The Betrayed Mafia Wife Takes Bloody Revenge Chapter 01
The Other Mrs. Cole
I was the second-to-last person to find out my husband was sleeping with my best friend.
Apparently, everyone else already knew.
They were even taking bets on whether I would leave him.
“Elena? Divorce Rafe?”
Someone laughed inside the private room.
“Please. She can barely order dinner without asking him first.”
Another voice joined in.
“Rafe pays for everything. Her apartment. Her clothes. Her education. She’d rather swallow glass than lose Mrs. Cole.”
“Hey, Rafe. What do you think?”
“Think she’ll finally grow a spine?”
I stood outside the half-open door of the Cole family’s private club.
Through the gap, I saw my best friend Vivian sitting sideways across my husband’s lap.
Her dress had ridden high over one thigh.
Her hand rested against Rafe’s chest.
She laughed, bent down, and kissed him.
Right in front of everyone.
Vivian pulled back just enough to smile.
“Elena won’t divorce him.”
She traced one manicured finger along his jaw.
“She’s a parasite.”
“She wouldn’t survive a week without him.”
Rafe raised one eyebrow.
Then, without looking toward the door, he pulled Vivian back down and kissed her again.
Longer this time.
The entire room erupted in laughter.
My hands started shaking.
Then I understood.
They knew I was outside.
They had invited me here because they wanted to watch me find out.
They wanted to see what the obedient little Mrs. Cole would do.
I did less than they expected.
I didn’t storm inside.
I didn’t slap Vivian.
I didn’t throw my wedding ring in Rafe’s face.
I stepped away from the door and made one phone call.
Vivian’s husband answered on the third ring.
“Mason?”
A pause.
“Elena?”
His voice immediately sharpened.
“Where’s Vivian?”
“Drunk.”
I looked through the glass wall at Vivian laughing against my husband’s shoulder.
“She’s at the Belladonna Club.”
“With who?”
“Friends.”
I let another beat pass.
“Mostly men.”
Silence.
Mason Ross had spent twelve years working security for the Cole family.
He rarely raised his voice.
He rarely needed to.
Vivian used to brag that one man had once put his hands on her outside a nightclub.
Mason had nearly killed him.
“He looks harmless,” she once told me, laughing over champagne. “But when it comes to me? He’s insane.”
Then she’d smiled.
“That’s why I can do whatever I want.”
Now Mason’s voice went flat.
“Send me the address.”
“I will.”
“And Elena?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t let her leave.”
I looked back through the door.
Vivian was drinking from Rafe’s glass now.
My husband’s hand rested lazily against her waist.
“I’ll try.”
I ended the call.
For the first time that night, my hands stopped shaking.
My phone rang almost immediately.
Rafe.
I answered.
“You’re here already, aren’t you?”
His voice was warm.
Almost amused.
I said nothing.
“The bartender saw you outside.”
A quiet laugh.
“So you heard?”
“Yes.”
“Jesus, Elena.”
He sounded disappointed.
“You didn’t even come inside?”
Someone laughed behind him.
Then Vivian’s voice floated through the phone.
“See? I told you. She’s terrified.”
Another man called out:
“Rafe, your wife won’t even fight for you!”
Vivian laughed.
“Oh, she doesn’t have to fight.”
“She knows she already lost.”
Rafe finally said, “Enough.”
For half a second, hope tried to rise inside me.
Then he added:
“She’ll cry later and I’ll have to deal with it.”
More laughter.
“Don’t bully her too much.”
“She’s easier to manage when she isn’t upset.”
I closed my eyes.
Seven years of marriage.
And that was what I had become to him.
Something manageable.
“Elena?”
Rafe’s voice softened.
“Where are you?”
I turned.
He was already walking down the corridor toward me.
He stopped when he saw my face.
Then smiled.
Not guilty.
Satisfied.
He tucked his phone into his pocket and ruffled my hair like I was a child.
“Come on.”
His thumb brushed one tear from beneath my eye.
“Why are you crying?”
“You’re still Mrs. Cole.”
He said it like a gift.
“I’m not divorcing you.”
Behind him, Vivian appeared in the doorway.
She swayed dramatically and collapsed against Rafe’s chest.
He caught her immediately.
Her smile sharpened over his shoulder.
My phone buzzed.
MASON: Send the address.
I looked at Vivian.
Then at my husband.
And sent the pin.