ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 146: Engagement party [2]

Chapter 146: Engagement party [2]
Chapter 146
KATYA POV
I blinked, almost stumbling as I dodged another maid. My voice came out small as I finally managed to speak.
"Miss Stella... what is all this?" She didn’t slow her pace as she adjusted a row of glasses, her tablet tucked under her arm, stylus tapping frantically.
"This?" She gave the room a quick, tired gesture. " Katya, haven’t you heard?"
Heard? Heard what? The only thing I heard was that marina is supposedly going to be the Donna of this house and from the looks of it she doesn’t like me very much.
Miss stella seems to finally see I don’t know shits she’s talking about as she spoke. "In the next hour it Mr Salvatore’s engagement party."
"What?!"
Miss Stella gave me a look like she didn’t have the energy for my surprise. "Yes, yes, that’s why we’re all running like mad people. Now—keep up, Katya. We’re behind schedule."
Behind schedule?I was still stuck on engagement party.
Engagement.
Tonight. As in right now? To.... Fucking....Day?
My heartbeat stuttered, but Miss Stella had already moved on, truly believing my shock was because the drinks would go warm if we didn’t hurry, not because my whole chest felt like it had been kicked in.
"Come, come," she said briskly, sliding the tray out of my hands and placing it on a decorated side table.
"We need more drinks to fill the rest of the bar stations. Go down to the kitchen. Tell Marco to send up two more crates. And for heaven’s sake, avoid the left corridor—they’re adjusting the lights and I don’t need anyone electrocuted tonight."
She was already gone before my brain had finished processing half those words—moving to a group of maids untangling fairy lights, barking out instructions with military precision.
I stood there, swallowed whole by the room, by the decorations, by the beautiful nightmare unfolding in front of me.
Engagement party. For him.
For Romeo.Of course Marina was here.
Of course she warned me about "this husband of hers"
Of course everything made sense now, the roses, the gold,the panic, the fact that I hadn’t been told a single thing.
Why would I be told?
Why would anyone think I needed to know?
I was just... here.Background. A shadow in a house that didn’t belong to me.
Someone brushed past me, murmuring an apology, breaking me out of my trance. Right. Miss Stella told me to move. To get drinks. To work.
Work I could do. Work didn’t require thinking. Work didn’t require feeling anything at all. I inhaled slowly, my hands trembling just slightly from the shock I had no intention of letting anyone see, and turned back toward the stairs.
Miss Stella was still shouting orders—completely unaware that the thing rattling me wasn’t the urgency...
But the reason for all this beauty. Romeo’s engagement.I forced my feet to move.
Kitchen. Drinks. Crates.Anything to stop my chest from tightening. Anything to stop the questions I didn’t want to ask.
Anything to remind myself I was just a maid in a house that was celebrating something I had no business caring about.
I reached the kitchen in record time—almost running, but not enough to look suspicious, just fast enough to look like I had a purpose.
Something I definitely needed right now. The kitchen doors swung open before I could even touch them, a maid rushing out with a tray of miniature desserts stacked like fragile glass sculptures.
Stepping aside quickly, letting her pass, the heat and noise of the kitchen washing over me like a wave the moment I walked in.
The kitchen was chaos too—but a different kind. Organized chaos. Purposeful chaos. Pots boiling, knives chopping, chefs shouting for space, ovens opening and closing so fast it looked choreographed.
And in the middle of it—Marco.
He was hunched over a counter, flipping through a clipboard with a pen tucked behind his ear.
His brows furrowed as he checked off items, mumbling to himself.
I’d barely spoken to him since I came here. Maybe a "hello," or a nod while passing ingredients. Nothing more.
This moment was not going to change that.
I edged closer, weaving through the bustle carefully so I didn’t get yelled at by any chef with a short fuse. "Um... Marco?"
He didn’t hear me and I tried again, louder this time. "Marco—Miss Stella said—"
But right as he turned toward me, someone behind me yelped. Everything happened in a blur.
A server stumbled, maybe tripping on someone’s foot or slipping on water I hadn’t seen. The tray in their hands flew forward.
I didn’t even have time to react. Cold drinks. Sticky juice. Something creamy. Something fizzy.
Everything splashed across my front, soaking my cloths, dripping down my arms and legs.
A glass rolled across the floor. A plate shattered somewhere behind me
The server gasped. "Oh—oh my God, I’m so sorry— I didn’t— I didn’t see—"
I stood there completely still, water and juice sliding down my hair, my clothes clinging to me like second skin.
For three seconds, the entire kitchen paused to stare. Then, as if nothing happened, the chaos resumed.
Everyone kept moving. No time to stop. No time to care.
Marco was the only one who pressed a hand to his forehead like this was the last thing he needed tonight. "Dio mio..." he muttered. "Katya, what happened?"
I opened her mouth to defend myself... then closed it. Because honestly? What difference would it make? I was always at fault.
I stood there dripping, the cold sinking into my skin, the humiliation sinking deeper. Miss Stella wanted drinks.
Marco wanted organization.
The house wanted perfection.
Romeo wanted an engagement party.
And me... I was standing here soaked in fruit punch and embarrassment, proving yet again that I didn’t belong anywhere in this picture.
"Miss Stella needs more drinks crates down."
Marco sighed deeply, already turning to bark orders at the server to go do what’s needed.
Then he pointed to my clothes with his pen. "You can’t go back down stairs like that. Miss Stella will have my head if you drip on the tiles."
What tiles? What anything? I wasn’t even sure my legs were attached to my body right now.
But I nodded anyway, because what else was I supposed to do?