Reborn: I Quit Being the Mafia’s Stand-In Chapter 04
“Mr. Alexander Rizzo, do you take Chloe Vitale to be your wedded wife?”
Alexander stood at the altar, holding the ring. He
didn’t answer.
“Alexander?” Chloe called softly.
He snapped back to reality.
“I do,” he said.
But as the words left his lips, what flashed through his mind was-
Eleanor standing in the corner of the banquet, wearing the dress he had torn, completely ignored by everyone.
Eleanor curled up in the stagnant water of the dungeon, her lips bruised purple from the cold.
The sickening crunch of her fingers shattering under the door frame when he slammed it shut.
He remembered that when Eleanor married him, she didn’t even get a decent wedding. But when Chloe wanted one, he threw it together in two days. Was this really fair?
His grip tightened around the ring,
A muffled boom echoed in the distance.
Alexander looked up.
In the direction of the Rizzo estate, a pillar of fire tore into the sky.
The shockwave from the explosion could be felt miles
away, the ground trembling faintly beneath their feet. Gasps rippled through the guests.
The ring slipped from Alexander’s fingers and clattered to the floor.
“Eleanor.” He vaulted off the altar, shoving through the crowd, and sprinted toward the cars.
chloe’s face froze.
“Alexander, where are you going-”
“Alexander!” Chloe hiked up her wedding gown and chased after him. “The wedding isn’t over! You can’t leave!”
“Move.”
“You promised me!” She grabbed his arm. “You said you would marry me today! You said-”
“Let go.” Alexander’s eyes were bloodshot, fixated entirely on the black smoke in the distance.
“It must be her! Eleanor must have done it!” Chloe gripped his sleeve tightly. “She’s getting revenge on us! She ruined my wedding on purpose! Alexander, are you going to abandon me for that vicious bitch?!”
Whispers instantly erupted from the crowd.
“Alexander, you promised me…” Chloe tilted her head back, pointing at the gauze on her cheek, crying hysterically. “My face is ruined, and you said you’d give me a perfect explanation today! If you leave now, what does that make me?!”
On any other day, that gauze and those tears would have been enough to make Alexander yield.
But right now, looking at the fire reaching into the clouds, an unprecedented terror that could freeze a man’s soul gripped his throat.
He ripped his arm from her grasp.
The movement was brutal. Chloe stumbled, nearly collapsing to the ground.
“Alexander!”
He didn’t look back.
The engine roared. Tires burned vicious black skid marks onto the pavement as the car tore through the estate gates.
His convoy shot out behind him.
A subordinate’s voice crackled over the radio: “Boss,
the estate’s been bombed. The fire is being contained-”
“Where is she?” He slammed his fist against the steering wheel. “Where is Eleanor?!”
The radio went dead for two seconds.
“Someone saw her being taken away.”
Taken away.
Confirming Eleanor wasn’t dead, a brief wave of relief washed over Alexander, instantly followed by pure, explosive rage. He barked out orders: lock down the ports and airports, pull all security footage, and track all helicopter flight paths.
He released the steering wheel, only then realizing his fingers were trembling.
Alexander realized Chloe was still waiting for him. He prepared to make things clear to her first. The wedding was paused; they would deal with it after Eleanor was found.
He returned to Chloe’s temporary lounge, but found the room empty.
Voices drifted from the end of the corridor.
It was Chloe.
“Of course I sliced it myself.”
“Did you actually think Alexander would doubt me?”
Alexander froze.
“He couldn’t tell at all.” Chloe laughed. “He’s too stupid. Just as stupid as he was back then.”
His fingers dug into the edge of the wall.
“I left him back then because he was just a powerless, penniless street thug.” Chloe’s voice dripped with thinly veiled disgust. “Who would marry a man that could end up dead in a ditch on any given day?”
“Now he’s the Don, of course it’s different.”
“He actually thinks Eleanor chased me away back then–God, he swallowed it whole.”
“He never doubted me. Not even once.”
Alexander’s entire reality violently fractured.
The very foundation of his hatred, the justification for every ounce of cruelty he had inflicted on his wife since Chloe’s return, completely shattered.
Eleanor had never chased Chloe away. She had never lied. She didn’t ruin Chloe’s face.
She had endured the torture and survived the water dungeon.
And he had crushed her hand with a wooden door.
Alexander took a step back, the floor suddenly rushing up to meet him. A hollow, agonizing ringing pierced his eardrums.