People get really caught up in their own trips.

-Max Cannon

I am now officially Tatiana Rostova-Cavelli.

Mrs. Lucca Cavelli, Duchess of Caprielle, the legal wife of the powerful Italian duke. Never in my wildest dreams I thought would become a duchess someday—let alone entering a loveless marriage.

I still couldn't believe that I married an entirely different man when only a few days ago I was planning on marrying the man I thought I loved with all my heart but betrayed me in the worst possible situation.

Now, I stood with my new husband in the foyer of his villa and watched Mr. Felipe's car driveway made his way to the official home of the Duke of Caprielle for centuries where he served as the butler for decades.

"So, mia moglie, what do you want to do on your wedding day?" Lucca asked me after Mr. Felipe's car left the villa.

"Mia—what?"

Gray eyes smiled down at me. "Mia moglie, means 'my wife' in Italian."

"Oh..." I still couldn't get used to those endearments. Do all Italian men like to use endearment so much? Even Paolo used them more often—I frowned. Why should I need to think about that bastard on my wedding day? Not that this is my real wedding, but still I don't like to think about him anymore. As far I am concerned, he's nothing to me but a distant bitter memory.

His smile deepened. Evidently, unaware of my trails of dark thoughts. "So, what do you want to do? It's our wedding day, after all."

"I want to go to town." I said without hesitation. Since I resurfaced, I always wanted to stroll in town but circumstances kept me in Lucca's villa. Well, apart from our trip in Rome two days ago when I vulgarized my own home.

"Town?" He asked indecorously. He obviously didn't expect me to say that.

"Yes." I answered enthusiastically. "I've never been in Amalfi before. You could act as my tour guide."

A reluctant laugh escaped him. "No one must have told you that I'm a bad tour guide, tesoro."

"Oh, you'll do." I told him dryly. "They say that it's better than nothing."

"Are you mocking me, Duchess?"

"Who? Me? Mocking a duke?" I asked innocently, fighting back my smile. "You must be thinking of someone else, Your Excellency."

"Hmm..." He flashed a seductive smile that made my heart skip on my chest.

"Are you seducing me?" I raised my eyebrow as I stared straight in his smoky eyes.

"Is it working?"

"No."

"Liar." He purred and his eyes glowed like mercury. "About the trip in town you want." He eyed me from head to toe. "You might wish to change your wedding gown first...unless you want to hit the town with style. I'm fine either way."

I couldn't help but laugh at his suggestions. Maybe marriage to Lucca Cavelli wasn't that bad. If we could just be friendly towards our marriage everything will be fine. "You're incorrigible."

"Go and get change." He commanded. "Or else I will leave you alone. Fifteen minutes."

"You can't leave me!" I told him with a laugh. "I was the one who asked you to take me to town."

"I could."

I pretended to glare at him, but it was futile.

"Fifteen minutes, Duchess."

The glare was still fixed on my face when I ran into the stairs to remove my wedding finery.

I am walking hand-in-hand with my wife in the little town in Amalfi. I still couldn't quite get used to the term married. I am now a married man. The fact that my wife requested a tour in town proved that at least I need to become a decent husband however convenient our marriage was.

I just bought Tatiana a cream-colored brim hat with turquoise grosgrain ribbon to protect her pale skin on the hot Italian sun. I don't want her to burn on the summer sun. It would be such a waste to tan her pale skin.

Right now, we are on our way to the restaurant in town which hasn't yet been discovered by tourists—only locals knew the delicious bistro.

"Remind me again where we are going?" She asked, as we made our way to the streets of Amalfi.

"We're going to eat, tesoro." I replied, catching her wedding and engagement rings glinting on the sun. "After that we're going to hit the market."

"Hmm. Sounds lovely." Tatiana beamed at me. "You're not that bad tour guide, after all."

"Watch it, minx." I warned playfully. "Or you'll find yourself in the middle of nowhere."

"Is that a treat, Your Excellency?"

"No. A promise."

She grinned and we continued to walk to the restaurant at the end on the lane. "Are you having regrets in marrying me, Lucca?" Tatiana asked suddenly in a soft way that I didn't even catch it.

"No." I answered truthfully. "Do you?"

It took a moment for her to answer. I am aware that my heart is pounding on my chest loudly that I could swear that she could hear it.

"No." She finally answered, and I let out a deep breath I didn't know I was holding while waiting for her answer.

"Let's not deal with this 'regret thing' now, shall we?" I bargained as we neared our destination. "We entered this...alliance and let's deal with it when the time has come, hmm? Why not enjoy our day? This is, after all, your last day as Tatiana Rostova. By tomorrow you'll wake up as Mariya Cavelli, the wife of the wealthy Italian duke."

"Yes. Of course." She smiled and quite didn't reach her eyes. "Forgive me for spoiling our day."

I just fervently hope that we'll not regret everything in the future.

I was in a bad mood.

Four days after my stepsister, Tatiana, had drowned on the sea. Things stayed the same from the beginning. My mother who had just flown from New York upon hearing her stepdaughter's accident nonstop in the search and rescue operation for Tati had been organized.

She hired more divers to help in the search for my stepsister. Why couldn't Tati leave the hell of me alone? Why am I still living behind her shadow? I stupidly thought when she's out of my life everything I wanted in life would finally be mine.

Instead, it seems that everything was slipping away from my grasp even worse when she was still alive.

"Why don't you just stop the search on Tati's body, mom?" I suggested over breakfast when everyone in the penthouse was like walking dead from exhaustion. "For all we know, she's at the bottom of the sea by now."

"Do not say something like that to your sister!" My own mother snapped, putting her coffee on the table harshly. "We'll not stop until she's found dead or alive. If I must use all our money to find her, then I will."

I rolled my eyes and left my mother on the dining table and went to the living room where Paolo was intently watching the news. I scowled. It's been four days and yet the news about Tati's death, yet the media still engrossed about the sudden death of the Rostov heiress. Day and night the news filled with nothing but Tati's death. Even the international media had picked up the story.

"Why don't you eat breakfast?" I asked the man I adored, sitting beside him and rubbing his rigid muscle on his back. "You didn't eat anything last night."

"I have no appetite." Paolo answered without lifting his eyes on the television screen.

"You need to eat."

Instead of answering me, he stalked to his room and closed the door firmly behind him. I dozed my anger with several steady breathes. Since the day Tati drowned, it seems that Paolo drifted away from me even more, as if there was now a channel that separates us. Everything I do, I couldn't reach him anymore. He even refused to sleep with me again since that night in the yacht where Tati found us, always telling me 'not now'.

Maybe he still thought it was our fault Tati died, yes, that must be it. I will give him a few more days to accept that it was just an accident.

Few more days—and no more and I will demand what the hell is wrong with him.

Because the alternative was unthinkable.