# Read the first page of Weddings by Danielle Steel Read the opening of Weddings by Danielle Steel free, no signup. A wedding dress designer’s daughters confront marriage, danger, and second chances. - Page: https://uncovered.ink/read/weddings-danielle-steel - Genre: Family drama - Year: 2026 - ISBN: 9781529086256 - Read it blind (cover and title hidden): https://uncovered.ink/?b=9781529086256&s=read-page - Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/125786/9781529086256 - Borrow: https://search.worldcat.org/search?q=9781529086256 ## The opening @@CHAP@@ Chapter 1 On a gray November day, Dominique Dupont sat looking out the window of her office on Fifty-Seventh Street, just west of Fifth Avenue, on the forty-fifth floor, with a splendid view of Manhattan. She was the founder and designer of Dupont Designs, now in its thirty-fourth year. She designed the most beautiful, most expensive wedding gowns in the bridal business. They were sold all over the world, in the finest stores, at breathtaking prices. Her bridal gowns were considered almost as fine as haute couture gowns in Paris, where she had trained. She had been scribbling sketches of bridal gowns since she was five years old. She had been obsessed with brides as a child. There was an even more rarefied echelon of her designs, called Platinum Label. Presidents’ daughters and royals had been ordering her gowns for years, with special designs created just for them by Dominique herself. Tall, blonde, and unfailingly chic, she had a good head for business as well as real talent as a designer. Her financial advisors had helped her set up licensing agreements for high-end china, crystal, and linens, luxury items relating to brides and weddings, which were extremely lucrative. And she had written several coffee-table books about her most beautiful brides, her most lavish weddings, and her most exquisite table settings and flower arrangements. Dominique Dupont was synonymous with luxury and flawless taste, and the most elegant weddings. She had just turned sixty, and didn’t like it, but she didn’t look her age. She took ballet and yoga classes, and had the same figure she’d had at thirty. She was divorced, with three adult children, Tommy, Felicity, and Violet. Originally French, she had the faintest trace of an accent, although she spoke English fluently. Her mother, Marie-Aurélie de Palme, was the only daughter of impoverished French aristocrats, and was exceptionally beautiful. At twenty-four, after a brief modeling career in Paris, Marie-Aurélie had become the acknowledged mistress of a famous French financier, Armand Dupont, and, as was still a common occurrence in France, Dominique’s father had remained in an unhappy marriage and had had mistresses for years. There were those among the most staunchly elite people of French high society who did not receive Dominique’s mother, but for the most part, Marie-Aurélie and Armand were accepted as a couple, and welcomed by almost all of Paris society. Official mistresses were no longer considered scandalous. Marie-Aurélie had been a well-brought-up young woman from a respectable aristocratic family with no money. Her father was a banker and her mother didn’t work. Her parents were outraged by their daughter’s choice of lifestyle when she became Armand’s mistress. She was with him because she loved him, not for the money, or what he gave her. Her parents shunned her for the rest of their lives, although she was their only child. They refused to see her or speak to her and were ashamed of her, which was painful for her, and brought her even closer to Armand. Marie-Aurélie was an enchanting young woman, deeply happy with the man she loved, who adored her and was a loving, kind, generous partner. He lavished affection on her and showered her with gifts. She had a lifestyle she wouldn’t have had otherwise, in a beautiful hôtel particulier he bought for her on the rue de Grenelle in the 7th arrondissement. They lived there quite openly, while Armand’s wife turned a blind eye, as she always had. Dominique was born a year after they met, when Marie-Aurélie was twenty-five and Armand was sixty-five. They weren’t married, and he didn’t divorce for her. He had three older sons from his marriage, and Dominique was the joy of his life. He was a wonderful father, and acknowledged her legally at birth. She bore his name, and her three much older half brothers didn’t approve of her, particularly when she inherited her fair share, a quarter of their father’s fortune. They were still alive, two in their late seventies now. Dominique’s oldest brother, Tristan, was eighty-two. She hadn’t seen them since their father’s funeral forty-seven years before, when Dominique was thirteen. Two of them, Alexandre and Tristan, still lived in Paris, and the youngest, Grégoire, in Bordeaux, where he ran a famous winery he had inherited from his mother. Armand had a vast fortune and had provided for Dominique handsomely when she was born, as well as for her mother. Marie-Aurélie was set for life and treated with respect for all of her years with him, although they never married. Armand had told her right from the beginning that he would never divorce. As staunch Catholics, no one in his family had ever divorced. Marie-Aurélie was eighty-five now, and still lived in the house Armand had bought her years before, filled with beautiful paintings he had given her for special occasions, Degas, Monet, Corot. She was an important donor to the arts, and had acquired great knowledge on the subject. ## Books with a similar feel - [The Guy Not Taken by Jennifer Weiner](https://uncovered.ink/read/the-guy-not-taken-jennifer-weiner.md) - [Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin](https://uncovered.ink/read/heart-of-the-matter-emily-giffin.md) - [Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult](https://uncovered.ink/read/handle-with-care-jodi-picoult.md) - [Brother by David Chariandy](https://uncovered.ink/read/brother-david-chariandy.md) - [Three Days in June by Anne Tyler](https://uncovered.ink/read/three-days-in-june-anne-tyler.md) - [Angels by Marian Keyes](https://uncovered.ink/read/angels-marian-keyes.md) --- Source: Uncovered (https://uncovered.ink). A short sample shown for reading and discovery. Rights holders can request removal at https://uncovered.ink/takedown.