My Ex Told Me to Get Married? Too Bad I Had Married His Uncle! Chapter 08

My Ex Told Me to Get Married? Too Bad I Had Married His Uncle! Chapter 08

Dante looked like someone had slipped a blade between his ribs. He stared at Vincent, and

everything behind his eyes was collapsing.

“Years ago?” His voice fractured. “What does that mean?”

Vincent didn’t look at him again. He reached over and adjusted the shawl on my shoulders absent, practiced gesture, like he’d done it a thousand times and would do it a thousand more.

“I warned you the day you got engaged to Vivian.” His voice was quiet, almost conversational.

“Don’t lose her.”

A low, mirthless laugh. “You were too stupid to listen.”

“While you were busy playing house with another woman, I was the one cleaning up your mess. I

found someone to restore the blue diamond brooch her mother left her.”

“I was the one who shut down every rumor about her after she left Chicago.”

“The day you ruined the engagement, I flew to Cresthaven to find her.”

“And you were still sitting in a bar with Sienna.”

The last trace of color bled out of Dante’s face.

He finally understood. Vincent hadn’t stolen Vivian from him. He’d lost her the moment he pushed

her away with his own hands — and Vincent had simply been there to catch what he’d thrown away.

Sienna crumpled onto the floor and let out a laugh that sounded like breaking glass.

“Did you hear that, Dante?”

“You’re the only fool in this story! From beginning to end – it was just you!”

“You thought you were the future don, but Vincent never even considered you.”

“You didn’t just lose to Vivian. Vincent looked right through you from the start!”

“Shut up!” Dante lost whatever restraint he had left and kicked over the nearest drinks table. Glass

shattered across the floor.

The enforcers moved fast – three of them taking him down before he could take another step.

Vincent’s patience finally snapped.

“Get him out of here. Put him on the first plane out. If he ever sets foot in Chicago again, shoot on sight.”

His gaze shifted to Sienna.

“Forging documents. Bribing estate personnel. Tampering with an old case.” He paused. “Take her

to the docks. The Outfit handles its own trash.”

Sienna’s face went hollow with terror. She scrambled across the floor and lunged for me.

“Vivian! Please – I know I was wrong! Just say one word for me! I’ll disappear! Just let me live!”

I stepped back. Her hands closed on nothing, and she collapsed at my feet.

“Of all the people you could’ve tried to play – I was the wrong one.”

“Get her out.”

Within minutes, they dragged them both away. The auditorium settled back into silence.

The kind of silence that tried to pretend nothing had happened – except for the wreckage scattered

across the floor, the only evidence of the circus that had just unfolded.

Vincent looked at me. “Still angry?”

I shook my head. “I stopped being angry a long time ago.”

Once you truly let someone go, even the hatred fades. Dante was nothing to me now – not a wound,

not a scar. Only someone I used to know.

Vincent’s mouth curved. “Then let’s go home.”

I had barely nodded before two small bodies crashed into us.

“Daddy, carry me!”

“Mommy, carry me too!”

Vincent scooped them up, one in each arm. They had his face the same dark eyes, the same little

frown when they were thinking too hard. My mother stood off to the side, watching the four of us,

smiling in that quiet, contented way of hers.

The night breeze skimmed over the lake. Hill Estate glowed against the dark.

This place had been a dream I couldn’t reach when I was younger. Then it became the dream I thought I’d lost forever.

But I was still standing here. And it was mine.

Vincent’s arms circled me from behind.

“Vivian.”

“Hmm?”

“Do you regret marrying me?”

I turned and caught the look on his face- something I almost never saw. The man who made all of

Chicago hold its breath was waiting for my answer like his life depended on it.

I smiled. I couldn’t help it.

I rose onto my toes and kissed him.

“Don Vincent.”

“The real question is – when have I ever not loved you?”

Dante once believed the greatest thing that could happen to me was marrying him.

The truth is, my real coronation began the day I walked away.