My Ex Ran Off with His Mistress, So I Married Her DonChapter 1

Ten minutes before my wedding, a video blows up across every group chat in the room.

My fiancé is in it.

Ethan Bennett has blood at the corner of his mouth, one sleeve torn, and his arms wrapped around a woman in a wedding dress.

Sophie Marino.

His first love.

Someone films them outside a church. Ethan shoves one man aside, pulls Sophie against him, and kisses her hard, open-mouthed, like the crowd around them doesn't exist.

I've been with him for seven years.

I've never seen him kiss me like that.

My phone rings.

Ethan.

“Rachel.”

Wind roars through the speaker.

“Sophie was about to marry a fucking psychopath. I couldn't leave her there.”

I stare at the video.

“You left our wedding.”

“I know how this looks.”

“How does it look, Ethan?”

He exhales.

“She was terrified. Russo was forcing her into the marriage. She said she'd rather jump off a bridge than go through with it.”

Russo.

Everybody knows that name.

The Russos are one of the most powerful mafia families in New York.

Construction. Shipping. Private clubs. Gambling.

Damian Russo is the boss.

People don't gossip about him loudly.

They lower their voices.

“Rachel, listen to me.”

“Sophie's family won't back off unless they think she married someone else. So I'm going through with a ceremony with her.”

I actually laugh.

“You're doing what?”

“It's fake.”

“At my wedding?”

A pause.

Then Ethan says, “We need your reception.”

I look through the ballroom doors behind me.

Champagne roses cover the tables. The crystal installation I designed hangs over the dance floor. Our cake is waiting by the windows.

This is supposed to be ours.

“You want Sophie to use my wedding?”

“Everything's already set up. We don't have time to arrange something else.”

“You left me ten minutes before I was supposed to walk down the aisle.”

“I didn't leave you.”

“You're with another woman in a wedding dress.”

“Because she needed me.”

Of course.

Sophie always needs him.

I apparently only need to understand.

“Take your parents out through the service entrance,” he says. “I'll have the hotel change the welcome sign.”

I go still.

“You're serious.”

“We'll redo everything. I'll give you a bigger wedding.”

Sophie's weak voice comes through the phone.

“Ethan, don't push her.”

Then, louder:

“Rachel grew up with parents who gave her everything. She wouldn't understand what it's like to have nobody.”

I hang up.

My mother comes out of the ballroom, already crying.

“Where is he?”

I can't answer.

I walk outside instead.

Then I look down the street.

A massive stone church stands half a block away, black SUVs lining the curb and armed men crowding the steps.

Beside the entrance is a wedding sign.

SOPHIE MARINO & DAMIAN RUSSO

I stop cold.

Sophie was supposed to marry Damian Russo.

The head of the Russo crime family.

And Ethan just stole his bride.

Jesus Christ.

The church doors open.

Men in dark suits move inside, guns visible beneath their jackets.

Then I see Damian.

Black tuxedo.

Still as stone.

Men twice his age wait around him for orders.

He looks toward the street.

Toward me.

Our eyes meet.

His bride ran off with my groom.

My groom is asking me to give them my wedding.

Perfect.

My father finds me by the hotel doors.

“Call him.”

So I do.

Ethan answers immediately.

“Sophie almost climbed over a balcony railing,” he says. “I didn't have a choice. Take your parents home. We'll talk tonight.”

I look at my mother crying beside me.

“You humiliated me. You humiliated my parents.”

“I said I'm sorry.”

“You stole our wedding.”

“I'll give you another one.”

Something inside me snaps.

“No.”

Silence.

“Come back now,” I say. “Come back and marry me, or don't ever marry me.”

I hang up.

He doesn't call back.

My father takes my hand.

“We're leaving.”

We barely reach the hotel entrance when music starts behind us.

I turn.

The welcome sign has already been changed.

SOPHIE MARINO & ETHAN BENNETT

Through the ballroom doors, Ethan stands beside Sophie like this was always supposed to be their wedding.

My mother wipes her tears.

Then she turns around.

“I swear to God, I'm going back in there.”

This time, I don't stop her.