Chapter 5

"Pia Bellucci! Get downstairs immediately!"

She'd only just answered the call when Vito's Underboss, Ciro Pagano, spoke urgently to her on the phone.

A pang of fear swept through her as she became alert at once.

Ever since discovering the location tracker in the ring, she was no longer surprised that they knew exactly where to find her now. Yet, Ciro's urgent voice made her feel very uneasy.

She hurried down the stairs. Before she could even ask what was going on, she was forcefully shoved into the car at once.

"Don Castaldo has demanded that you go to the docks immediately."

Pia's fingers clenched as her heart pounded in her chest.

"I have a fever, and it still hasn't gone down yet…"

"This is the Don's order," Ciros said, starting up the car at once and speeding off, his eyes focusing only on the road ahead.

Ultimately, Pia wasn't able to fight back, so she followed him to the docks, her heart pounding with anxiety.

When she was dragged onto the yacht deck, she realized that chaos had already unfolded at the scene. She swept her gaze across the crowd and immediately saw Alessia standing on the opposite yacht, her makeup a smudged mess, while crying and screaming for Vito.

Meanwhile, the man standing behind her was the very person Pia hoped she never had to meet again in her life—Santi Cuomo.

The man who had demanded her in exchange for the Castaldo Famiglia's top-secret document had turned up here.

Fear and panic gripped Pia's heart at once. She trembled hard as her heart sank to the bottom of her stomach.

Santi had grabbed Alessia by her hair, forcing her to look up as he laughed cruelly with a triumphant glint in his eyes.

"This is your real fiancee, isn't she, Vito Castaldo? She looks so similar to Pia that I nearly grabbed the wrong person! Had I never followed your car and caught this woman, I would have completely fallen for your ruse! Haha!"

Vito's expression changed as he began panicking.

He never thought that Alessia would take his car out on a joyride on her own. His initial plan to exchange Pia for the document and then kill Santi was totally ruined now!

"Don't you dare try any funny business, Vito!" Santi yelled, the gruesome scarring on his ear twisting with rage. "Hand over Pia Bellucci at once, and I'll let this woman go! If not, then I'll beat her to death right now!"

His gaze swept across the crowd before freezing on Pia, his eyes blazing with hatred as soon as he saw her.

"Pia Bellucci, you damn bitch! Today, I'm going to make you wish you were dead!"

Pia looked at Santi's crazed state and felt a chill running down her spine. He looked like he was the Grim Reaper himself.

Vito gulped hard, his Adam's apple bobbing anxiously in his throat as he watched Santi point a gun at Alessia's temples. His throat tightened as he yelled back, "Santi! I've already brought Pia here just as you said!

"You can do whatever you want to her! Just let Alessia go!"

Pia stared at him, completely stunned, her heart sinking deeper than the ocean itself.

So, even though Alessia was the one who ruined all his plans, she was still the one to pay the price because she was nothing but a tool—a sacrificial pawn, to him.

"You want me…to die in Alessia's place?"

Her voice trembled hard as if there was a needle pricking at her throat.

Vito answered in a low voice, "You're skilled in combat, Pia. But Alessia… She isn't."

Even so, did that still mean that Pia deserved to be tortured by Santi and used as Alessia's scapegoat again and again, like this?

Pia felt all of her strength drain away.

She looked at Vito's resolute eyes and suddenly laughed out loud, tears forming in her eyes.

"I don't want to be your bodyguard anymore. You have no right to decide my life or death!"

Vito's face was as dark as thunder. "You became a MadeMan of the Castaldo Famiglia the moment I saved you from the slums. I am your Don. And whatever I tell you to do, you will do it!"

While speaking, he seemed to notice Pia's hurt, wounded look in her eyes, and her pale face, and suddenly softened inexplicably.

His tone softened as he said, "Just work with me, Pia. I won't abandon you even after rescuing Alessia."

Pia continued to struggle, but Vito ordered his men to tie up her hands and gag her mouth.

"Trust me."

Santi, on the other hand, was beginning to lose his patience. He threatened loudly, "Stop yapping nonsense and send her over at once! Otherwise, I'm going to shoot!"

Vito inhaled deeply like he was making a hard decision, and personally handed the restrained Pia to Santi's men.

Almost at the same time, Alessia was released and shoved back haphazardly into Vito's arms.

Santi's eyes were filled with hatred. The moment Alessia landed in Vito's arms, he cocked his gun and pulled the trigger, roaring and cursing out loud.

"Die, all of you!"

Gunshots rang out, and Pia saw Vito instantly shield Alessia behind him. The bullet embedded itself right into his left arm. He let out a painful groan as blood instantly began seeping from his arm.

His Soldati acted swiftly, immediately rushing to shield him behind them and suppressing Santi's Soldati with more gunfire, managing to pull their wounded Don to safety.

Pia wanted to scream for help, but her hands were tied, and her mouth was gagged. She could only twist her body in vain while looking at Vito in despair.

The same man who had rescued her from the slums and given her a new life was now pressing on his wound on his bloody arm while looking at her as if to say, "Wait for me. I'll save you!"

She remembered Vito saying the same thing to her countless times during past shootouts and chaos, and she'd always believed him.

But this time, she resolutely turned her head away.

She didn't want to see him again.

She was no longer his puppet.

She was never entrusting her life to anyone else again!