, a sealed letter from the council, and a map marked with shipping lines. The fire burned quietly, throwing light across the sharp lines of his face.

He looked up when he heard me come in.

"So you came back."

His tone was calm, but it sounded as if he had been waiting for this exact moment.

I stood in the middle of the room and nodded. "The wedding is off."

My father closed the file in his hand. His eyes moved from my face to the suitcase beside Alfred.

"Where is Luca Moretti?"

"In Italy."

His fingers tapped once against the armrest. "And Vanessa?"

"She had something else to do."

"Of course she did." His voice stayed flat. "I kept Evelyn in this house because she understood medicine and knew how to keep her place. Her daughter seems to have learned only half of that."

I looked at him, but he said nothing more. He only gestured for me to sit.

I sat across from him, hands resting lightly on my knees. I had thought that after three years away, this house would feel unfamiliar. Instead, the moment I sat there, I realized how much of it had never left me. The long table near the fireplace. The low voices discussing ports, campaign money, dock taxes, council seats. As a child, I used to think all of it was boring. Later, for Luca, I walked away from that table myself.

Now it almost seemed funny.

My father picked up a file from the table and tossed it in front of me.

"You insisted I give Moretti trial access to the southern route. You said if he put your name into the family registry by this year, I would have to acknowledge the marriage."

I looked down at the file. Trial access sounded harmless, but it was enough to move Moretti from a loud New York upstart into a candidate the Five Families had to take seriously.

"I know how stupid I was," I said.

For a second, something shifted in my father's eyes. Not surprise, exactly. More like he had expected this day to come, but not quite this soon.

"Are you sure?"

I said nothing.

He watched me for a few seconds, then turned to Alfred. "Call the lawyers. Freeze Moretti's southern-route trial access and suspend their warehouse priority at East Dock. I'll speak to the council myself."

Alfred lowered his head. "Yes, Don."

Only after that did my father look back at me.

"Since you're home, stop using Vale. Your mother gave you that name to protect yourself, not to hide behind it for the rest of your life."

I lowered my eyes.

"You wanted to test love," he said. "Fine. But don't gamble your identity again. A man who never bothered to learn your real name doesn't deserve a seat beside you."

I had no answer for that.

By noon, Alfred brought me a new marriage contract.

The other name on it was Lucien De Santis. The De Santis family controlled the northern routes and a large part of the European security network. Like Castellano, they were old blood among the Five Families.

Lucien De Santis arrived at three in the afternoon.

My father did not rise. He only glanced up. "You're here."

Lucien gave him a slight nod. "Don Castellano."

Then he looked at me.

"Selene. Your father said you needed a clean name."

I lifted my eyes. "Do I look that bad?"

He looked at me for a moment, then gave a faint smile. "No. Someone simply put your name in the wrong place."

I leaned back in my chair and studied him. "And what do you need?"

"The East Dock vote," he said directly. "The council is reallocating part of the northern route next month. I need Castellano on my side."

"So this is a deal."

"Yes," Lucien said. "But at least I put my terms on paper."

I opened the file.

The lawyers had made everything clear. Once the contract took effect, my name would enter the De Santis family registry as Selene Castellano. Castellano would retain the East Dock vote. De Santis would provide northern-route security and access to overseas financial channels. Both families would keep their seats independent, their assets independent, and the witnesses would sign at the same time.

I picked up the pen and signed the last page.