Chapter 195
CHARLOTTE-
Luca got out first and opened my door.
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Francesca Vescari, his mother, was already on the steps. Cream dress. Jewelry that caught the fight.
She was a stunning lady to look at.
She pulled him into a hug that looked perfect from a distance and lasted one second too short up close. Over his shoulder her eyes found me.
Kind, if kindness could also measure you. I could almost hear the words she was shouting at me in her
head.
Massimo, his father, stood behind her. Hands in his pockets. He seemed like he was trying his best not to mention the family business again. But it would come. It always did. Luca couldn’t get away from that conversation. Neither could Marco.
“Congratulations,” he said. “It’s good you finally came to check on your family. I thought a funeral would have to bring you back home.”
Luca’s smile did not reach his eyes. “We’re here. That’s all that matters. Right?”
Before his father could respond, the rest of his siblings rushed out the door. And there were many of them. Massimo didn’t give his wife a rest, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was pregnant again.
Giulia first, twenty-four, she kissed both my cheeks and then shoved Luca’s shoulder. “You win in Monaco and you still look like you need a good haircut. Come here. I told you that I’m the best at cutting it.”
“It’s true. You are. But it doesn’t matter, the ladies like me either way.”
“I didn’t ask you that.” She hugged him anyway and mumbled, “Proud of you, idiot.”
Dante came down the steps in a team cap, grinning. He looked happy to see his brother.
“Last lap. You took down Shaw. I watched it four times. You looked like a beast out there. You surprised everyone with that comeback.”
“I am good at what I do.”
Elisa hugged Luca properly, quiet and sweet, both arms around him. “I screamed at the television when you won. Papa told me to sit down. I did not sit down. I screamed louder. You always have my support big brother.”
Rico shouted from the doorway at sixteen, already moving. “Did you really pass Shaw or did they edit it for the highlights.”
“I passed him you fool.” Luca said as she slapped him on his back. “I’m just that good. Maybe you could be like me-”
“Do not encourage him in that nonsense.” His mother scolded him.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Nonsense? Did they not realize how successful their son was?
oha said you looked like you were going to crash.”
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Sofia, fifteen, from the ràil, missing nothing: “I said he looked like he wanted to. Anyway, congratulations. You should have brought the trophy home.”
Alessia came last.
Eighteen in three days. The eighth of June. The whole reason we had come here today. She hit Luca hard enough to rock him, laughing into his shirt.
“You actually came.”
“I said I would.”
“You say a lot of things.” She peeked around him at me. “Hi, Charlotte.”
“Hi. Happy almost birthday.”
“Marco’s late,” Giulia announced, already bored of the explanation. “He had things to see about. He’ll land on the actual day. Typical. He loves being late to everything.”
No Marco until her actual birthday. I wondered if he was actually busy or used that as an excuse to not have to spend too much time around his parents.
Rico slung an arm around Luca’s neck. “Are you staying in your old room, I was actually thinking of breaking down the wall and joining it to mine.”
“I voted storage room,” Dante said. “We can’t seem to decide just yet. Maybe you can help us.”
“Do not touch my room,” Luca said, and for a second the smile was real. “I have good memories in there.”
Sofia leaned over the rail. “Mama already has a girl coming to dinner. Just so you know. I’m not supposed to say. I am saying.”
Giulia hissed her name. Alessia groaned. Luca’s shoulders went tight again.
A girl was coming to dinner? What was she talking about? Luca hadn’t mentioned anything to me, yet he seemed to know exactly what she was saying. He didn’t ask any questions, so I could tell he already knew the details.
“Ignore Sofia,” Elisa said quickly. “Ignore everyone. Come inside. There is food. There is wine. There is Rico, which is worse.”
It was nice, seeing his siblings again.
They were quite fun to be around.
Before I knew it, Alessia was pulling me toward the house to show me the garden even though we had not unpacked.
Francesca forced us back inside.
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The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
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I stared at the fancy high ceilings. Then at a painting of someone who looked like Massimo with less disappointment.
I watched Luca’s siblings harass him and saw the boy who had grown up here trying to smile for them even though he was clearly unhappy being back home.
The second they pointed us toward a room, he walked in, dropped his bag, and fell back on the bed like he was happy that we were finally away from all the chaos that was his family.
“See?” he asked me.
“See what?”
“What I’m talking about?”
“All I saw was how happy seeing you made your siblings. They are all quite proud of their brother-a famous F1 driver. Not many people can boast about their sibling like that,” I teased him.
He sighed, “I wasn’t talking about them and you know it.”
Francesca walked in without knocking. I tried not to gasp from the shock of it. Not used to anyone just opening a door without bothering to know. It was her house after all.
“Charlotte. What are you doing? Surely you don’t expect to sleep in the same room as Luca. I’m not sure how you do things back home but it is highly inappropriate for a girl your age to be in my son’s room when neither of you are married or have any intentions of doing so.”
I looked at him. Cheeks red.
On the road, we always took a suite. Two rooms, one kitchen. That was our normal. We were not having sex. Never having sex. Though that didn’t stop Luca from sleeping around.
“I-we usually-”
“I’ll have the room straight down the hall prepared,” Francesca said. “You will be staying there. Not in here with my son.”
Luca groaned at the ceiling. “Really, Mother? She’s the one girl I don’t sleep with. And you carry her down the hall?”
Francesca’s eyes narrowed.
“Be quiet.”
The room went silent.
Alessia’s laugh traveled in from the corridor, bright and unaware.
Rico yelled about food. Massimo’s footsteps passed and did not stop.
I stood there with my bag still in my hand, heat in my face, Luca still on his back staring at a ceiling that had watched him grow up, and his mother already turning toward the hall as if the matter was closed.
Down the hall.
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The Mockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
That’s where I would be staying?
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12:26 Fri, Sep 25 TF.
The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife
Dex Morgan
Dex works to elevate each story with clean writing, emotional balance, and thoughtful flow for readers.