The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 263

Chapter 263

~MARCO~

My mother called three times on the drive back home. I let the first two ring. The third I answered, because Francesca Vescari did not leave a fourth for courtesy.

“Why are you not here?” she demanded. “You have been out of the hospital long enough and yet you still have not visited your parents. I am also still waiting to meet this made up girl you claim to be in a relationship with. Are you hiding her from your parents or was it all a lie?”

I took a deep breath, knowing that talking to my parents about the marriage wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. Still, I’d made up my mind and there was no turning back now. At least I didn’t have to worry about her trying to fix me up with random women anymore.

“I’m on my way,” I told her. “I am not bringing her today. I have something to talk to you about first. Then I will introduce the entire family to…her.”

I almost said my wife.

The wedding album was on the passenger seat. I couldn’t get the image out of my head. Loretta in a wedding dress was fucking breath-taking. The most beautiful bride I’d ever seen and this marriage was only pretend. How would she look on her actual wedding day?

I didn’t want to think about that, because if I did, it meant imagining her walking down the aisle to a man who

was not me.

Why the fuck would that bother me? She was not mine to keep.

And then there was that kiss.

I could still taste her. She tasted fucking amazing. No woman should taste that good.

That was the problem.

It was supposed to be nothing. A camera. A rule we had already written down. No sex. No improvising affection for an audience that was not there. The photographer had been there. I had kissed her because the album needed it. I had not expected her mouth to open under mine, or the sound she made, or the way her fingers caught my suit as if she meant to keep me.

I had felt it. My body’s reaction to her. Something I hadn’t felt for anyone in years. Not since the last girl I gave my heart to completely destroyed it without a second thought.

I wasn’t ready to hear her admit she’d kissed other men and that I wouldn’t be her last. That bothered me more than I cared to admit.

“Fake.”

I said it once, out loud, to the empty car.

Fake. Nothing more than a contract marriage.

I pulled up to our family home and stepped outside, trying to get my new wife out of my head.

I did not get that far into the house when I saw someone I never thought I would see again.

Caterina.

For a second I thought the crash had left something loose in my head.

She stood by the window in a yellow dress, hair down, hands clasped the way she used to when she wanted to

look sorry.

Sorry? It was fucking too late for apologies. Years too late.

It was definitely her-the girl who broke my heart and ruined it for every other woman who tried to date me

afterward.

“Caterina,” I said. “What are you-”

1/2

Chapter 263

She crossed the room before I finished the question.

5 voucher

Her arms came around my neck. I went stiff. She smelled like the perfume she had worn at twenty, which felt like it was intentional and not an accident.

“I saw the crash,” she said into my jacket. “It was everywhere. I thought-Marco, I’m so sorry you were hurt. I’m glad you’re alive.”

I did not return the hug. I looked past her.

My mother was by the cabinet, face arranged into concern, eyes looking too pleased.

My father was not in the room. Neither were any of my siblings.

Caterina drew back, hands still on my arms, careful of the wrist. Her eyes were wet. She had always been good at that. Crying. Now I knew how fake most of those tears were.

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