33. Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Three
YOU AIMED FOR LANEY, WHY?
Aaliyah
In all the time I had known Alessandro, I had never seen him so enraged. His calm demeanor was replaced with a seething anger. He was very protective of Chantal and me, but his attitude had changed since Laney’s murder and his tolerance for bullshit had definitely changed since then. At this moment, I wouldn’t want to trade places with Celia Calderon.
She found herself bound to the same chair Agent Grasso had been tied to in the Chapel. The floorboards had been meticulously scrubbed, erasing any trace of his blood, just like the chair she was sitting in. If you didn’t know what this place was used for, you’d never guess that it had been the site of any deaths.
Right now, it was just the two of us in here. I made the guards leave to give us a little girl time before the boys came into play.
A smirk played on her lips, causing me to arch my brow in curiosity. “It was a mistake not killing me when you had a chance you know,” I said. “You aimed for Laney. Why?”
Her response was nonchalant as she simply shrugged her shoulders.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Let me guess, you’re in love with Alessandro.”
Her eyes narrowed, and a tense silence hung in the air as she refused to respond. However, the memory of how she looked at him in her bedroom lingered in my mind, and her current silence confirmed my suspicions.
She was deeply in love with Alessandro. Either he knew and he let her know it would never be anything more than just sex or she was trying to get rid of the one person she thought was her competition for his love.
I would say he let her know. I’d known him for a while, and he didn’t string women along. Because he was an honorable man, they always tried to change him.
“You knew Alessandro had feelings for someone, but you didn’t know who she was until my wedding day. Am I right?”
She sat there, her lips tightly pressed together, refusing to utter a single word.
“Did you confess your love for him, and he turned you down?” I asked with a teasing chuckle, not intending to belittle her feelings, but rather to get under her skin. And I believe Alessandro was the perfect way to do that.
“You don’t know anything about me bitch!” she screamed. “And when I get out of here, I’m going to kill you.”
“You’re right, I don’t know anything about you, Celia,” I said. “But I do know your work and you never miss. That day I should have died, but instead Laney did. The question is why? There was nothing important about Laney in the context of being connected to the Rizzo’s or your contract to kill me. I wracked my brain for so long on why the infamous Ghost missed. But you didn’t miss, did you Celia? When I saw Alessandro, it clicked. Jealousy.”
“I wasn’t jealous of that bitch!” she shouted. “She was nothing more than a quick lay for him.”
I definitely hit a nerve.
“Your anger says something different,” I said. “You do know they weren’t together when you killed her right?”
As she glared at me, her eyes burned with a fiery intensity, making me realize that it didn’t matter that they weren’t together. She saw Laney as an obstacle. What she failed to see was Laney would also be an obstacle in death.
“What did you see?” I asked. “Was it the way he looked at her? The longing in his eyes? The way he daydreamed it was her and his big day instead of mine and Tony’s?”
She vigorously shook her head back and forth, as if trying to shake off a persistent thought. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”
Just as I was about to ask more questions, the door swung open, and Antonio and Alessandro walked into the room. Celia’s eyes were immediately drawn to Alessandro, and through them, her love for him glowed. She loved Alessandro with everything in her. But that love would not save her.
Alessandro and Tony walked down the aisle, their footsteps echoing softly in the hushed room.
“Alessandro,” she said, her voice strained as she tugged at the tight restraints. “Get me out of here.”
“Is it true?” he asked.
Standing directly in front of her, with his legs planted wide and his fists tightly clenched at his waist. I could see the tension in his clenched fists, a clear sign of his efforts to hold back.
My heart went out to him. While he never spoke of their relationship, there was no denying the deep feelings he had for Laney. Whatever happened between them had transformed him into a restless man, unwilling to commit to anyone. It seemed like he attempted to drown his feelings for Laney through fucking anyone who was willing, but it didn’t work. The love he had for that woman was deeper than we realized until he cried like a baby when she died on the steps of the cathedral. It was like his world ended that day.
“Let me go, and I’ll tell you what you want to know,” she said.
“Are you the Ghost?” he asked.
“Alessandro...”
“Answer me, Celia!” he shouted, his voice echoing through the chapel. “Are you who they think you are?”
Sighing, she closed her eyes and took a moment to collect herself. “Does the answer really matter, my love? You know who I am. That’s all that should matter.”
“Don’t...” He shook his head. “Don’t call me that. I don’t love you, Celia. I made it clear from the beginning what this was between us.”
Her laughter echoed through the room, and tears welled up in her eyes. “Things change, Alessandro,” she said, her voice trembling, as the first tears cascaded down her cheeks. “Even though you were a mark, a way I could get close to your family, I fell in love with you, and you couldn’t let her go! You couldn’t give me a chance because of her!”
“You know nothing about her!”
“I know everything about her. I know how you called her name in your sleep and begged her not to walk away from what you had. I found out that she turned her back on you. So, I looked into her. Your love wasn’t perfect, and she had a lot of secrets she kept from you. Secrets you should know.”
“Shut up, Celia!”
“Why, Alessandro? You don’t want to hear the truth about your precious Laney? Well, I’m glad she’s fucking dead! She hurt you, so I hurt her. Now she can fucking rot in Hell.”
“You fucking bitch!”
He lunged for her, his hands closed tightly around her throat, cutting off her breath. Her eyes widened in disbelief, the unspoken pleas fading away before she could utter a single word.
“You killed the only woman I will ever love!” he shouted, his grip on her neck tightening with each word. “You aren’t good enough to breathe the same fucking air as she did, you cunt. I will see you in Hell.”
As he tightened his hold, she fought against him, but her struggle ceased when the bone in her neck snapped. Her eyes remained open, devoid of any spark of life. The last person she would see, would be the man she loved who was also the man who took her life.
“You can let her go,” Tony said, his hand gently resting on Alessandro’s shoulder. “She’s dead.”
Alessandro slowly released his hands from around her neck, inhaling deeply and exhaling then he looked at Tony. “Do you know what secrets she was talking about?” he asked.
Tony shook his head. “You know Laney was a very private person. I didn’t even know you two had a thing even though I suspected it.”
“I got to get out of here. If you don’t hear from me in a few days, just know I’m good. I’ll get in touch with you when I can.”
Tony pulled him into his arms, holding him tightly. They gave each other slaps on the back, before pulling away. Then Alessandro walked towards me and pulled me into his arms.
“Are you alright?” I asked, as he stepped away from me.
“No, but I will be,” he said, his voice filled with unmistakable pain. “Take care of him.”
“Alessandro...”
“I’ll be alight, Aaliyah. I promise.”
He kissed me on the forehead, then walked out of the Chapel without looking back. Tony stood beside me and pulled me into his arms. “I don’t like this,” I said.
“Me either.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Nothing,” Tony said as we walked towards the doors of the Chapel. I reached for his hand, and he intertwined my fingers with his. “He’ll call us when he needs us.”
I sighed. That idea didn’t sit well with me, but we were left with no choice but to accept it. Alessandro needed some time alone to sort through his thoughts. While it seemed Laney had secrets, I had a secret of my own that it was about time to reveal.