Chapter 9
Every emotion on his face-anger, grief, confusion, begging-vanished completely.
The officers flipped through the documents. Then they looked at Luca.
“Mr. Vitale. This woman has provided complete documentation proving she organized this wedding herself. There is no
trespassing. No disturbance.”
“Regarding your bigamy allegation-what is your legal relationship with this woman?”
Luca opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
“Did you apply for a marriage license?”
Silence.
“Is there a formal employment contract?”
Silence.
“Then on what grounds do you call her your bride?”
“My grounds?”
Luca fumbled for his phone. Photos. Texts. He held it up like proof.
“Ten years. These texts. These photos. Isn’t that enough to show she belongs to me?”
The officer glanced at the screen.
Before he could respond. I pulled out the small red booklet.
Held it up.
‘Luca. Look carefully.”
My voice rang through the cathedral.
‘Alessandro Costa and I are legally married.”
This wedding isn’t bigamy. It’s a celebration.”
Luca’s face cycled through colors. Red to white to gray.
His eyes landed on the names on the certificate: *Rebecca* and *Alessandro*.
Like he’d lost the ability to focus.
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“You… when did you..”
The officer frowned. ‘Mr. Vitale. This woman’s marriage is legal. You filed a false report. Do it again and there will be
consequences.”
They turned and walked out.
Luca stood there.
Like a tree struck by lightning. burned from the inside out.
He looked at me. His lips moved.
‘Rebecca… this wedding… I promised you…”
Marco finally walked over and tugged at his sleeve.
“Luca. Let’s go. She’s married.”
Luca didn’t move. Still staring at me.
“Rebecca… I said you’d have the ceremony and she’d get the certificate. But I couldn’t do it. I got there and all I could see
was your face. Your smile. I couldn’t.”
His throat worked.
“Ten years. And you didn’t even hesitate.”
I smiled.
“You hesitated not because you had some sudden epiphany. You hesitated because you were worried about Serena’s
family. What about me?”
I looked at his wrecked face.
‘I didn’t hesitate. Because you never deserved any of this.”
Alessandro took my hand and led me down from the altar.
As we passed Luca, he leaned in and murmured, ‘Sorry. The certificate’s mine. The wedding’s mine’
He glanced at me.
“So is she.”
I smiled. Didn’t argue.
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The truth was. I’d known Alessandro longer than Luca.
High school. The same elite private academy.
Walls like a military base. Security like a prison. No way in, no way out.
My parents had sent me there to learn-the family business.
But the tighter the cage, the harder I fought back.
I snuck out during assemblies and hid on the roof during study hall.
Alessandro, two houses down, was different. Quiet. So quiet I sometimes doubted he was real.
No politics. No chasing titles. Just a ghost in a place where everyone else clawed to the top
I couldn’t ignore a ghost.
Sophomore year. Afternoon. I cornered him in the hallway.
He was walking to the library with a book in his hand.
I stepped in front of him. He looked up.
Dark eyes. Blank face. But he didn’t walk around me.
“Alessandro. Do you even know how to smile?”
I rose on my toes and leaned forward.
He backed up half a step. Shoulders against the wall. Book still steady in his hand.
‘Yes.’
“Then smile for me.”
He didn’t. But his lashes moved.
I thought it was funny and leaned in closer.
He turned his head-and his lips grazed the corner of my mouth.
Barely there. But warm.
He didn’t react.
My face burned.
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I lifted my chin and said, in a voice I didn’t quite believe myself. ‘You’re the most unresponsive person I’ve ever kissed
I’d never kissed anyone before. He was the first. But I’d die before admitting it
I ran Stayed up all night.
I never cornered him again.
Years later, after he lost a bid, at a business meeting, he brought it up.
That day,” he said. “I did it on purpose.”
I froze.
“When you leaned in-I could’ve turned away. I didn’t want to.”
That old fox smile.
I’d thought he was just bitter about the deal.
Chapter 9
The Unchosen Alpha
