The Wife He Left Behind While He Built a World for Another Woman Chapter 01

The Wife He Left Behind While He Built a World for Another Woman Chapter 01

It all started with something I jokingly told my husband, the head of the Rinaldi crime family, on our wedding day.

“Nothing disgusts me more than a woman who knows her husband is cheating and still swallows her pride and begs him to stay.”

“If it ever happened to me, I’d make him pay. Then I’d disappear so completely that he’d never find me again.”

So when I learned that he had built a vast, self-contained enclave beneath the city and was keeping a nun from an inner-city mission there as his mistress, I called him.

“I’ve been kidnapped. They want you to withdraw from tomorrow’s auction for the redevelopment parcel on the city’s north side.”

Vincent assumed it was nothing more than a jealous stunt to get his attention. Impatience colored his voice when he answered.

“You’re safe at the villa. How could anyone possibly have kidnapped you?”

“I know you’re furious that I’ve been keeping another woman hidden away, but I’m not sleeping with you while you’re pregnant. I still have needs.”

“Besides, down there, I’m using my late brother Julian Rinaldi’s identity.”

“In the enclave, I’m Julian, the man who loves only Celeste.”

“Once I come back aboveground, I’ll be Vincent again, the husband who loves only you.”

With that, he ended the call.

To punish me for my supposed tantrum, he paid an obscene price for the parcel, then turned around and gave it to Celeste.

***

Early the next morning, the phone beside Vincent’s pillow buzzed.

“Don, we’ve located Mrs. Rinaldi!”

Vincent was instantly awake. His gun-callused fingers snatched up his jacket.

“Come pick me up.”

Celeste sat up as well, fully alert.

“I’m coming with you. You’ll be safer with one more person watching your back.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Vincent rested a hand on her shoulder, his voice gentle and tender. “Stay here and wait for me.”

Celeste gave his sleeve a gentle tug, but her tone was stubborn.

“No. I’m a Catholic sister. I’ve served in some of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. I’ve seen worse than this.”

“Besides, you pay me to keep you in my prayers and ask God to watch over you. If I let you walk into danger alone, I wouldn’t be doing what you pay me for. I refuse to take your money and hide when it matters.”

Vincent gently ruffled her hair, his voice indulgent.

“You really don’t give me a choice, do you?”

Still holding her hand, he got into an armored Bentley with her. One of his men drove them toward the remote hills outside the city.

The car stopped at the foot of the mountain, where the lead bodyguard hurried over to report.

“We’ve pinpointed Mrs. Rinaldi’s location halfway up the mountain. Our people are combing the area now.”

Vincent stepped out and kept Celeste close as they headed up the slope.

They had reached the halfway point when his private satellite phone suddenly rang. The number was unfamiliar.

He answered immediately, and my voice drifted through the receiver, so faint and fragile that the wind seemed ready to carry it away.

“Vincent, you didn’t withdraw from the auction.”

The bitter mountain wind tore through the receiver, carrying my hoarse accusation with it.

“You bought the parcel and gave it to Celeste. Why?”

Vincent tightened his grip on the satellite phone, but his voice remained steady.

“That property is important to her. The parish church where she spent her childhood stands on it. I couldn’t let it be torn down.”

“Don’t be afraid. I’ll get you out of there.”

For a moment, there was only silence on the other end.

Then my voice returned, trembling with tears and something that sounded almost like laughter.

“What about me?”

“Doesn’t my life matter?”

“All you had to do was walk away from the auction, and they would have let me go. It was that simple. Why didn’t you choose me?”

Vincent opened his mouth, about to explain.

Before he could speak, a kidnapper’s vicious roar exploded through the receiver.

“Vincent Rinaldi, if you won’t give up that property, don’t blame us for what happens to her!”

The call abruptly went dead.