Chapter 112
-OLIVIA-
65 Vouchere
I watched my sister and Grayson dance to their wedding song and tried to look like a person who was happy.
I was happy. That part was true. Blair had said yes again to the man she was in love with.
The first time had been a scandal and a mess.
This time the room could feel their love for each other. Grayson looked at her like he finally understood what he had, like he would burn the rest of the world down before he let anyone take it from him again.
I should have been able to stand here in this dress and just let that be enough.
Instead I watched Roman flirt with the girl he had brought as his date.
He laughed at something she said. He leaned in close enough that his mouth almost brushed her hair. His hand sat at her waist like the most natural thing in the world, thumb moving in a lazy circle against the fabric of her dress. He did it knowing I had told him I was in love with him on a terrace not that long ago. He did it at my sister’s wedding, in a room I could not leave without making a scene.
He could have taken her anywhere.
Why bring her here?
I kept my face still. I clapped when everyone else clapped. I smiled when Tessa glanced over to check on me.
“Why do you look like someone pulled your hair?”
Nico Shaw appeared next to me with a glass and that annoying grin, like he had been waiting for the exact second I stopped pretending.
Grayson’s brother. Younger. Louder.
For a second I wondered if flirting with him would be a good way to make Roman jealous.
Then I pictured Blair’s face. Grayson’s. The mess of using Nico to punish the man who had been in our house since younger days, the man my brother still called family.
I would not do that to them.
I would do something dumber.
“Did you happen to invite any of your hot friends to the wedding?” I asked.
Nico chuckled and pointed across the terrace, past the string lights and the group of hockey wives pretending they were not watching everyone, waiting for their next gossip session.
“That’s Luca Vescari. Biggest F-boy I know. Great Fl driver. Very successful. He even slept around with Lily. If
1/5
14:55 Thu, Sep 17
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
you are looking for not serious, he is the one. Just remember he has a reputation. Be careful.”
Someone who had slept with Lily.
Ew.
89
55 vouchers
But I was not about to be picky. I needed a distraction strong enough to stop thinking about Roman’s hand on another woman’s waist.
“Thanks,” I told him. “I’ll go to him in a bit.”
He nodded and walked off smiling, like he had just handed a match to a girl standing in gasoline and considered it entertainment.
I started drinking.
Not cute sipping. Real drinking. The kind that burned going down and made the next poor decision feel like a plan.
Champagne first. Then whatever was on the next tray. Then another. The music got louder inside my head. Roman’s date laughed again and I felt it in my teeth.
Tessa asked if I was okay.
I told her I was celebrating.
I took another glass from a passing tray and walked toward Luca before I could talk myself out of it.
He looked like trouble up close. Pretty hair. Easy smile. The kind of man who expected women to come to him and had never been disappointed enough to learn otherwise.
His suit was expensive. His watch caught the light. He smelled like money and bad decisions.
“Nico says you’re the one I should be careful around,” I said.
Luca’s mouth curved. He looked me over the way men like him always did, like he was already deciding how the night would end.
“He isn’t lying. Are you sure you want to get to know me tonight?”
Get to know him? Definitely not.
Use him to forget the way Roman had looked at me on that terrace when I said I loved him? Use him so I would stop replaying the word no in Roman’s voice?
Definitely yes.
“I am.”
“The bride’s sister.” His eyes flicked past me, lazy, then back. “You look like you want to be distracted. I can definitely help with that.”
2/5
14:55 Thu, Sep 17
89
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“I look like I want another drink.”
55 vouchers
He got me one. Then another. He asked nothing important. He stood close enough that I could smell expensive cologne. I laughed too loud at a joke that was not that funny. Across the floor, Roman looked over.
Good.
I wanted him to see it. I wanted him to feel even a bit of what I had been swallowing since he told me to find someone who matched me better. As if I had not spent years matching myself to the shape of him in every room we shared.
I leaned into Luca’s space and let him touch the small of my back. His hand was warm. It did not feel like Roman’s. Nothing did. The girl on Roman’s arm said something and Roman did not answer her right away. His jaw had gone tight.
His eyes stayed on me a second too long.
I drank more.
“Come outside,” Luca said, voice low against my ear. “Too many of your family members are in here.”
I should have said no.
I knew I should have said no. I could feel the warning in my own body, the same one I ignored every time I let Roman get too close and then acted surprised when it wrecked me.
Instead I said okay.
Like an idiot.
The driveway was cooler than the dance floor, lined with cars that cost more than some people’s houses.
The air smelled like rain that had not started yet.
Luca did not waste time.
He kissed me against the side of a Mustang, hands at my waist, mouth tasting like alcohol and mint.
I let him. I even kissed him back, hard enough to prove I could. It did not feel like something I wanted to keep doing. It felt like a dare I was losing. His hands slid higher. I thought of Roman’s hand on that other girl’s waist and I kissed Luca harder, angry at myself for still measuring everything against a man who had already told me no.
Then, without warning, he was gone.
Ripped backward so hard I stumbled and caught myself on the car. My shoulder hit metal. My head spun.
What the hell was going on?
I blinked, drunk and stunned, and found Roman with his fist in Luca’s jacket. He punched him in the mouth. Luca hit the car, swore, blood already at his lip.
3/5
14:55 Thu, Sep 17
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
“Roman-”
I tried to stop him. I could not even walk properly. The driveway kept moving under my feet.
89
55 vouchers
He did not look at me at first. He hit Luca again. Then shoved him off like he was nothing, like the famous Fl driver with the easy smile and the reputation was just another body in the way.
“Stay away from her.”
Luca spat, laughing through it, blood on his teeth.
“She came outside with me. What are you pissed at me for? Are you one of her brothers?”
Roman’s eyes finally found mine. Ignoring him.
Shock held me still. I could not believe he had just done that. Not after the terrace. Not after he told me to find someone else. Not after he walked into this wedding with another woman on his arm and put his hand on her like I had never said a word.
“What is wrong with you?” I whispered.
Roman’s chest was heaving. The girl he had brought was nowhere in sight. The driveway felt too quiet after what just took place. Music still played inside, people still danced, my sister was still married, and out here Roman looked at me like he wanted to put his hands on me and shake me and ruin both of us in the same breath.
He had rejected me.
He had told me to find someone who matched me better.
And he had just beaten the man I tried to forget him with.
I stood there in my bridesmaid dress with Luca swearing behind the cars and Roman staring at me like he was pissed that I was out here kissing anyone who was not him.
4/5
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.