All Chapters of The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The echo of the clap lingered long after the sound itself had faded. It wasn’t loud… didn’t need to be. In the aftermath of gunfire and chaos, it cut through everything with unsettling, almost… approving clarity. Lorenzo didn’t lower his weapon. His arm remained steady despite the slow, persistent burn spreading through his shoulder, the blood beneath his shirt had become warm and slick against his skin. He ignored it, pain had its place but not here. Not now. His attention was fixed entirely ahead. The man stepped fully into the light. Not cautiously like someone entering danger but like someone stepping into a room already prepared for him. He was well-dressed, untouched by the violence surrounding them, his posture relaxed in a way that should have been impossible given the large bodies scattered across the corridor. His gaze moved around slowly taking everything in. The fallen men. Marco. Isabella, still crouched with the children pressed tightly against her. Then it set

The metallic click did not echo. It didn’t need to. In a confined passage like this, where every breath already felt too loud, the tiniest sound was sharp enough to cut straight through instinct and land somewhere that recognized danger before the mind could name it. Lorenzo stopped. Not a gradual pause that was tinged with hesitation, A full stop. His body went rigid with a precision that camefrom years of knowing that the difference between movement and survival often came down to a single second. Matteo clung closer to him, circling his arm around his neck. Lorenzo looked at him and held onto him, his grip remaining firm, despite the strain building in his shoulder. Behind him, Isabella froze as well. Her heart slammed violently against her ribs, as her eyes darted across the narrow passage, searching, scanning, trying to locate the source of the sound. But there was nothing obvious, no visible threat or movement just the oppressive stillness of the corridor. “Don’t move,”

The footsteps behind them were no distant anymore, they were getting closer. It's sound moved through the narrow corridor in waves; boots struck stone and clipped orders bounced off the walls, giving the unmistakable rhythm of trained men tightening a search pattern. Whoever was leading them now seemed to have adapted quickly after the failed ambush as they were no longer trying to corner them blindly. They were herding and Lorenzo recognized the tactic. That only meant that people hunting them were not ordinary soldiers theat were carrying out borrowed instructions rather, these were men who were accustomed to pressure, pursuit and the understanding of how fear altered movement. That realization only sharpened the growing suspicion Lorenzo already had about Marco and the fact that he seems to understand them too well, the thought of it all kept pressing against the back of his mind. Ahead, the passage narrowed once more before curving to the right. The dim overhead lights flick

The tunnel had become now too tiny for the barrage of truth gathering inside it, nobody could move after Ricci’s final words. Not Lorenzo. Not Marco. Not even Isabella. The air felt strained and heavy with the weight of things that had been buried for too long beneath silence, loyalty, blood, and lies. The men's voices still echoed dangerously outside the wall but none of that felt urgent… not compared to this. Or compared to the envelope that was still resting calmly in Ricci’s hand. Lorenzo stared at it without blinking. This was five years later. A whole five years of believing that Isabella betrayed him. Five years that had sharpened his rage into certainty. Five years of carrying the memory of her disappearance like an open wound which he now disguised as hatred. And now… all of a sudden a total stranger stepped out of the dark and was dangling in their faces the possibility that everything he believed might have been manufactured from the beginning. The thought should

Nobody breathed after Lorenzo asked the question. Who ordered it? Just three words and that was all but Isabella felt the impact of them like a physical force because everything had changed. Just minutes ago, Lorenzo had been trying to survive an attack and now he was standing face-to-face with the possibility that the foundation of his entire life had been built on manipulation. And Marco… his most trusted ally stood at the center of it all. Now pinned against the cold stone wall with Lorenzo’s gun still pressed beneath his jaw, his breathing had slowed down despite the dangerous stillness surrounding them. The children’s frightened cries had softened into trembling silence now, broken only by the faint echoes of voices somewhere beyond the hidden passage. The world outside still existed and the men were still hunting them. But inside this tunnel, nothing of that sort mattered except the answer. Marco looked directly at Lorenzo. For the first time since Ricci’s appearance,