Home / My Mafia Fiancé’s Regret Came Too Late / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of My Mafia Fiancé’s Regret Came Too Late: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

12 Chapters

Chapter 1

When Dante returned thirty minutes before the ceremony, my body was still lying beside the half-collapsed cake.Frosting coated my hair and shoulders, thickest over my left eye.Tessa leaned against the vanity, touching up her lipstick.“Dante, your bride has quite a temper. I already apologized, and she still won’t get up.”Marco, one of the Valdieri family’s capos, nudged my heel with his shoe.“Isabella, Dante’s here. You’ve made your point.”I rushed over to stop him, but my hands passed straight through his body.Dante wasn’t smiling. He crouched beside me and straightened the twisted hem of my gown.“Didn’t I tell you not to wear these today?”He muttered the complaint as his fingers deftly unfastened the strap around my ankle.Then he took out the soft-soled wedding shoes he’d brought that morning.A month ago, the heels I wore to my dress fitting had rubbed my feet raw. I’d mentioned, in passing, that they hurt.That same day, he called the designer and had my stilettos replace

Chapter 2

Tessa knew my passcode. She unlocked my phone and opened my messages with Dante.The wedding’s off.If Tessa matters more to you than I do, marry her instead.I lunged for the phone. “No, delete that!”She couldn’t hear me.A moment later, the phone buzzed.Dante: Are you serious?Tessa didn’t reply. She tossed the phone back into my bag.The door flew open the next second.Dante stood in the doorway, his tie still undone, his breathing uneven.“Isabella, what the hell is this?”My body sat motionless on the sofa.He waited a few seconds, his expression slowly darkening.“Tessa went too far today. I’ve already told her that.”“But threatening to call off the wedding? Don’t make a scene.”I looked into his eyes.You told her?When?While I was struggling for my life? Or after you left me here alone to cool off?Tessa’s eyes filled with tears.“Don-Don, don’t fight with Isabella because of me.”“It’s all my fault. I just wanted to make a funny video. I didn’t know she’d be so upset.”She

Chapter 3

Eight minutes until the ceremony.Dante’s father called him away to greet the heads of two allied families.The fingers of the hand he’d been holding had begun to curl as the muscles stiffened.In my half-open left eye, the clear support rod was still hidden beneath the drying frosting.Enzo checked the time, his patience gone.“We can’t seriously keep three hundred people waiting for her.”Marco looked at Tessa.“Should we help her outside?”Tessa sneered.“She wants to keep pretending? Let’s see how long she lasts in front of the guests.”The two capos each grabbed an arm and dragged me toward the vanity.My body slid off the sofa. The back of my head struck the armrest with a dull thud.Dante’s jacket fell to the floor.I couldn’t feel physical pain anymore.But watching them drag my body around still hurt.I tried to push them away.“Let go of me!”“Stop dragging me!”Enzo grimaced.“Why is she so heavy?”Tessa scoffed.“She’s making herself dead weight.”She picked up the ring lig

Chapter 4

Outside, the countdown had begun.“Five minutes!”“Everyone, get ready!”Dante stood.At the door, he glanced back at me.“Wipe off the rest of the frosting. I’ll be waiting for you at the altar.”The hall was already full, and my mother was texting me.Sweetheart, it’s almost time. Are you nervous?I cried a little earlier. Your dad laughed at me.Take your time walking down the aisle. Don’t trip.It was when I read those messages that I realized I would never go home again.That morning, Mom had stopped me at the door to straighten my veil. While she fussed over me, Dad drew Dante aside. “I know what your family is capable of. But she’s my daughter. If you hurt her, I won’t look the other way.”Dante hadn’t flinched. He’d reached for my hand.“You won’t have to. I’ll take care of her.”Dad had looked at him for a long moment before nodding.None of them could have imagined that, just a few hours later, their daughter’s wedding would become her funeral.Three minutes to go.Tessa rus

Chapter 5

Dante went still.His eyes fixed on the clear rod protruding from my left eye. Around it, the frosting had cracked, exposing a dark crust of blood.Not raspberry filling.Blood.“Isabella?”He lowered me onto the sofa, one hand behind my head. Then he brushed his thumb across my cheek.“Wake up!”“Look at me!”For the past half hour, he’d been telling me to stop sulking. Now he was watching my face, waiting for the smallest movement.“Baby. Come on.”His fingers moved to my neck.He pressed them beneath my jaw, waited, then shifted them and tried again.I watched his expression change.At last, his gaze dropped to my hands.Those were the hands that had clawed at his wrists while he held me against the cake. I’d been trying to pull his fingers loose. Trying to make him understand that something was wrong.He had only tightened his grip.It’s just a joke. Do you really have to make such a scene?“Were you—”He couldn’t finish.His knees hit the carpet. For a moment, he stayed there with

Chapter 6

Tessa stared at him. Her lips moved, but nothing came out.Then she pulled her wrist free and turned toward Enzo.“Don’t tell them about the cake.”Enzo lowered the phone slightly.“What?”“Just say she collapsed. Don’t tell them we were holding her down.”Dante slowly stood.“Say that again.”Tessa backed toward the vanity.“Dante, I’m scared. I ordered the cake, but you were all holding her. If the police start asking questions…”He slapped her.Tessa stumbled against the vanity, knocking a glass jar of makeup brushes to the floor. She pressed a hand to her cheek and stared at him.For once, she seemed to have nothing to say.I had never seen Dante raise a hand to her. When she crashed his car at seventeen, he’d gone to collect her before calling his father. When she got drunk and smashed the watch I’d given him for his birthday, he’d told me she hadn’t meant to.There had always been an excuse. And I had always been the one expected to understand. “She’s dead,” he said.His voice s

Chapter 7

Dad stood just inside the doorway, staring at me. He hadn’t moved since the paramedic spoke.Then he walked past Dante and knelt beside Mom.He put an arm around her, but his eyes stayed on my face.“Can they take that thing out?” he asked.His voice was so quiet that the paramedic leaned closer.“Please. My wife shouldn’t have to look at our daughter like this.”Mom gripped his sleeve.Only then did Dad turn to Dante.“Who did this?”Dante looked toward Tessa.Dad followed his gaze.Tessa started crying harder.“It was an accident. We were just…”“I asked him.”She fell silent.Dante swallowed.“She pushed her into the cake.”“And where were you?”He didn’t answer.Dad stood. I had seen him angry before, but never like this. He wasn’t shouting. He was waiting, watching Dante with a concentration that frightened me.“You were in here?”“Yes.”“Then why didn’t you stop it?”Dante’s face crumpled.“I thought it was a joke.”Dad looked at the broken cake, then back at me.“A joke?” He sta

Chapter 8

Dante found the conversation and handed his phone to the detective.I had sent the messages the night before our wedding.Tessa seems to be planning something. Every time I ask, she laughs and tells me to wait.Whatever she’s planning, please put a stop to it. His replies were directly underneath.I’ll handle her.Nobody’s doing anything you’re not comfortable with.You have my word.The detective scrolled through the conversation, then returned the phone.Dante kept looking at the screen.I remembered how relieved I’d felt when those messages arrived. I had put my phone down and gone back to packing for our honeymoon.For once, I hadn’t felt the need to explain why I was upset.He understood. He’d promised.The videographer had recorded everything.A camera had been set up in the corner to capture the final preparations. In the confusion afterward, no one had thought to turn it off.The footage began with Marco and Enzo wheeling in the cake.There I was, smiling.I had no idea how li

Chapter 9

In the days that followed, the investigation established how the support rod had entered through my left eye and caused a catastrophic brain injury.But I hadn’t died the moment my face hit the cake.I had still been alive when I caught Dante’s wrist.Alive when he told me to stop making a scene.No one could say for certain whether immediate help would have saved me. What they knew was that I had struggled, and the people holding me had kept holding on.Dante read that part of the report over and over.His father sat across from him. The family’s lawyer was speaking, explaining something about what Dante had known and what Tessa had concealed.Dante placed the report on the desk.“She was still alive.”The lawyer stopped.“When she grabbed me,” Dante said. “She was still alive.”His father reached across the desk, but Dante stood before he could touch him.He went upstairs and shut the bedroom door.I followed.He sat on the edge of the bed where we had slept the night before our wedd

Chapter 10

Dante moved into the house we had been meant to share.I’d chosen it because of the windows overlooking the garden. He had wanted somewhere closer to the estate, but after our second visit, he’d handed me the keys.“You’re already deciding where the furniture goes,” he’d said. “We’re taking it.”The furniture was there now.So were the books I’d brought over, the ridiculous yellow armchair he’d pretended to hate, and two mugs waiting beside the coffee machine.My suitcase was still packed for our honeymoon.Dante left his bag by the door and walked through the rooms without turning on the lights.In the bedroom, he opened the wardrobe.My clothes filled one side. On the other, someone had hung the shirts and suits he’d sent ahead.He touched the sleeve of one of my dresses, then sat on the bed.He had brought my phone with him. The police had returned it after examining it, and Dad had let him keep it long enough to copy our photographs.For several minutes, Dante scrolled without open

PREV

NEXT

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP

DMCA.com Protection Status