He Mocked the Voice I Ruined to Save Him novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Public Face

"Our family invokes its right to be heard," old Mrs. Sartori repeated, and walked down the length of the room.

Stefano followed with a bouquet of white roses and a face full of sorrow.

The old man at the head of the table did not stand.

"The right is real," he said. "Speak, and be brief."

Mrs. Sartori took the chair across from me. She did not look at my ring.

"Our family's bride is unwell," she said. "She has been under strain since the fire. She said things at the dinner that she cannot mean. We ask only that she come home with her family and rest."

"I am not unwell," I said.

She went on over me. "Her father has asked for her. The match is sound. The treaty is sound. We are prepared to forgive the scene."

Stefano knelt beside my chair.

He put the roses in my lap and took my hand, and the old tenderness shone out of his face.

"Gi," he said. "I was a coward. I laughed because everyone laughed, and I have hated myself every hour since. Come home. We will start again."

It was a good performance.

Five years ago it would have worked on me before he finished the second sentence.

I looked at his hand holding mine. Then I looked at the emerald ring, dried off and back on his smallest finger.

"Thank you for the apology," I said. "I would like to read you something."

I took my phone out of my bag and stood up.

Dario started to rise beside me, and I put two fingers on his arm.

He sat.

"The title of the chat is Bride Upgrade," I said. "Stefano's name is the first one in it. Then Lidia's. Then my father's."

My voice carried to every corner, low and rough and clear.

I read the first message on the first screen, and then I read the next.

"He wrote: She will never let me forget she saved my life. Lidia wrote: Let her humiliate herself first. If everyone thinks she is too sensitive, you leaving her will look reasonable."

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