The Mafia’s Stand-In Bride Chapter 10

The Mafia’s Stand-In Bride Chapter 10

I turned in all the evidence and officially sued Lorenzo Vitale.

Adultery during marriage.

Thanks to Maya, all the evidence was handed right to me by her.

I hired people to investigate based on the info, dates and locations she gave me, and the paperwork was solid-Lorenzo couldn’t argue with any of it.

During the investigation, I also found some interesting dirt on Maya, and I sent the whole package straight to the Vitale family council.

During this whole time, Lorenzo came to see me almost every single day.

“I admit, it was just a little midlife fling with Maya, just novelty getting the better of me. But that doesn’t mean I don’t love you anymore, Lily. I’ve always loved you, I never changed.

“Don’t leave me, don’t divorce me, okay? Lily, I already fired Maya. I promise you, I’ll never do anything to hurt you again, alright? I’m begging you.

“We’ve known each other for all these years, things finally got good for us. Don’t throw it all away just like that, okay?”

He looked absolutely destroyed. For the first time, he showed me this vulnerable, hurting side.

But even with all his begging, my heart stayed completely numb.

“Lorenzo, let me go. I don’t love you anymore.”

He just kept shaking his head. “I don’t believe it… Lily, I don’t believe you. You said we’d be together forever.”

“You know that vows only count when we’re still in love.””

I still refused.

Word by word, I shattered the last sliver of hope he had left.

The divorce trial lasted a month. The judge handed down the verdict.

As the cheating party in the marriage, Lorenzo only got 20 percent of our marital assets.

On top of that, when the news of the divorce and the cheating got out, the Vitale family’s busines crashed and burned. The family’s partners and the council all turned on him, and voted to remove

him as Don.

At the same time, the council pulled out their own evidence proving that while Maya was seeing Lorenzo, she’d been leaking family secrets to the rival family and pocketing a fortune. The council pressed charges, and she was looking at ten years in prison.

The second I walked out of the courthouse, I felt that same warm rush of relief.

“You bitch! You fucking bitch! You’re just a common thief!”

Layla screamed at me like a madwoman, but Lorenzo pulled her back.

Overnight, he looked like he’d aged ten years. The gaze he fixed on me was full of broken, near-dead despair.

“We can still be friends after this, right? I broke up with Maya already. Just give me one more

chance.”

I shook my head. “We can’t be friends, Lorenzo. Let’s never see each other again.”

Lorenzo dropped to his knees right in front of me. “Lily, I can’t live without you. I know I messed up, I’m begging you, just forgive me.”

I looked at Lorenzo, brought so low, and felt nothing.

I walked past him and said quietly, “I sent you an email. Check it when you get a chance.”

With that, I got in my car.

Through the window, I watched Lorenzo pull out his phone.

A second later, his whole body started shaking violently. He knelt there screaming, broken and helpless.

He must have remembered.

He remembered that Christmas Eve, when he sat in front of the camera and said his hopes for the future, word for word.

That same hope he spoke of became the final blade that ran him through, five years later.

Such a shame.

now

There was no do-overs in life.

And we were not the same us anymore.

The settlement I got was a huge fortune.

I quit my job, packed a bag, and set off to travel the world, chasing the freedom I’d waited for my

whole life.

From now on.

He and I, we’d never meet again.

And my life? It had only just begun.