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The Abandoned Groom Married his Ex's Enemy!

Chapter 81: Something to Prove · Nov 01, 2026

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Chapter List (139)

Page number / 3

51 Chapter 51: Getting to Know You 2026-11-01
52 Chapter 52: Something of her own 2026-11-01
53 Chapter 53: Until the Work is Done 2026-11-01
54 Chapter 54: After the Bridge 2026-11-01
55 Chapter 55: No Business After Hours 2026-11-01
56 Chapter 56: The Man Behind the Wheel 2026-11-01
57 Chapter 57: The Man for the Job 2026-11-01
58 Chapter 58: One Seat Empty 2026-11-01
59 Chapter 59: The Connection 2026-11-01
60 Chapter 60: Someone Was Watching 2026-11-01
61 Chapter 61: The Last Ride 2026-11-01
62 Chapter 62: Watch Your Back 2026-11-01
63 Chapter 63: The One Left Out 2026-11-01
64 Chapter 64: The Name He Remembered 2026-11-01
65 Chapter 65: The Accident That Wasn’t 2026-11-01
66 Chapter 66: Keep Driving 2026-11-01
67 Chapter 67: The Dead Inspector 2026-11-01
68 Chapter 68: The Man With Two Names 2026-11-01
69 Chapter 69: The Third Name 2026-11-01
70 Chapter 70: The Recommendation 2026-11-01
71 Chapter 71: What Do You Know? 2026-11-01
72 Chapter 72: You’re Getting Warm 2026-11-01
73 Chapter 73: Before We Grew Up 2026-11-01
74 Chapter 74: Buried for Later 2026-11-01
75 Chapter 75: Familiar Faces 2026-11-01
76 Chapter 76: Something Worth Coming Back to 2026-11-01
77 Chapter 77: Like Old Times 2026-11-01
78 Chapter 78: One Last Dance 2026-11-01
79 Chapter 79: What He Forgot 2026-11-01
80 Chapter 80: The Boy Who Kept Winning 2026-11-01
81 Chapter 81: Something to Prove 2026-11-01
82 Chapter 82: The Other Name 2026-11-01
83 Chapter 83: The Price of Silence 2026-11-01
84 Chapter 84: What Matteo Knew 2026-11-01
85 Chapter 85: The Last Questions 2026-11-01
86 Chapter 86: Not Deliberately 2026-11-01
87 Chapter 87: Tying loose ends 2026-11-01
88 Chapter 88: Is this Business? 2026-11-01
89 Chapter 89: A Bad Hair Day 2026-11-01
90 Chapter 90: Out of Sight 2026-11-01
91 Chapter 91: A Place to Begin 2026-11-01
92 Chapter 92: Building it together 2026-11-01
93 Chapter 93: Back at the River 2026-11-01
94 Chapter 94: What Comes Next 2026-11-01
95 Chapter 95: Something Appropriate 2026-11-01
96 Chapter 96: Dress Accordingly 2026-11-01
97 Chapter 97: Beyond Business 2026-11-01
98 Chapter 98: No Particular Reason 2026-11-01
99 Chapter 99: Tickets for Two 2026-11-01
100 Chapter 100: Somewhere Nobody Knows Him 2026-11-01

Giovanni had never joined the debate team because of Dominic Sebastian.

He’d joined because he was terrified of public speaking.

Nobody knew that.

Not Alexander.

Certainly not Dominic.

Even his parents hadn’t entirely understood why their normally quiet son suddenly announced one evening that he wanted to try out for debate.

Ysabella had been chopping vegetables.

Matteo looked up from a stack of paperwork.

”Debate?”

”Yes.”

”You like arguing now?”

”No.”

”Then why debate?”

Giovanni hesitated.

”I want to learn.”

That answer had been accepted.

The actual answer was considerably more humiliating.

The first time Giovanni had to present in front of the class, he’d spent the entire morning wondering whether it was physically possible to die from embarrassment before reaching the blackboard.

His hands shook.

His mouth went dry.

He forgot the opening sentence he’d practiced approximately fifty times.

Alexander sat near the front.

That made everything worse.

Giovanni survived.

Barely.

Afterward, Mr. Flores told him, ”You know the material.”

”I forgot half of it.”

”Because you were frightened.”

”I’m not frightened.”

Mr. Flores raised an eyebrow.

Giovanni surrendered.

”Fine.”

”Then fix the fear. The material isn’t your problem.”

So Giovanni joined debate.

Winning wasn’t the objective.

Standing in front of people without wanting to run away was.

His first competition ended in defeat.

Giovanni went home delighted.

Matteo stared at him.

”You lost.”

”I know.”

”And you’re happy.”

”I finished.”

”Finished what?”

”The whole speech.”

Matteo considered this.

Then nodded solemnly.

”Then congratulations.”

The pattern repeated elsewhere.

Giovanni joined academic competitions because they forced him to study things he would’ve otherwise avoided.

He entered science events because he liked solving problems.

English competitions helped him communicate.

Mathematics trained him to think under pressure.

Swimming?

That began at the river.

With Alexander and Dominic.

Three boys left their clothes on the riverbank and discovered, through trial, error, and considerable stupidity, how to move through water without swallowing half of it.

Giovanni eventually became good.

Good enough that, years later, competitive swimming in college seemed like a logical challenge.

It wasn’t about Dominic.

Almost none of it was.

But Giovanni thought about one person more often than he admitted.

Alexander.

That part Dominic hadn’t imagined.

Giovanni had never been entirely certain what he wanted from Alex when they were young.

Friendship, certainly.

Approval, probably.

Attention?

Absolutely.

Alex had opportunities Giovanni didn’t.

Tutors.

Lessons.

Resources.

Instead of resenting him for those things, Giovanni found himself wanting to catch up.

When Alexander learned sculpting, Giovanni watched Mr. Arturo work with discarded wood.

”Again,” Giovanni said one afternoon.

Mr. Arturo sighed.

”You’ve sanded that poor thing enough.”

”The edge isn’t right.”

”Which edge?”

Giovanni pointed.

Mr. Arturo squinted.

”Boy, nobody can see that.”

”I can.”

”That’s your problem.”

Giovanni kept sanding.

He wanted to make something Alex wouldn’t immediately recognize as amateur work.

Not because he wanted to beat Alexander.

He wanted to surprise him.

That was different.

At least, Giovanni had always thought so.

Patrick’s sandwiches mattered for the same reason.

He’d stayed late so often that Patrick eventually noticed he sometimes skipped food.

Years later, Giovanni still remembered the first sandwich appearing on top of his notebook.

”My mother packed too much,” Patrick had said.

Giovanni believed him.

It took embarrassingly long to realize Patrick had simply been kind.

That was why Giovanni had invited him to Matteo’s or Ysabella’s after the reunion.

Patrick worked in food distribution now.

Giovanni could easily call the invitation networking.

Benchmarking.

Potential business.

All of those things were true.

They were also convenient excuses.

Sometimes paying kindness forward was easier when nobody called it kindness.

Elena’s books had been similar.

Giovanni couldn’t afford to buy every book he wanted.

Elena apparently had access to an endless supply.

So he borrowed.

Mysteries taught him to look for what people overlooked.

Adventure novels gave him worlds larger than their neighborhood.

Even the terrible romances taught him things, although he’d deny that under oath.

Books gave him one particularly useful idea very early:

Circumstances could be terrible without becoming permanent.

Characters started with nothing.

They failed.

Lost.

Got embarrassed.

Tried again.

Giovanni absorbed that lesson before he was old enough to articulate it.

If he didn’t like the person he was today, he could work on the person he’d become tomorrow.

Years later, when the Mercers lost their home and he had to work during the day while attending college at night, that lesson mattered more than Elena could’ve known.

There wasn’t always someone coming to save you.

Sometimes you had to become the hero in your own story.

Alexander knew very little of this.

That amused Giovanni now.

His best friend had spent years believing Giovanni simply liked competitions.

Maybe someday he’d tell him.

Maybe not.

Some insecurities became funny only after enough time passed.

Giovanni picked up the little wooden carving he’d brought home from the reunion.

Make something worth coming back to.

He ran his thumb over the old writing.

At seventeen, he was still trying to figure out who he wanted to become.

Part of the answer had always involved Alexander.

That was the embarrassing truth.

He wanted Alex to notice when he did well.

Wanted him to admire the things he made.

Wanted to be someone Alex considered capable.

Equal.

Worthy of respect.

Whether that had been a boyhood crush, hero worship, friendship, competition, or some confusing combination of all four, Giovanni hadn’t possessed enough emotional intelligence at seventeen to know.

Perhaps he still didn’t.

His phone vibrated.

Alexander.

Awake?

Giovanni smiled.

Unfortunately.

My mother wants recommendations for bakery equipment. You created this monster.

Giovanni laughed.

Send me the list.

She doesn’t have one. That’s the problem.

Then I’ll make one.

The reply came almost immediately.