My Husband and My Best Friend Betrayed Me on Our Wedding Day. Twice. novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Seventy Guests

Aldo Sorrentino turned sixty-six on Saturday, and he held the party in the same banquet hall where my wedding reception had been meant to happen.

I knew the room well. I had picked its flowers.

The invitation had come to my mother's house, on cream paper, addressed to Ms. Valeria Morandi and guest.

"Don't go," my mother said.

"He sent it."

"He sent it because he wants to see what you'll do."

"Then I'll show him."

I wore a green dress that was not white and had no veil. Luca came in a dark suit, one step behind me, and the man at the door looked at the list and then at the floor.

"Mr. Sorrentino said no guests," he said.

"I'm her guest," Luca said. "He said no to the table. He didn't say no to the room."

The man let us pass.

Seventy people were seated at round tables under strings of lights. There was a three-tier cake and a screen behind the stage for the slideshow.

Aldo sat at the center table with his cane.

Stefano was beside him, and Bianca next to Stefano, in a white dress.

Her hand was on her stomach.

I saw it at once, and so did every woman in the room.

"Don't," Luca said quietly, at my ear. "Wait. Let him talk first."

I waited.

A waiter poured sparkling water into my glass. I held it and did not drink.

Aldo rose after the first course.

The band stopped. Someone tapped a microphone.

"Thank you all for coming," he said, in his big, easy, public voice. "Sixty-six years. It's a good number. A man starts to look at what he's built."

People laughed.

"My company is thirty-one years old. It feeds this city. And it's going to feed the next one, because my son has some news."

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