“A small mistake?
You call this a small mistake?” Vanessa whisper-yelled, unable to believe her ears.
“How would you feel if I did the same thing with someone else?
Would you still want to marry me?”
Tristan was bewildered for a moment.
He had never once imagined Vanessa cheating on him.
She was too deeply in love with him to even entertain the idea.
“You wouldn’t,” he answered confidently.
“You don’t have the guts.”
Vanessa took a sharp breath.
Another truth.
She had finally realized just how little Tristan thought of her.
“I think we’re done here, Tristan.
Go back inside.
Your soon-to-be wife is waiting for you.”
Without waiting for an answer, she hailed a cab and got inside.
Tristan stood there like a fool, his fists clenched tightly at his sides.
She had actually rejected his proposal.
He glared at the cab as it roared into the street and disappeared from his sight.
Even though there was no one around to witness it, his face still turned red with embarrassment.
“I’ll get you back for this, Vanessa,” he promised through gritted teeth.
At Matteo’s mansion…
“What are you doing here?” Matteo questioned the conniving old man sitting right across from him.
Mr.
Voss rubbed his palms together anxiously.
He swallowed hard before finally parting his lips to speak.
“I came to apologize to you in person for what my daughter Noelle did yesterday.
I know we’ve already rearranged our plans, and now Vanessa will be the one getting married to you instead.
But please, don’t hold this small mistake against us.
She’s only a girl in love.”
Matteo gave the man a once-over, his sharp eyes studying him as he wondered where he had gotten the audacity to call what Noelle had done a small mistake.
Truthfully, Matteo wanted to call off the wedding altogether, but Bianca needed a mother.
The one she currently had was a psychopathic woman who needed to be kept under control.
Thankfully, she wasn’t his problem anymore.
“Matteo—”
“The wedding should happen next week.
Make sure it does.
As for Noelle, I don’t want to see her face ever again.”
Mr.
Voss nodded his head so hard that his neck nearly ached.
“I’ll make sure to tell her that,” he responded.
He adjusted his glasses on his nose before continuing, “I hope this little difference isn’t going to change the business alliance we’re going to have in the future.”
Matteo glared at him.
Mr.
Voss immediately coughed and cleared his throat.
“I was just trying to make sure that we’re on the same page.
I think that will be all.
I’ll be heading off.”
He stretched out his hand for a handshake, but Matteo glared at it so intensely that it looked as if he might chop it off if Mr.
Voss didn’t retract it.
Mr.
Voss quickly pulled his hand back and left.
Matteo glared at the old man until he disappeared from his doorway.
The business alliance Mr.
Voss had been talking about what was actually between Mr.
Voss and his grandfather.
Matteo didn’t want to get involved in it.
Unfortunately, the choice wasn’t his to make.
The only thing he wanted was a good mother for Bianca.
He pinched the bridge of his nose, worry clouding his mind.
Vanessa was only twenty-two.
She was too young to take care of a child.
What if she ruins everything?
he wondered.
Matteo didn’t get the opportunity to finish his thoughts when a pair of small hands suddenly covered his eyes, blocking his vision.
A smile instantly formed on his lips as his worries disappeared.
“Guess who it is,” the tiny voice said.
“Let me guess,” he hummed, pretending to think.
“Is it… Bianca?”
She squealed before shaking her head.
“No!
Guess again.”
“That’s odd.
Only Bianca would do something like this to me, so it has to be her.”
He grabbed her hands and gently pulled them away from his face, his smile widening when he finally saw her.
“I knew I was right.”
He lifted her into his arms.
“You’re starting to get good at this game, Daddy,” the little girl said.
“When am I meeting my new mummy?” she suddenly asked.
Bianca knew about Noelle because Matteo had told her about the woman who was supposed to become her new mother.
He wanted her to get used to the idea beforehand.
But now that the brides had been switched, he had no idea how to explain everything to her.
“Soon, my love.
You’ll be meeting her soon.”
Bianca smiled from cheek to cheek, happiness filling her heart.
“Come check out my drawings.
I made a few.”
She climbed down from his lap and grabbed him by the finger.
Matteo didn’t refuse.
He followed her obediently because he knew that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t hear the end of it.
However, his phone suddenly started ringing.
His face instantly turned sour when he saw the name flashing across the screen.
“Daddy, are you still coming?” Bianca asked.
“Go ahead.
I’ll meet you in your room later.”
He placed a kiss on her forehead before sending her off.
Once she was out of sight, Matteo picked up the call.
“What is it?” he questioned.
“I can tell you don’t miss your father at all from your tone,” Mr.
Devereaux, Matteo’s father, said from the other end.
“What do you want?” Matteo asked, his voice filled with impatience.
He knew his father wouldn’t call unless there was something important.
“Father is back, and he wants everyone present tonight for a family dinner.”
Matteo’s expression immediately darkened.
That was his grandfather, the true patriarch of the Devereaux family and the most ruthless man Matteo had ever met.
He had been gone for a few years for what he claimed was business, but Matteo knew the truth.
The old man had gone away for surgery because he had refused to die.
“Don’t miss it if you don’t want to get on his bad side,” his father warned.
“I’m already on his bad side,” Matteo responded coldly.
“Think about Bianca,” his father said before hanging up.
Matteo’s fist clenched around the phone so tightly that it nearly cracked.
Using Bianca to get him to attend a family dinner was not something he had expected his grandfather to stoop so low to accomplish.