A week before the wedding, my fiancé, Hadrian, told me to book eight seats on a bus to the Hamptons.
He said it was the last weekend before the wedding, a trip just for his inner circle.
The destination was the Bellini family’s private beachfront estate. He wanted to go with the people closest to him.
I refreshed the booking page for three days before I finally managed to snag eight seats together.
The moment I paid, a poll popped up in a group chat called “Beach Weekend.”
The question was: Should Mireille come?
Seven votes against. One abstention.
Not a single vote in my favor.
Hadrian was the Bellini family’s underboss. Once we were married, I was supposed to sit beside him at the formal family dinner, share his protection, and be bound by their code of silence.
And now, he had put my invitation to that estate up for a vote.
The people voting included my fiancé, my sister, his childhood friend, and my cousin.
I asked Hadrian if the abstention had been his.
He rubbed his temples.
“It was. I didn’t vote no. That was me trying to spare your feelings.”
He sighed. “Everyone thinks if you’re there, they won’t be able to relax.”
“This is the last weekend before my wedding that’s just for me. Can you just give me this?”
I asked, “Then why did you have me book eight seats?”
His answer came easily.
“You’re a travel editor. You’re the best at this stuff. We can use the extra seat for coolers and bags.”
He added, “I’ll transfer you the money in a minute.”
My sister, Sarah, spoke up from the dining table. “The wedding’s just days away. Don’t make a scene over a few tickets and drag the Bellini family into it.”
I looked down at the screen, at those eight connected seats.
I hadn’t spent three days fighting for them just to hand them over and walk away.
I had just booked a trip for the people closest to Hadrian, a trip that didn’t include me.
The app reminded me there were only ten minutes left to cancel.
But by then, whether the tickets were refundable was the last thing on my mind.
What I cared about was that when his inner circle shut me out, the man I was about to marry hadn’t even cast a single vote for me.
The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 37 “Why would you ask that?” “You’ve been really busy lately. I was worried maybe what you actually want is to sleep at home for two days, and you just feel bad saying it.” “What if I don’t go?” “I’ll go by myself. Or
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 36 There was no *forgive me* at the end of the letter. I put it in a drawer and didn’t reply. Some relationships can end with just a clear understanding. Not every apology has to earn a reunion. Hadrian still managed that hotel. Later,
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 35 A year later, the East Coast railway feature also won an award. The ceremony was in Chicago. When I went on stage, Cameron was sitting in the third row. He didn’t hold my bag for me, and when others mentioned the award, he
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 34 Hadrian found out the next day that Cameron and I had had dinner together. The hotel front desk had seen us come back, but no one had gossiped. It was Leo who, somehow, heard about it and called him. “So she’s really with
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 33 Cameron booked the restaurant for seven. No white roses. No heavily scented lilies. There was only a small pot of non-flowering greenery on the table. I glanced at it. He seemed a little nervous. “I asked your assistant. She said you’re allergic to
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 32 He handed the microphone back to the host. He didn’t look at me. After the event, Emily was waiting by the exit. She looked thinner than the last time I’d seen her, still wearing the uniform from her part-time restaurant job. “I was
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 31 The day the East Coast feature went live, the hotel held a small launch event. The first route shown on the screen began at Grand Central and wound through the old district to the river. The hotel itself took up only one page
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 30 That night, I was in the meeting room confirming the next day’s shooting route when Hadrian knocked on the door. “Can I come in?” “Is it about work?” “Yes.” He set a packet of hotel history materials on the table. “The old staircase
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 29 The email had been sent after my flight to Austin landed. I had accepted the transfer before I saw those seven votes. And before that, there was the record from three months earlier, when my editor-in-chief first offered me the position and I
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 28 In the second week of the shoot, Sarah came to the hotel. She couldn’t get upstairs, so she waited in the lobby for two hours. When I came back from location work, she stood up immediately. “Mireille, we need to talk.” “I’m working.”
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