He Gave My Ring to My Enemy,So I Took His EmpireChapter 1
After two years of exile in Palermo under Don Ferrante's protection, I cut my time short, eager to return to Clearmont Harbor, ready to be wed.
As I was preparing our future home in the compound, I discovered thousands of plane tickets carefully preserved by my blood-promised of ten years, Ansel Montecaro.
Every month, he had been traveling to Palermo at least once, and it wasn't to see me.
Even though I was only a hundred kilometers from wherever he landed.
I arrived early at the place where he had planned to offer me the blood-bound ring, only to see him on one knee, offering it to someone else.
"Elara Corsetti, will you marry me? As soon as you say yes, I'll switch brides immediately!"
His gaze was filled with anticipation and I couldn't take another step forward.
Since I was not the one he wanted to bind his bloodline to, I might as well let them have this union.
But after I ran away, he crossed oceans and territories, searching the world for me!
——
The site was decorated with roses, bathed in the warm glow of soft yellow lights. Romantic and intimate.
Ansel, kneeling on one knee, was the exact image of the proposal I had dreamed of countless times.
But the person standing in front of him wasn't me.
"Elara, will you marry me?"
Elara covered her mouth with one hand, trembling as she took the roses with the other.
A dazzling ring was slipped onto her finger. Not a Valente heirloom. Something new. Something bought with my father's treasury.
The two embraced tightly, kissing passionately. Their intimate whispers carried to my ears by the wind.
I found myself unconsciously rubbing the matching ring Ansel had sent me from across the sea.
I never told him the ring was too big.
To keep it from slipping off, I had wrapped half a loop of red thread around it to make it fit.
Perhaps after all this time, when I tugged at the thread, it came undone.
The ring, freed from the thread that once held it in place, slipped off my finger in an instant and rolled into a distant drain.
Just like Ansel, who, after two years abroad, was no longer tied down by me.
An ill-fitting ring doesn't need to be retrieved, just as a man who didn't love me didn't need to be held onto.
"Ansel, I hope your union goes as planned."
"Why? The only one I want to marry is you!"