I Hope You Suffer, My Ex Mafia Husband Chapter 7

Dante's POV

Dante couldn't speak. Couldn't move. His entire body had gone completely numb, like someone had injected ice into his veins.

Amanda reached the altar and stopped. Sylvester turned to her and lifted her veil carefully, folding it back with practiced ease.

Her face was absolutely perfect. The makeup was subtle but flawless, her hair pulled up in some kind of elegant updo. She looked like a completely different person from the woman he'd married.

No. She looked like the woman she'd been before he destroyed her.

The priest began speaking but Dante didn't hear a single word. He just watched Amanda standing there at the altar, her hand resting in Sylvester's.

She looked happy.

Not the forced smiles she'd been giving him toward the end of their marriage. This was real happiness radiating from her.

"...speak now, or forever hold your peace," the priest was saying.

Dante's body moved before his brain could catch up.

He was on his feet, pushing past Maggie, shoving his way through the people in the aisle.

"I object!" His voice rang out across the entire chapel. "I object!"

Six men in black suits appeared out of nowhere. One second the aisle was clear, the next second they were surrounding him, blocking his path forward.

"Let me go!" Dante struggled against their grip. "Amanda! Amanda!"

She turned around slowly and looked directly at him.

"Amanda, you're my wife!" He was shouting now, not giving a damn how it looked to everyone watching. "You have to be under duress! He's forcing you to do this, isn't he? Tell them the truth!"

She tilted her head slightly to one side, studying him like he was a stranger she'd never met before.

"I don't know you."

Her voice was quiet but somehow everyone in the chapel heard it clearly.

"What?" Dante tried to pull free from the guards but their grip was like iron. "Amanda, stop this! You can't marry him! You're my wife!"

Sylvester stepped forward. He was taller than Dante, broader in the shoulders, and when he looked at him, his eyes were absolutely freezing.

"I'm her husband," he said calmly, like he was stating a simple fact. "You're just her ex-husband, Mr. Russo."

Ex-husband.

Fuck.

"No..." Dante looked past Sylvester to Amanda, desperate. "Amanda, please. I'm sorry. I know I screwed everything up, I know I hurt you, but please, we can still fix this. We can work it out, we can—"

"There's nothing to fix." Her voice remained perfectly calm. "I'm exactly where I want to be."

"But—"

"Remove him," Sylvester said.

The guards started dragging Dante backward down the aisle. He fought against them but there were too many and they were too strong.

"Amanda! AMANDA!"

She'd already turned back to face the priest.

Like he didn't exist. Like he'd never existed at all.

They forced him back into his seat. Everyone around them was staring and whispering. Maggie looked absolutely terrified.

Dante's chest felt like someone was standing on it. He couldn't seem to get a full breath, and his vision was starting to blur at the edges.

Amanda was marrying Sylvester Severino.

His wife was about to marry another man.

Sylvester raised one hand and snapped his fingers once.

The massive LED screens mounted on either side of the chapel suddenly flickered to life.

At first, Dante didn't understand what he was looking at. Just some grainy video footage of what looked like a bedroom.

Then he saw Maggie.

On the screen. In a bedroom he didn't recognize.

With a man who definitely wasn't Luigi.

"Oh God," Maggie whispered next to him. "No—"

On the screen, Maggie was straddling this guy, her head thrown back. His hands were all over her body.

The audio suddenly kicked in.

"God, I missed you so much," the man groaned underneath her. "How much longer do I have to wait?"

"Not long now," screen-Maggie panted, still moving on top of him. "Luigi's dead. The plan worked perfectly."

Every drop of blood in Dante's body went ice cold.

"That gun you arranged, your guy did a good job. Made it look just like a random gang shooting."

"No..." He was shaking his head without realizing it. "No, that's not—"

"And the baby?" the man asked.

"Obviously yours, baby. But I'll tell everyone it's Luigi's. Dante will take care of us, he's so fucking noble and stupid."

They both laughed.

The entire chapel had gone completely silent. Everyone was watching the screens.

The footage switched to something different.

This time it was security camera footage from inside the Russo estate.

"Oh my God," someone in the chapel gasped. "She faked the whole thing..."

The screens went black.

Dante couldn't move. Couldn't think. Couldn't process what he'd just seen.

Luigi.

His best friend since childhood.

She killed him.

She murdered him, and Dante had helped her. He'd protected her. He'd sacrificed his own child to save hers.

"Dante—" Maggie grabbed his arm desperately. "Dante, I can explain, it's not what it looks like, I swear I—"

Dante slowly turned to look at her.

This woman who he'd defended against his own wife. Who he'd let completely destroy everything he had.

"You killed Luigi."

"No, I—it was an accident, the gun, I didn't mean for things to—"

"You killed Luigi." His voice was rising. "And that baby... that's not even his baby. Luigi's dead because of you and I—"

His legs just gave out completely.

He hit the marble floor hard, his knees cracking against the stone.

He'd killed his own child to save his best friend's widow. Except she wasn't a widow at all. She was a murderer. And that baby wasn't even Luigi's.

Everything he'd done. Every single choice he'd made.

All of it based on lies.

All of it.

"Oh God." He couldn't breathe. His chest felt like it was caving in. "Oh God, what have I done? What have I done?"