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It all started with a phone call.

One evening, Kanishaa picked up the receiver and dialed Chaiwat. She didn't bother with small talk; she went straight to the point.

"It's time, Chaiwat. Dante Vescari and Enzo Marcelli should get married."

For a moment, the other end was quiet. Then came a harsh laugh.

"Are you out of your mind? Two boys? And Enzo Marcelli is just eighteen. Do you even hear yourself?"

Kanishaa didn't back down. Her voice was sharp, steady. She reminded him… …of everything he wanted forgotten — Maya's pain, the truth behind his polished smile, the things he had buried when he remarried. And then she made it clear: if he refused, she would tell the world.

The smugness in Chaiwat's tone cracked. He finally spat out an agreement, though his words dripped with bitterness.

When Dante Vescari heard the news, the house practically shook.

"You're kidding me, right?" he snapped, staring at his mother in disbelief. "I don't like men, I'm twenty-one, and I'm definitely not ready for marriage. Especially not to some stranger."

It was the first time he'd ever shouted at Kanishaa. The first time he'd called her unreasonable. He stormed……out, slamming the door behind him, and vanished for two days. He ignored every call, every message.

When Somchai finally found him and brought him home, Dante Vescari was quieter but no less angry. Kanishaa pleaded with him, tried to explain, begged him to consider the promise she'd made to Maya. She told him Enzo Marcelli was a good boy, that he deserved better, that maybe — just maybe — Dante could help. But Dante only sat in silence, refusing to look at her.

A week later, the two families met at a small restaurant.

The atmosphere was tense from the start. Chaiwat and his new wife wore sour expressions, as if they had been dragged there against their will. Enzo Marcelli sat with them, polite but almost shrinking into himself……the weight of the room pressing on his shoulders.

And then Kanishaa saw him.

Her eyes filled instantly. Enzo Marcelli looked so much like Maya that her heart twisted. She hadn't dared to face him all these years, but she had followed his life quietly, from the shadows. Before she could stop herself, she stood and hugged him.

Enzo froze at first, startled. But slowly, awkwardly, he leaned into the embrace. Eighteen years of coldness, and here — in the arms of a woman he barely knew — he felt something unfamiliar: warmth.

Across the table, Dante Vescari sat slouched in his chair, scrolling through his phone, making his disinterest obvious. Enzo glanced at him…once, curious, but Dante Vescari didn't look up.

Instead, Enzo Marcelli’s gaze drifted back to Kanishaa, and recognition flickered in his eyes. He had seen her before — not in person, but in the old photographs he kept of his mother. Maya had always been smiling in those pictures, and always with Kanishaa beside her.

Before leaving, Somchai reached out and patted Enzo’s head gently.

"You really do resemble your mother," he said, smiling softly.

Kanishaa hugged him again before they parted, holding on tightly. Enzo returned the gesture hesitantly, but this time, there was a small comfort in it.

Dante, on the other hand, didn't wait around. Without so much as a glance at Enzo, he pushed back his chair…this time, there was a small comfort in it.

Dante Vescari, on the other hand, didn't wait around. Without so much as a glance at Enzo Marcelli, he pushed back his chair and strode out to the car, slamming the door behind him.

By the end of lunch, the decision was made: the wedding would happen in a month.

Kanishaa and her family would take care of everything. Chaiwat only had to bring his son.

And just like that, a promise made decades ago was set into motion — one born from friendship, sealed by loss, and now dragging two unwilling boys toward a future they never asked for.

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