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 07 Hadrian’s messages had gone from *Are you still mad?* to *Where the hell did you go?* Sarah’s were more direct. *Why is the wedding planner calling to say you canceled everything?* *The Bellini family adviser is looking for you, too. Did you really
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 06 To him, this breakup was no different from the last two. I would go quiet for a few days, refuse his calls, and wait for him to come back with gifts. As long as he was willing to make peace, everything would return
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 05 I didn’t look back. When the plane took off, I put my phone on airplane mode. The last message from Hadrian said: *Text me when you get home. There’s milk in the fridge. Don’t go to bed on an empty stomach.* He was
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 04 I asked Hadrian what, exactly, postponing the registration would accomplish. He was packing and didn’t even look up. “What?” I set the half-shredded paper in front of him. He glanced at it and tossed it into the trash. “That was a dare. Leo
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 03 Hadrian said it was a dinner to celebrate the end of Chloe’s marriage. “It wasn’t easy for her to get out of that alliance,” he explained. “The Bellinis are responsible for her protection now. We can’t have an incident on our property. Everyone
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 02 The night we went to try on clothes, Hadrian was forty minutes late. The sales clerk had already pressed the white shirt I’d picked out for him twice. When he finally arrived, Chloe was with him. Chloe De Luca was the daughter of
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The Underboss Voted No So I Chose A New Life Chapter 01 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
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