Pustaka
Cari
Beranda / Mafia / I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind / Chapter 2

Share

Chapter 2

Penulis: Peachy
I thought last night was the worst it could get.

I was wrong.

The next morning, my phone exploded with calls.

"Elara, have you seen the news?" my friend Sarah's voice was panicked.

I opened my phone. A high-definition photo stared back at me.

Me, in a wine-stained white dress, standing miserably in the rain.

The headlines were sickening.

COSTELLO'S MISTRESS HUMILIATED AT ENGAGEMENT BASH.

FROM ART STUDIO TO BEDSHEETS: INSIDE THE DON'S AFFAIR.

My face was everywhere. Blown up, analyzed, shared.

The phone rang again.

"Miss Elara Vance? This is a reporter from the New York Herald. I'd like to ask about your relationship with Dante Costello—"

I hung up.

Another call.

"When did you and the Don get together?"

Hang up.

"Do you think Isabella Rossi's actions were justified?"

Hang up.

I turned off my phone and collapsed onto the sofa.

For five years, we'd been so careful. Never a single public touch.

Overnight, all of it was for nothing.

By the afternoon, the news had vanished.

Every article, every photo, gone as if it never existed.

I knew it was Dante’s work. He had the power to make anything that hurt his family disappear.

But another story quickly took its place.

COSTELLO DON AND FIANCéE'S STEAMY CAR KISS, WEDDING DATE APPROACHES.

The photo showed Dante pinning Isabella against the inside of a car in a passionate kiss.

Her legs were wrapped around his waist, her skirt hiked high.

His hand gripped her hip, pulling her hard against him.

They were devouring each other.

I stared at the picture, a knife twisting in my chest.

Yesterday, he said we were "strictly professional."

Today, he was all over Isabella.

Maybe I was just a toy from the beginning. He never cared about my feelings at all.

My phone rang. It was Antonio.

"Miss Elara, the Don wants to see you. Now."

I hesitated. "I've already resigned."

"This is not a request, Miss," Antonio's voice turned firm. "The car is already downstairs."

I knew I couldn't refuse.

In Dante's world, no one refused him.

Twenty minutes later, I was on the top floor of Costello Tower.

His private office. The place we first made love.

The faint scent of Isabella's perfume still lingered on the desk.

My stomach churned.

His secretary led me to the office door but stopped me just outside.

"Wait here, please," she said. "Miss Isabella is inside."

I stood outside the door.

It wasn't closed all the way.

Their voices carried, sharp and clear.

"That woman is still working for you. I don't like it." Isabella's voice was ice. "Dante, I want you to deal with her. Right now. In front of me."

"She's my best restorer." Dante's voice was flat.

"A restorer?" Isabella scoffed. "What is she restoring, Dante? Your art, or your body?"

A long silence.

"I'm not an idiot, Dante." Her voice was shaking with rage. "Last night, you made me and my family a laughingstock. And your solution? To throw the press a photo of us? You think I don't know what you're really thinking?"

Her voice turned venomous. "I see the way she looks at you. She loves you."

"That has nothing to do with me."

"Nothing to do with you?" Her voice was a shrill cry. "What about you, Dante? Do you have feelings for her? I want her out. I want her gone. Forever."

More silence. A long silence.

Then, his answer came, each word a shard of ice.

"She's an asset. Nothing more."

Something slammed into my heart.

Just then, the door opened.

Isabella walked out and saw me standing there.

A triumphant smile spread across her face.

"Oh, Elara, you're here." Her voice was sickeningly sweet. "Perfect timing. There's something I wanted to say to you."

She walked to the nearby drink station and deliberately knocked over a crystal glass.

CRASH. Shards scattered across the floor.

"Oops, how clumsy of me," Isabella faked a gasp. "But it's for the best. Some things are meant to be broken, aren't they?"

She bent down and grabbed the shard. Her hand flashed out, slicing open the back of mine.

Blood welled up instantly.

"Isabella!" I cried out.

"What? Does it hurt?" she sneered. "This is nothing. Do you have any idea how much it hurts to see your fiancé tangled up with another woman?"

I clutched my bleeding hand, glaring at her.

"There's nothing between me and Dante—"

"Nothing?" Isabella cut me off, her voice like nails on a chalkboard. "A poor girl who couldn't afford school, sponsored by the Don, who then willingly stays by his side for five years. Do you think anyone is stupid?"

She moved closer, her eyes filled with venom.

"Did you really think your pretty face and your body could make Dante fall in love with you? Wake up, Elara. You're just a toy he's tired of."

"Enough." Dante's voice came from the office.

He walked out, his gaze sweeping over us.

His brow furrowed when he saw the blood on my hand.

But his expression quickly returned to a cold mask.

"Isabella, go home. I have work to discuss."

"Work?" Isabella looked at him suspiciously, her tone dripping with displeasure. "Just get rid of her for good. Dante, choose. Her, or me."

Dante looked at me, then back at Isabella.

"She still has projects to finish," he said coldly. "I can't let personal feelings interfere with business."

"Personal feelings?" Isabella's voice turned dangerous. "You have personal feelings for her?"

"That's not what I meant," Dante clarified. "I was talking about your feelings, Isabella. Don't project."

Isabella’s eyes narrowed. "You can't fire her, or you won't?"
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab sebelumnya Bab selanjutnya

Bab terbaru

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 21

    Elara’s POVSix months later. Paris. My wedding day.I wore the dress Julian had helped design. Simple lace, dotted with tiny pearls like morning dew.Before the ceremony, another anonymous package arrived.Inside was an original jewelry design by the Art Nouveau master, Alphonse Mucha. An alexandrite set. It was priceless.Alexandrite changes color in different light—"an emerald by day, a ruby by night"—a symbol of a dual life and eventual reconciliation.The card held a single line in his sharp, familiar script: For the woman you were always meant to be.I knew it was his final goodbye.I closed the box and put it aside. Then, I fastened the simple sunflower necklace Julian had carved for me.My true treasure. The kind that didn't need darkness to shine.In the church, I walked down the aisle on my mother's arm, toward Julian at the altar.When the priest asked if I would take him, I looked into his eyes, full of love, and said with absolute certainty, "I do."We exchanged rings and

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 20

    Elara’s POVTwo months later, Julian and I were at the airport.We were moving to Paris to start a completely new life.The town in Oregon was beautiful, but Dante's appearance had been like a drop of ink, staining the entire ocean.I needed a clean break. A truly new beginning.Dante never appeared again after that night.But his "gifts" of atonement never stopped.Restored design sketches I thought had been destroyed long ago.Documents for an art foundation established in my name.Even the deed to the Grand Coastal Hotel in Chicago.Every gift was another chain, trying to pull me back to the past.I sent everything back, unopened, with a single note attached:【I want nothing from you. Your guilt is your own burden to carry. Leave me in peace.】Before boarding, Julian went to check our luggage. I sat alone in the waiting area.From a distance, I saw him.He was standing on the other side of the security checkpoint, wearing a simple black coat.No bodyguards. He looked much thinner, e

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 19

    Dante's POVA coastal town in Oregon.For three days, I was a ghost in her new life. A voyeur in the shadows, starving for a glimpse of her.I saw her. Her hair was short and sharp now. She wore simple white shirts.The afternoon sun spilled across her focused profile, coating her in a halo of gold.She wasn't the girl who always seemed on edge by my side. She was glowing.I saw a kind man come to pick her up from work every evening.He would take her tool bag from her hands and then take her hand in his.She would intertwine her fingers with his. Naturally.I saw them shopping at the supermarket, arguing playfully over a brand of milk.Every smile she gave him was a hot knife twisting in my gut.Jealousy was a poisonous vine, strangling my heart until I could barely breathe.But at the same time, a sick sense of satisfaction washed over me.She was okay. She was happy. She was alive.Until that snowy night.Her birthday.Through her window, I watched him propose to her.I watched him

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 18

    Dante's POVMy hand went slack. The gold-plated revolver that was about to decide Isabella’s fate clattered to the floor.Isabella lunged for it like a lifeline.She scrambled over, hugging my legs, her face a mess of tears and snot. "Dante! Dante, listen to me! I know where she is! I know where she is!"I slowly looked down at the pathetic woman at my feet, my eyes frozen over."Say that again.""I know where she is!" Isabella thought she had found a bargaining chip, her head shooting up eagerly. "My people found her before yours did! A small coastal town in Oregon. She changed her name to Elena Morrison and opened a design studio! Dante, I know everything!"An invisible hand seized my heart, squeezing until it almost stopped.She hadn't just found Elara.From her expression, it was much more than that."What. Did. You. Do. To her?" My voice was a low growl, each word a heavy stone promising to crush her.Isabella's eyes darted nervously. She saw the murder in my gaze.She didn't dar

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 17

    Dante's POVI had spent two years weaving a massive net, trapping the Rossi family inside.I cut off their deals, funded their enemies, and let them suffer a slow, agonizing death.I thought I was doing it for my own pride, for the Costello family name.Until Luca placed a two-year-old, dust-covered investigation report in front of me."Don, according to our latest findings... the photo leak at the hotel ceremony, and the Russian Roulette game... they weren't accidents."I looked up, a flicker of confusion in my eyes.Luca swallowed hard, his voice strained. "It was all Isabella, Don. She bribed the tech crew to publicly humiliate Miss Vance. She conspired with Valenti to set up that game. She played you. You were the weapon she used to torture—and maybe kill—Elara."CRASH.The whiskey glass in my hand shattered.Shards of glass dug deep into my palm. Blood mixed with liquor dripped onto the expensive carpet. I felt nothing.My mind was blank.All this time, I thought I was in control.

  • I Took The Bullet He Lost His Mind   Chapter 16

    Dante's POVTwo months ago, the internal line in my office rang."Don," Luca's voice was hesitant. "We found someone in Rome... someone who was supposed to be dead."A fist closed around my heart. Squeezed. The blood in my veins went to ice."Who?" I heard my own voice, distant, like it belonged to someone else."Antonio Ricci."Three days later, in a windowless safe house outside New York, I saw Antonio.Two guards dragged him in. He was a skeleton in a loose shirt... but his eyes still burned with defiance. He looked like a man who had already made peace with his grave.I waved the guards out. We were alone in the large concrete room.I didn't speak. I just circled him, like a predator sizing up its prey. The air was thick enough to explode.My gun lay on the table, the cold metal reflecting the stark white light of the single bulb overhead."On the plane..." I finally spoke, my voice raw. "Was she scared?"Antonio looked up, a flash of surprise in his eyes, quickly replaced by a dee

Bab Lainnya

Anda juga akan menyukai

Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status