CHAPTER 153
KATYA POV
Romeo didn't come.
He literally did not show up at all to his own engagement party.
Not fashionably late. Not dramatically delayed. Not even slipping in quietly at the last minute.
He didn't come.
The party dragged on for three whole hours—three exhausting, glittering, painfully stretched hours—because Nonna kept asking the organizers to extend it.
Once. Then again. And again. Each time with that same calm authority, like time itself would eventually bend out of respect for her will.
The music changed more than ten.The champagne ran low, then was replaced.
The laughter grew louder… and thinner.
And still, the podium stayed empty. The throne-chairs remained untouched, looming over the ballroom like a question no one wanted to ask out loud.
Guests smiled, danced, mingled—but the energy had shifted into something strained, something brittle.
Every conversation felt like it was circling the same unspoken thing.
Where is Romeo?
