"Annette!" Her sister's shout reached her ears only a second before the lithe brunette pulled her into a breath stealing hug.
Joyce was the only member of their family who called her by her full name, Annette. The rest of the family and extended family called her Netta, as if trying to erase the existence of her deceased birth mother, Anne.
"Isn't that sweet?" a smooth, feminine voice asked. Annette couldn't see the woman speaking through the crowd of well-wishers attending the prewedding party. "Only I thought Cinderella's family had disowned her."
Joyce let go of Annette and spun around. "The past is the past. My sister is one of my dearest friends and nothing will change that." It was like she was warning everyone in the room.
Annette knew Joyce had fought family pressure to maintain their relationship. Though the younger woman had said nothing, it must have been a battle royal when she insisted on inviting Annette to the wedding. Making her a bridesmaid would have been even worse in their parents' opinion.
Warmth and gratitude surged through Annette.
"Naturally not," Valentina Messina said smoothly as she arrived beside them, looking just as put together and lovely as Annette remembered the woman who had been meant to behermother-in-law. "Family is family."
"Hello, Signora Messina," Annette said in a huskier tone than usual, but it was taking all she had to form words.
This was so much harder than she thought it would be.
The gorgeous woman now clinging to Carlo's arm like a limpet only made things worse.
Annette had never been a liar, so she'd never lied to herself and claimed to be over the man. She doubted she ever would be.
"It is Valentina, as I am sure you remember," the elegant older woman instructed. "So, you did not marry my eldest son." She waved negligently with her elegant hand. "Life has its little turns. However, your sisterwillbe marrying my younger son and that is all that matters now."
Annette just nodded, all the time her focus inexorably drawn to the beautiful brooding man she had so foolishly walked away from five years ago.
"Thank you for the card and flowers when Alceu was in the hospital. The food baskets and coffee deliveries from my favorite barista were lovely," Valentina went on. "It was a kindness."
"I…it was the least I could do."
"What a kind thing to say, but under the circumstances untrue." She meant because Annette had no longer been a de facto member of the family. "His accident was such a worrisome time for us all and your thoughtfulness was very much appreciated." Valentina gave her husband a significant look. "I warned him for years to stop driving like he wanted to enterLe Mans. But would he listen?"
The weeks after her failed wedding were some of the hardest of Annette's life, made infinitely worse when Alceu, a man she'd come to love like a father, was in the car accident and was taken to the hospital. She could do nothing but watch from the sidelines, hoping he would recover.
The look on Carlo's face and her own parents' expressions said Valentina might be the only person who thought the way she did.
Though she'd had nothing to do with the accident, hadn't even been in the same country it happened in, they definitely blamed Annette. For all of it.
When Annette hadn't shown up at the church, the media had a heyday with their awful headlines and salacious innuendo laden articles and it only got worse after Alceu's accident. There had been speculation that, humiliated by his son being stood up at the altar and the subsequent media frenzy, Alceu had done it on purpose.
Cinderella Jilts Billionairehad morphed toEven Billions of Dollars Can't Get Cinderella to the Altar.
The whole Cinderella angle was her older sister's fault, not that anyone in her family would admit it. Lynette's friends used to make fun of Annette because more often than not, her mother would find fault with something about her appearance or behavior at a social function they were hosting and send Annette to the kitchen to help the cook or the serving staff.
She'd say if Annette couldn't handle her responsibilities as a daughter of the host, she might as well make some use of herself. Lynette's friends had dubbed her Cinderella and that's how that whole group referred to her on social media. Lynette had been the one to give an interview after the failed wedding to a gossip rag journalist about Annette, sharing the nickname and what a supposed failure Annette had been as a socialite.
Lynnette hadn't mentioned Annette's adopted status either, but then that would have sparked ire from their parents and Lynette was too smart for that. Only she hadn't been smart enough to realize that her words could be twisted, and they had been. Her family and Carlo had been raked over the coals by the press. They'd said that despite his billions, he was no Prince Charming.
Which was not true. He'd been her prince, she'd just been too insecure to realize it, much less fight for what they could have had.
Regardless of her lack of foresight, Lynnette had come out of the debacle smelling like a rose. As per usual. Completely ignoring her role in it, everyone had acted like it was Annette's fault the family had drawn censure formaking her into a modern-day Cinderella.
It had taken two years of therapy for Annette to realize she had not been at fault. Yes, she'd jilted Carlo at the altar, and she could have handled that differently, but the media frenzy that ensued had not been on her. No matter what her family thought.
"Enough talking of the past, it is time to toast the happy couple," Alceu Messina announced with authority that would never leave him, no matter that he was officially retired now.
He'd worked hard coming back from his accident, and if she didn't know he'd spent six months in a hospital bed recovering from terrible damage to his body, she would never suspect it.
One toast followed another and soon the room was filled with laughing, chatting partygoers. If some gave Annette the side-eye, she ignored it. She was here for Joyce and that was what mattered.