I had been married to Luca Moretti for eleven months, and I had been forced out of the Moretti family estate nine times.
The tenth time, we stood outside the office of a Moretti family adviser.
In my hand was a signed marriage dissolution agreement.
In Luca’s and Bianca Bellandi’s hands were invitations to the annual auction and tribute banquet.
On the invitation, they were dressed in matching evening wear, standing before the estate’s iron gates. Beneath the Moretti family crest was the headline—
*The Moretti heir will enter an engagement with the Bellandi patriarch’s daughter.*
“Elena, I’m sorry. I need to borrow Luca again for a few days.”
Bianca rolled up the invitation and tapped it against my arm, her smile unwavering.
“After Matteo walked out on our negotiations, he ran off to Miami and still refuses to see me. But if he sees the Moretti family is about to announce an engagement of their own, he’ll have to come back. It will also keep the truce between our families intact.”
Luca leaned against a stone pillar, the black suit sharp across his shoulders, clearly finding nothing absurd about the situation.
“If the Bellandi patriarch hadn’t asked me personally, I wouldn’t be helping her put on this show.”
His hand settled on the small of my back. His palm was steady, the same way it always was when he ordered men to lower their guns.
“The main house is hosting leaders from both sides. Go stay at the river house for a few days. I’ll bring you back after the banquet.”
He paused, then offered a promise he had already made too many times.
“Haven’t you always wanted to announce our marriage in the north garden? Once this is over, I’ll have my grandfather unseal the marriage record so every ally sees your name. Elena, I promise. This is the last time.”
Before I could speak, Bianca answered for me.
“She won’t mind. She lent me the seat of honor and the wife’s signet ring the first nine times, didn’t she?”
They laughed together.
The glass door of the adviser’s office reflected all three of us.
I was the one in the middle, the woman who was Luca’s wife on paper and in the eyes of the church, yet I looked more like a staffer who had come to help them finalize the banquet guest list.
The first nine times, I had questioned him, fought with him, demanded to know who had the right to sit at his side and who truly stood under the protection of the Moretti family.
This time, I touched the papers inside my portfolio and felt only a profound calm.
They didn’t know this wasn’t a temporary statement to cooperate with their staged engagement.
The moment the adviser filed it, my marriage to Luca would be over, and my name would be struck from the Moretti protection register.
They had no idea that after I left for the tenth time, I would not be coming back.
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 07 I woke up in the private hospital the Moretti family used. Outside the window, the sky was already dark. Every breath scraped my raw throat, and my head throbbed as if I’d been struck. Elias sat beside the bed. His tie was gone, and
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 07 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 06 By the time the private ambulance crew fitted an oxygen mask over my face, Bianca had come running down from the second-floor lounge. She had clearly never expected me to be carried out in front of every district leader, and her face was nearly
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 06 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 05 Elias Reed rarely attended underground racing auctions. The moment he appeared in the hall’s doorway, nearly every leader from the five districts stopped talking. “Reed, isn’t your new registry system launching next week?” “I heard you’re taking over the largest bloodline database in the
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 05 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 04 Luca slowly turned his head back. The red mark on his cheek stood out sharply, but his eyes held the look of someone hearing a ridiculous joke. “Elias Reed? The bloodline diagnostics company?” “Yes.” “You’ve barely met the man.” He let out a cold
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 04 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 03 By the time Luca arrived, Mara was injecting Lark with a powerful pain medication. I was kneeling in the straw, my arms wrapped around her sweat-damp neck. She was trembling with pain, yet still nudging my shoulder with her nose. When I was little,
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 03 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 02 The river house looked no different from the last time I’d been sent away. The work gloves I had forgotten still hung under the porch. Half a bag of expired coffee beans still sat in the kitchen. Over the past year, I had lived
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 02 Read Post »
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 01 I had been married to Luca Moretti for eleven months, and I had been forced out of the Moretti family estate nine times. The tenth time, we stood outside the office of a Moretti family adviser. In my hand was a signed marriage dissolution
He Sent Me Away So I Took His Crown Chapter 01 Read Post »
