He Canceled Our Wedding Ninety-Nine Times, So I Joined His Enemy novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Ninety-Ninth Time
Massimo's ninety-ninth cancellation comes by phone with an order for a lemon tart; Renata resigns the next morning, finds his mistress in his jacket, and accepts a rival Don's offer. It ends when Massimo sees her plane ticket.
Massimo Ruggieri canceled our wedding for the ninety-ninth time while my car idled outside the venue.
I had the appointment book open on my lap.
Four o'clock, the hotel ballroom, the planner already waiting inside.
"The Delorme shipment moves at ten tonight," he said on the phone. "Go to the docks and watch the loading."
Behind him I heard glasses and music and a woman laughing.
"You told me we'd see the ballroom today."
"Another time, Renata. The shipment can't wait."
The woman's voice came closer to the phone. "Can we still go out after? It's been forever since we had a night off."
That was Paola, his new assistant.
She had been with the family four months.
"She works hard," Massimo said, as if I had asked. "She deserves a night. Stop at the French bakery on Hanover Street on your way home and get her a lemon tart. She's been talking about it all week."
Through the car window I watched a man hang a banner on the awning for somebody else's wedding.
"Okay," I said.
"You've waited this long. A few more weeks won't matter."
"Of course."
He hung up first, like always.
A minute later my phone buzzed with a photo from Paola.
She was leaning against his shoulder at a corner table, and his hand lay flat on her waist.
Under it she had typed: Thank you for the night off!! You're the only kind one in that whole building. Wish you were here.
I looked at the ring on my left hand.
His initials were engraved inside the band.
He had dropped it on my desk two years ago, no box, no question.
"Wear it," he'd said. "Men will stop asking you things."
I sent Paola a thumbs-up and told the driver to go to the bakery.
The next morning I walked into Ruggieri headquarters and put my resignation on Tullio's desk.
Five years I had been the family's chief secretary.
Every schedule, every account, every route the trucks took had passed through my hands.
Tullio read the first line and stood up so fast his chair rolled into the wall.
"Does the boss know?"
"He'll know when his calendar stops filling itself in."
Paola came around the corner with two coffees, her pearl necklace swinging.
"Renata! I got you the vanilla one. I hope that's right."
It was right.
It was the one I always bought myself.
"Could I ask you something quick?" she said. "I'm supposed to tidy the archive, and you're the only one who knows it. Where are the old ledgers from the year Massimo took over?"
"Basement vault, second cabinet, bottom drawer," I said. "The key is on Tullio's ring."
"You're a lifesaver."
She squeezed my arm and went off down the hall.
When I got home, Massimo was standing in the foyer, fixing a cuff link.
"We were out late," he said. "I didn't want to wake you, so I stayed in town."
In five years he had never once told me where he'd slept without being asked.
I nodded.
His eyes went to the dining table, which was bare.
After every night he stayed out, I used to be up before dawn making him soup.
"Where were you this morning?"
"I had errands."
I turned toward the stairs, and he caught my wrist.
"Renata, enough. It's a change of date. I'm not refusing to marry you. How long are you going to sulk?"
I was not sulking.
I just didn't want the wedding anymore.
I opened my mouth to say it, and the bedroom door swung open.
Paola walked out wearing his suit jacket and nothing I could see under it.
There were red marks on her neck.
"Massimo, you gave me the wrong jacket yesterday," she said, pouting. "It's the ugliest brown. It looked awful on me."
She crossed the hall barefoot and hooked her arm through his.
His face, which a moment ago had been tight with temper, went soft.
"Next time I'll buy you three colors and you can choose."
He reached up and tucked her hair behind her ear without looking at what his hand was doing.
I stood there and felt the old pain come, and then go.
What was left was quiet.
Paola noticed me and her hand flew to her collar.
"Oh, Renata! I'm so sorry. I thought you were at the office."
"I only came for some things," I said. "I'll be gone soon."
Massimo gave me a short look that said he wished I would go faster.
My phone lit up in my hand.
It was a message from a number I knew by heart and had never once called.
Don Gabriele Lombardi: The underboss seat is still empty. It has been empty five years. There is a seat on tomorrow evening's flight with your name on it.
Five years ago I had turned him down because all I wanted was Massimo.
I had no reason left to say no.
So I typed back: Yes. I'll be on it.
"Who's that?" Massimo said behind me. He had followed me to the stairs.
He looked down at the screen over my shoulder.
"A flight? Renata, where are you going?"
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