Gone After The 28th Wedding Chapter 04
Vincent’s POV
A person only has one heart.
Iran.
I hit the operating theatre doors and stopped cold. The table was empty. No Cassandra – just a dark smear of blood across the floor, medical equipment ripped from the walls, the room ransacked like a war zone.
“Where is she?!” I tore the surgical light off its mount. “Where is Cassandra?!”
“Mr. Romano over here!”
Sergei dragged the lead surgeon out of a corner. The man was drenched in blood. I grabbed his collar and slapped him conscious. “Where did she go?”
He coughed blood, pupils blown wide. “Armed men… all in black… they moved fast. They took her.”
I put my fist through the glass panel on the wall.
“Sergei. Lock down Seren City. Every resource the family has – I want her found.”
Seven days. Nothing.
I pulled every contact the Romano family owned on both sides of the law. I had the coast guard dragging the bay. The surveillance footage from that night had been wiped clean – whoever took her knew what they were doing.
The atmosphere in my office had become unbearable.
“Still no leads, Boss.” Sergei stood with his head down, voice shrinking by the word. “The footage was completely erased. Whoever did this isn’t ordinary.”
I swept everything off my desk. The wineglass shattered.
“She just came out of surgery. One kidney down. You’re telling me a woman who could barely walk just vanished?” I looked at every face in the room. “Find her. I want her alive, or I want a body. If you come back empty–handed again, I’ll have every one of you posted
to Siberia.”
She can’t be dead. That woman has survived twenty–eight attempts on her life. She doesn’t get to die now.
“Sir – Miss Amelia is refusing to eat. She’s demanding to see you.”
Sergei chose his moment carefully.
The name landed wrong. I couldn’t explain the irritation it sparked, but I went anyway.
The VIP suite smelled of too many flowers. Amelia was propped against her pillows, colour high in her cheeks, luxury gifts stacked around her bed. She burst into tears the moment she saw me.
“Vincent, you finally came. I thought you’d forgotten about me…
I stood at the foot of the bed. “The doctor says you’re being discharged tomorrow.”
Her expression shifted. “The wound healed, but not the hurt. You’ve been absent for days – is it because of that bitch?”
“She has a name,” I said. “Cassandra.”
Amelia stared. “You’re defending her? If you hadn’t forced her to give me that kidney, I’d be dead.”
“It was her kidney.” The words came before I could stop them. “She paid for your life with half of hers.”
“She owed me!” Amelia seized her pillow and threw it. “She drove me to swallow those pills. The kidney
was the least she could do. If she’s dead, good – then there’s no one left in your way.”
I looked at her face and didn’t recognise it.
“Amelia.” I kept my voice level. “What happened is settled. I’ll give you enough money to last the rest of your life. Consider it compensation.”
She went still. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying we’re done.”
I straightened my tie. “Cassandra is missing. But whether she’s found alive, or-“I didn’t finish the
sentence. “I will honour the engagement. She will be my wife,”
“You’re choosing a woman who might already be rotting somewhere over me?!” She was screaming now, nails shredding the bedsheet. “You told me
you loved me! You said the marriage contract was worthless! You promised that once she was gone-”
“That was before.”
I turned away. “Now I know what matters.”
“You’ll regret this!” She hurled a vase at my back. It exploded at my feet..
I turned around slowly.
Whatever she saw in my face made her go silent immediately.
“She’s not dead.” Each word quiet, absolute. “And I will find her. I’ll tear through hell itself if I have to.”
Amelia crumpled. The fight went out of her all at once.
I walked out and stopped at the door. “Tomorrow she goes home,” I told the bodyguard. “After that, she doesn’t come near me. She doesn’t set foot in Romano estate. Ever.”
The corridor air was cooler. The weight in my chest wasn’t.
Sergei came sprinting toward me, nearly dropping his phone.
“Mr. Romano. We have news. About Miss Cassandra.”
I grabbed his shoulder hard enough to feel the bone shift. “Where? Who took her?”
He swallowed. His face had gone the colour of ash.
“The call came from the old house, sir.”
“The Don and the Donna called personally. Their exact words-” He hesitated. “Get home. Now.”