Chapter 9 - Breaking the Vows
The word hung in the sacred air like a falling guillotine blade.
The organ music abruptly ground to a halt. In the front row, Salvatore Marino bolted upright, his face instantly draining of color. Around us, five hundred guests let out a collective, stunned gasp that echoed off the marble pillars like rolling thunder.
The priest blinked, his spectacles sliding down his nose. "I... excuse me, my son? I believe you misspoke. You meant to say—"
"I said no," I repeated, my voice hard as granite.
Vanessa snatched her hand out of mine, her expression shifting from shock to a blinding, incandescent rage. "Vincent! Have you lost your mind? My father—the entire city is watching!"
"Let them watch," I said loudly, turning to face the congregation.
From the back of the cathedral, the heavy oak doors banged open again.
This time, it wasn't a bride entering.
Four men in sharp tactical suits marched down the center aisle, clearing a path through the stunned crowd. In the center of them walked Grant Mercer, holding a heavy metal briefcase in one hand and a stack of federal warrants in the other.
Salvatore lunged out of his pew, his face purple with fury. "Stop them! Guards, lock these doors!"
"Sit down, Salvatore," I commanded, my voice cutting through the rising panic like a razor.
Grant reached the altar steps, stepped up beside me, and slammed the heavy metal briefcase onto the marble edge of the altar, right beside the holy water and the hymnals. He popped the latches with a crisp click.
"What is this?" Vanessa hissed, backing away from me as if I were a stranger. "What have you done?"
"I've canceled our wedding, Vanessa," I said, unpinning the white rose from my lapel and dropping it onto the floor. "And I've dissolved our families' business partnership."
I turned back to Salvatore, who was now being blocked by two of my security detail from rushing the altar.
"You made a critical miscalculation last night, Salvatore," I said, my voice carrying clearly to every terrified guest in the pews. "You thought by kidnapping Mara Ellis and her daughter, you had me trapped. You thought I would trade my company, my freedom, and my life to save them."
"You don't know where the girl is!" Salvatore screamed, spittle flying from his lips. "You'll never see her alive again!"
"You're right," I replied calmly. "I didn't know where she was an hour ago. But while you were sitting here waiting for me to say 'I do,' my tactical teams traced the GPS ping on your enforcer's secondary burner phone."
I signaled to Grant.
Grant opened the briefcase and pulled out a single, pristine manila envelope, tossing it onto the altar in front of the horrified syndicate boss.
"Chloe and Mara were recovered twenty minutes ago from your safehouse in Montauk," I said quietly. "They're currently on a private jet flying to Zurich. And as for you, Salvatore..."
May you like
Grant snapped open the second set of papers in his hand.
"...these are federal racketeering indictments signed this morning by the United States Attorney General, detailing every illegal port bribe, contraband shipment, and extortion scheme the Marino syndicate has run for the last decade."
