The Wedding Game That Cost Him Everything Chapter 51
“I won’t take much of your time.”
“You’d better not.”
We went to the café across from the hospital.
She looked more tired than she had on screen.
“There are people inside the Moretti Family who think what happened with Tucker cost us prestige in the alliance.”
“So you want to use Safe Return to prove your rules still stand.”
She didn’t deny it.
“But after the proposal failed, there are more voices against that than before.”
Among the anonymous donors were protected members and outer-circle people alike.
The Moretti Family didn’t know who they were.
If they tried to track them by force, they would be admitting they were afraid of their own people helping a rescue project.
“I hope you’ll remove the Moretti name from the public page.”
“No.”
“Those matters have already been ruled on.”
“That’s why the page contains the rulings.”
Her fingers wrapped around the cup, slowly tightening.
“When you were with Tucker, you weren’t this aggressive.”
I looked at her.
“At the time, I thought that if I was obedient enough, your Family would let me love someone safely.”
All at once, she had nothing to say.
A long while later, she finally said, “Tucker knows about the vote.”
I set down my cup.
“If you came to deliver a message for him, you can leave now.”
“I didn’t.”
She paused.
“He only asked whether Safe Return had been shut down.”
“The adviser told him it hadn’t.”
“He cried for a long time.”
I felt nothing.
Tucker only understood the importance of safety after he was no longer able to decide whether anyone else was safe.
That understanding, like his regret, had come too late.
“Is there anything else?”
Tucker’s mother looked at me.
“I used to think that because you had no Family, you should be grateful we were willing to accept you.”
“Later, when I helped you leave, it was only because I was afraid Tucker would cause more trouble.”
“I was wrong about both.”
For the first time, she did not ask me to understand the Moretti Family’s position.
Nor did she offer a single apology as if it should buy forgiveness.
I nodded.
“I heard you.”
That was all.