I Saved the Mafia Boss—Now I'm His Obsession. novel Chapter 51

Told from Afar

𓎢𓎠𓎟𖦁‎𓎟𓎠𓎡

“Who took her?” Remo snarled, slamming the teacher against the hallway wall so hard the man’s head cracked against concrete.

His hand was around the guy’s throat, tight enough to make his voice rasp but not tight enough to let him pass out.

“Who the fuck took my sister?”

The teacher choked, eyes wide, stammering through spit and panic, but Remo wasn’t listening but he was watching every twitch, every blink, every flick of the eyes that might point to a lie.

Because deep down, he already knew. He felt it in his spine.

Capone.

The fucking Capones.

But he needed to hear it. He needed confirmation before he went nuclear.

“You’re gonna tell me, right now, who came into this school and took her. I swear to God, if you lie to me, if you even think about saying you don’t know—” he pressed harder, the man’s face turning purple beneath his grip, “—I’ll rip your fucking tongue out and have my guys shove it down your throat.”

His heart was hammering, his jaw tight. He hadn’t felt this kind of rage in years, not since the day his mother told him, she was pregnant with Adelina while his father was in jail.

She was a secret sister but still his blood.

Untouched. Hidden. Innocent.

Now she was gone.

If the Capones had her, they wouldn’t kill her. No. They’d use her, parade her like a weakness, turn her into leverage.

And Remo would burn the world down before he let that happen.

“You were supposed to be watching her! You worthless, fucking idiot, she is a child in your building and now she’s gone.”

The principal tried to intervene, “Mr. Lombardi, please, we’ve called the authorities—”

Remo turned so fast she flinched.

“Don’t fucking ‘Mr. Lombardi’ me,” he stalked toward her, “Do you know who I am? Do you know how much money I dump into this school? How many fucking politicians’ palms I grease to keep this place running?” he jabbed a finger in her face, “And you can’t protect one girl?”

The teacher collapsed behind him, coughing violently. Remo didn’t even look.

“Where were your cameras?” he barked, “Where was your security? You’ve got guards at the front desk who can’t tell the difference between a parent and a fucking mercenary?”

“They wore masks,” the principal stammered, “They moved fast. No one saw faces. No license plates. Nothing.”

Remo’s nostrils flared. For a second, it looked like he might strike her too but he didn’t. He turned and kicked a desk so hard it cracked in half and slammed into the wall. Students screamed from inside classrooms.

He stormed down the hall like a caged animal, flinging open doors.

“You,” he pointed to a girl sitting in the front row, “You’re in her class. Did she say anything? Did she tell you someone was watching her? Following her? Anything?”

The girl shook her head, terrified, “N-no,” she stammered, “She tried to fight them off but they took her... I didn't see anyone.”

He stormed to the next room. The same thing got repeated over and over again.

Nothing.

No one saw anything.

No names.

No signs.

No trail.

They left nothing.

Remo ran a hand through his hair, pacing like a madman, eyes wild. He finally stopped in the middle of the hallway, chest heaving, hands shaking with fury.

The principal tried to speak again. “Mr. Lombardi, I promise you, we’re doing everything we can—”

He turned to her slowly, his face twisted in something past rage.

“Here’s what’s gonna happen,” he growled, “You’re gonna shut the fuck up. You’re gonna make sure no reporters come sniffing around. You’re not gonna say a fucking word to the cops unless I tell you to.”

He glared at everyone present at the scene and then turned back to the principal.

“You breathe my sister’s name, and I’ll have your pension dissolved by Monday. Your face will be on every news channel for laundering school funds. Don’t test me. I don’t bluff.”

The principal nodded, swallowing, “If I find out one of your staff was involved... if I find out anyone here even looked at her wrong...”

He leaned in close, his lips brushing her ear.

“You’ll beg me to call the cops when I’m done with you, whore...”

The woman went pale.

He stepped back, adjusted his watch like he hadn’t just delivered a death sentence, then turned to the hallway full of trembling students and teachers before storming out.

He shoved open the doors with both hands and disappeared into the daylight.

By the time Remo stormed through the front doors of the Lombardi estate, the staff scattered like fucking roaches. No one dared breathe too loud, no one looked him in the eye.

He was still covered in blood, not his. Shirt wrinkled, sleeves rolled up, jaw clenched so tight his molars felt like they might shatter.

He didn’t even know who to kill yet and that was making him psychotic.

He grabbed a crystal vase from the entry table and hurled it at the wall. It exploded into a rain of glass and orchids but it still didn’t help.

“DARIO!” he bellowed.

His right-hand man appeared seconds later, breathless from sprinting down the hall. “You find her?”

He was the only one who knew. The only one who knew what Adelina really was to Remo and what it would mean if she was in the wrong hands.

Remo gripped the back of his neck, eyes wild, “No. No one saw a thing, not the fucking principal, not the cameras, not her fucking classmates. She just vanished.”

He stopped cold, turning to Dario.

“It was them.”

“Capones?”

Remo nodded slowly, chest heaving. “It was clean. She’s gone, and they didn’t leave a footprint. That’s their fucking signature.”

He stepped closer, voice tightening into a snarl, “They have her, Dario, and if they know who she is...”

He didn’t finish the sentence, he didn’t have to. Because if the Capones knew what Adelina was... It's a loaded gun pointed straight at the Lombardi name.

Dario cursed under his breath, “Your father can't know...”

Remo’s laugh was low, hoarse, like it’d been ripped out of his chest.

“If he finds out...” he scoffed, pacing again, hands trembling, “He’ll fucking kill her, because his ego won’t survive it.”

He turned on Dario, eyes blazing.

“She’s living proof that he wasn’t enough. That Mama saw something in a fucking guard—a nobody—that she didn’t see in him. That a man with no power, no name, no bloodline, put a child in his wife. Do you have any idea what that would do to someone like him?”

He slammed his fist into the wall, it echoed in the empty hall. Dario watched him, not knowing what to do because when it came to Adelina there was no boundary that Remo won't cross.

Remo’s voice dropped to a whisper, “He’ll erase her like she was never born.”

Dario stepped forward and asked, “What do you want me to do?”

Remo stared at his bloodied hand, “Pull every camera feed in a ten-block radius. Pay off whoever you have to. I want every car that came near that school. Every unfamiliar face. Cross-check with Capone muscle. Anyone we can flip, we flip. Anyone we can’t? We hang them upside down till they start speaking Italian.”

Just then, the double doors opened with a click.

Rino Lombardi stepped inside, flanked by two soldiers. Remo straightened instinctively, rolling his shoulders back and locking his jaw. He buried the panic, the rage, the fear and replaced it with coldness.

“Beautiful work at the Capone warehouse last night,” Rino said, grinning and proud.

Remo forced a nod and that was all. No smug grin, no cocksure swagger. None of the usual arrogance he always delivered after a successful hit.

Rino’s smile dropped, his eyes narrowed on his son, dissecting him. Something was off. Off-balance. Remo stood too still, shoulders too tight. Remo was many things, impulsive, bloodthirsty, arrogant but never quiet. Never this tense.

That alone was enough to raise alarms in Rino's mind.

Without a word, Rino raised two fingers and gestured toward the door. The soldiers exchanged glances and moved out silently. Dario hesitated, then followed. The door shut behind them.

Now it was just the two of them. Father and son.

Rino took a step closer, “I know this isn’t easy for you. Watching your old man chase after another woman barely six months since we buried your mother,” he exhaled slowly through his nose, “If you’re angry, I get it. But I want you to know something, Remo, your loyalty... that means more to me than you’ll ever realize.”

Remo gave a short nod, jaw tight, “I'm not angry. Mother’s gone. You’re still breathing. You’ve earned the right to live however the fuck you want. Who am I to get in the way of that?”

Rino studied him for a beat, then placed a firm hand on his son’s shoulder.

“I want you to know something,” he said, “As long as she lived, I was only hers. I never broke my vows. Not once. The day you were born, your mother made me swear, she made me promise I would never speak Alessia Capone’s name again, not while she was alive. And I honored that. I buried it so deep I forgot how much it hurt.”

Remo watched his father, knowing where this was going.

“I kept that promise. I never disrespected her. I never touched another woman. I cared for her... in my own way. But you need to understand something, Remo—there hasn’t been a single day I haven’t thought about Alessia. Not one. Since I was a boy, there’s only ever been one woman I’ve loved. One. Alessia. That’s never changed. And it never will.”

Remo’s lips curled into something between a grimace and a forced smile, but he didn’t let it show. He clenched his jaw, keeping the heat behind his teeth where it burned quietly.

Because he knew.

He knew the truth his father never did. That the woman Rino had remained loyal to, had broken her vows long before death did them part. That while Rino was busy worshiping a ghost of a love long gone, the woman he’d married had been slipping away into someone else’s arms.

And Rino... he still didn’t know. He still spoke of her with respect, with love, as if she’d never wronged him.

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