The Mafia Princess’s New Groom Chapter 04
Vincent lost it. He pulled his gun and aimed it straight at Dominic.
“You’ve got real nerve showing up here. Trying to steal my woman. You got a death wish?”
Then he turned to me. A smirk tugged at his mouth.
“You’re not actually considering this, are you, Isabella? Look at yourself. After everything that’s happened, who else would have you? I’m the only man on this waterfront willing to put a ring on your finger. And you know it, right?”
I didn’t answer Vincent.
I looked at the dead-serious expression on Dominic’s face.
And I smiled.
I stepped closer to Dominic and held out my hand.
“Yes. I do.”
Dominic slid the ring onto my finger and pressed his lips to the back of my hand.
He gave a single clap.
A column of men in black filed in behind him, case after case hoisted onto the altar.
A silver-haired steward stepped forward and announced in a voice that filled the room:
“The Russo family presents its wedding gifts to Miss Mancini.”
The cases were opened one by one.
A three-foot sculpture carved from blood-red coral. A ruby the size of a pigeon’s egg. A raw pink diamond, uncut, straight from South Africa.
Every guest in the room stared at the gifts, then looked at each other in stunned silence.
The smirk slid off Vincent’s face like someone had slapped it clean off. His mouth opened, then closed, then opened again.
“What? You said yes?” His voice was low, dangerous, barely contained. “To him? You said yes to HIM?!”
Sophia stormed forward, voice trembling with rage.
“Vince chose me. You’ve always been wild, always out of control. The only reason he ever agreed to marry you was to keep you in check so you wouldn’t drag your father’s name through the gutter. And here you are, same as always, throwing yourself at the first man who walks through the door. Right in front of Vince. You have no shame.”
“This isn’t even the first time. You wormed your way into the Bianco compound and seduced their boss with your body, just to grab the shipping docks. Vince spent six years trying to set you straight. Nothing’s changed. You’re still the same cheap little tramp.”
Every word hit like a hammer to the chest.
Scars I thought had healed ripped wide open.
Back then, the Bianco family saw that Vincent had just taken over the waterfront. They moved fast and snatched our territory right out from under him.
I wanted to help Vincent prove himself. So the two of us went alone, deep into the Bianco estate, in the dead of night.
It was a trap. They drugged me.
My father got there just in time. He pulled us out and took the docks back in a single sweep.
To keep Vincent’s reputation intact, my father slipped away before dawn. He let the story spread that Vincent had taken down the Bianco boss single-handedly.
But rumors have a life of their own. Soon people were whispering that I’d walked out of that bedroom naked. That God knows how many men had their way with me.
Vincent went on a warpath. He killed dozens. Cut out their tongues.
He spent a full month hunting down every last Bianco who played a part.
He didn’t sleep. He didn’t stop.
That was how he earned his reputation on the waterfront.
He got down on his knees in front of me and said, “Isabella, you are my princess. Now and always. Nobody speaks a word against you.”
“I, Vincent Mancini, belong to you. Loyal to you. Forever.”
I looked at the righteous fury plastered across Sophia’s face. I moved quickly, and I caught her hair.
“Sophia. Who gave you the nerve to run your mouth about me?”
I wrenched her by the hair and flung her straight into the floral arch on the stage.
The whole thing collapsed with a crash.
Sophia shrieked and disappeared under a heap of crushed flowers and splintered wood.
“ENOUGH! Isabella, you’ve crossed the line!”
Vincent scrambled to pull Sophia from the wreckage. Blood covered her face.
He spun toward me, murder in his eyes.
He closed the distance in a heartbeat. Knife raised.
But someone stepped between us.
The blade buried itself in Dominic’s arm with a wet, sickening thud.
It brought me back.
“Isabella, Sophia is carrying my baby! You tried to hurt her right in front of me?”
“I thought you’d change, Isabella. I really did. But you’re the same as you ever were. Vicious to the core.”
I stared at Vincent.
Cold and steady.
I pulled the knife from Dominic’s arm and drove it into Vincent’s.
“Vincent. You seem to have forgotten. I’m not just a family princess. I’m the boss of all eighteen waterfront operations.”
“Nobody on this waterfront points a blade at me. Nobody.”
Vincent laughed. It was an ugly sound.
“Isabella, the only reason I agreed to marry you was because of everything we’d been through. Because your father took me in. Because I didn’t want to see you get hurt.”
“Since you can’t appreciate that, don’t blame me for what happens next.”
He ripped the knife out, threw it to the ground, and roared.
“GET IN HERE. TAKE HER DOWN. NOW.”
A squad of armed killers stormed through the doors.
Every guest’s face in the room went white.
The Mancini family had been running clean for years.
Business had gone legitimate.
Nobody had seen this kind of power in a long time.
Vincent glared at me. His face was as dark as a storm cloud.
“Don’t call me heartless, Isabella. Somebody had to teach you your place.”
Sophia lit right up.
“Do it, Vince. Kill her. She tried to stab you. She’s asking for it.”
“You run the waterfront now. You have to put her down. Show everyone what happens when someone steps out of line.”
I looked at Vincent. My voice was ice.
“You’re really going to kill me?”
I always figured I’d go out in an ambush.
A shootout.
Some back-alley war.
Never once did I think I’d die at the hands of the man I loved.
Vincent said nothing.
Silence stretched on. Then his voice came, low and thick.
I saw Sophia’s face. That smug, gloating little sneer.
I smiled.
A single gunshot cracked above the hall. The doors blew open. Dozens of men in black flooded in, assault rifles up.
The one in front bellowed:
“DROP YOUR WEAPONS.”
“Anyone who betrays the Mancini family dies.”
Vincent’s soldatos looked at each other.
One by one, guns hit the floor. They dropped to their knees before me.
“Boss. Please. Spare us.”
Vincent froze. He stared at his own men, kneeling at my feet, and for the first time, arrogance drained from his face.
I walked up to him. Slowly. I crouched down until we were eye to eye.
“You were right about one thing, Vincent. Someone around here does need to be taught a lesson.” I tilted his chin up with the barrel of the gun. “But it never was me.”
“You wanted to know who the real boss is? “
“I will tell you.”