He Married Another So I Accepted My Arranged Husband Chapter 03
I kept my head down as tears fell, hot and silent.
All these years, I had treated Talia like a sister.
When she graduated and didn’t have a car, I bought her one.
When she said her rented apartment didn’t feel safe, I bought a condo for her near her office and even stayed with her for months until she felt settled.
And now she wanted my fiancé—and my place as his wife.
This wasn’t a desperate, last-minute decision.
She had wanted to replace me for a long, long time.
The thought of them together made me sick.
I contacted one of my family’s advisers and told him to draft an equity separation agreement for Northstar Logistics, then send it directly to Salvatore’s encrypted email.
His reply was almost immediate.
*?*
*I’m helping Talia get out of an arranged marriage, and you’re trying to carve off half the company?*
*Do you have to take it this far?*
I replied:
*Sign it.*
Northstar was the company Salvatore and I had built together from the ground up after college.
I was a logistics systems engineer. I designed the original risk system, the route models, the client solutions. We started in a cramped office, surviving on pizza and coffee as we researched the market, developed our product, and chased down our first clients.
For a year and a half, we worked past midnight almost every day.
When we got too tired, we’d just put our heads down on the desk and sleep for an hour.
I had wanted to prove I could succeed without my family’s name, so the company shares were registered under Salvatore’s. But he had signed a nominee agreement, witnessed by advisers, acknowledging that half the company was mine.
My parents used to chide me for it, saying I could have walked into a senior role at our own family’s conglomerate, but instead I insisted on starting from scratch with a young man who hadn’t even secured his own footing.
Even Talia had tried to talk me out of it.
“You could find someone much more suitable,” she’d said.
But at the time, all I cared about was that the person beside me was Salvatore. I thought as long as we were together, life couldn’t be that bad.
I never imagined the person who would tear us apart would be Talia.
Salvatore sent a voice message.
“We’re getting married sooner or later, Indigo. What’s there to divide?”
I didn’t answer.
A little later, two more messages came through.
*The wedding’s about to start.*
*We’ll talk in person.*
I took off my engagement ring, placed it in my purse with the agreement, and went to the hotel.
By the time I arrived, the wedding was in full swing.
The ballroom was filled with the core members of the Ferraro and Moretti Families, their regional bosses, and key business partners, all there to witness the alliance. I was shown to a seat in the farthest corner, well away from the main tables.
Salvatore and Talia were on stage, exchanging rings.
Someone in the crowd called for them to kiss. This wasn’t just a wedding game. A kiss, in front of all these people, was a public acknowledgment that the marriage—and the alliance it represented—was real.
Talia lifted her flushed face to his.
Salvatore cupped her chin.
His eyes swept the room, and for a fraction of a second, they locked with mine. He hesitated.
But the next moment, he kissed her.
The adviser officiating the ceremony smiled. “It seems the future wife of the Ferraro heir is more than just a name on paper.”
The seconds ticked by.
It was a full three minutes before they finally pulled apart.
The room erupted in thunderous applause.
I bit my lip until I tasted blood.
Near the end of the reception, a voice suddenly cut through the noise.
“Wait, isn’t that Indigo’s fiancé? I saw them picking out wedding jewelry together just last week.”
The ballroom buzzed.
“Haven’t Talia and Indigo always been inseparable?”
“Then why is Indigo sitting all the way in the back?”
“So who is Salvatore actually engaged to?”
Heads began to turn, searching.
It didn’t take them long to find me in my corner.
“I’m sure of it. The groom is the man who was with Indigo.”
“Indigo, explain yourself.”
“Have you been trying to sabotage the alliance between the Moretti and Ferraro Families?”
I looked at Salvatore, waiting for him to say something. To tell the truth.
Instead, he tightened his arm around Talia’s waist.
“I have no relationship with Indigo.”
“Talia asked me to accompany her that day. Indigo insisted on tagging along.”
“Indigo, I can’t believe you would tell people I was your fiancé.”
“You owe Talia and the Moretti Family an explanation.”
I laughed in disbelief.
“Salvatore—”
The voices around me drowned me out.
“Is she after the position of the Ferraro heir’s wife?”
“No wonder she’d crash a public wedding.”
“Northstar has done well. Maybe she’s been eyeing Salvatore’s routes and his status all along.”
“Indigo, apologize.”
I gripped the fabric of my dress.
Salvatore crossed the room and lowered his voice so only I could hear.
“Apologize to Talia.”
“Just help her get through today.”
“She can’t lose face in front of both Families.”
I looked up at him.
“So for her to save face, everyone has to believe I’m the one trying to destroy your alliance?”
His lashes fluttered.
“It’s not the same thing.”
“How is it not the same?”
I looked away from him, toward the crowd.
“I didn’t lie.”
“And I didn’t come between anyone’s relationship.”
Someone in the audience immediately shot back, “Are you saying Talia did?”
“One of you is lying.”
“Do you have any proof?”