Chapter 16: Becoming One With The Demons

Chapter 16

Her eyes looked up to see everyone staring at her. Earlier, she had taken off the bandage to make the wound less noticeable, and she had hidden it with her hair.

She should have known that this devil wouldn’t just let her be. He couldn’t just let things slide without throwing her under the moving train.

Her hands trembled underneath the table at the questioning eyes on her. Her hands slowly reached out to touch her forehead. Her hair had given way for the wound to be exposed—or it might just be this demon’s eyes that caused it.

Anna gulped saliva down her throat that had suddenly gone dry. “I slipped and fell on the stairs,” her eyes stared at no one in particular.

She saw Domenico go back to eating his food, annoyance smeared all over his face like she had said something completely stupid.

“I’m sorry about that, Anna,” the Don said, and Anna slightly bowed at him, returning the gratitude.

Well, that was nicely swept under the carpet, she praised herself, and right now, she just felt like digging her fork into Leone’s eye hole.

He stared at her, a sinister smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, and that glint in his eyes simply told her he was not quite done with her. She was right, though, because his damn mouth spoke again:

“I’m deeply sorry this had to happen.” His eyes held fake sincerity that only she could point out. “The maids here must’ve done a terrible job with the cleaning. We will not condone that. Remind me when you had the incident again?”

Her bones froze. Her lips quivered, but she bit it hard to conceal it from the prying eyes. She looked back up at him. “It was yesterday, but I’m totally fine now and there’s no need for—”

“Nonsense!” Leone cut her off. “It might’ve not been you but the Don who might have taken the fall. Incompetence will not be tolerated here.”

Dear God. Cold sweat rolled down her back.

“Steward,” Leone snapped his fingers to have the butler quickly stand beside him. “Bring the maid who was in charge of cleaning the stairs. Now,” he ordered.

Anna turned to look at the Don. He was the only sane man here at this table; she hoped for him to oppose, but he said nothing—just watched.

Five minutes later, the butler was back with the maid, who was visibly trembling in fear. She appeared young, even younger than her. Her heart twisted.

The girl was quick to fall on her knees, and everything seemed like a horrifying nightmare to Anna. Her heartbeat accelerated when she watched Leone pull out his gun. Why was he doing this? For her to admit that she had been lying?

She watched the crazy lunatic rise from his seat, and then he walked in front of the girl who had begun crying. He was going to shoot her. She felt cold air from nowhere hit her as goosebumps formed on her skin.

“Anna, since you are the victim here, you don’t mind doing this, do you?” Leone questioned, tilting her head to the side with a cunning smile on his face.

This man hadn’t told them what she did. He had treated her wounds and even carried her back to her room only to have her admit her offense.

At this point, even Domenico, who hadn’t cared about what was happening, had looked up to stare at her. The Don had his eyes fixed on her too—everyone did, expectantly.

Anna’s heart thudded in her ears as she rose to her feet, her eyes falling on the butler first and then the trembling maid who was at the brink of death.

Her eyes fell on Leone. She felt like taking the gun and shooting him instead. Her chest felt heavy—too heavy that she couldn’t breathe. She had to say something. She couldn’t let this innocent girl die because of her.

As heavy as her chest felt, she spoke up. “I can’t do it,” and although she said this out loud, that didn’t stop Leone from stretching the gun at her, wanting her to take it.

She looked him in his eyes, internally pleading with him to stop this charade, but there was no stopping when it came to him. Was this the punishment he had been talking about? If it was, it was far too cruel.

“Anna, you do know you’re the future lady of the empire. Like it or not, you must learn to lead with an iron fist,” the Don spoke.

Nice words, coming from someone who had outrightly denied her from learning combat skills to defend herself. Sounds like the plan was to use her—to control and push her around.

Her jaw clenched as she looked between the gun and Leone, who looked like he had no plan to back off from this. He seemed like he was even enjoying this more than he was supposed to.

“Take the damn gun and do the needful,” Domenico snapped.

Even if she had grown up in a mafia empire, she had never touched a gun before—much less used it on someone who was innocent and bared no crimes.

If she admitted her wrong, she would not only have the sin of trespassing in her head—the lie she had told earlier tripled the problem. It would take a millisecond for them to find out she had been trying to escape too. She couldn’t let that happen. She could be selfish just this once—become one with the demons who sat with her at this table, who normalized death.

With a trembling hand, Anna took the gun from Leone, and the smirk he flashed her—like he was taunting her, silently telling her she couldn’t shed blood to cover herself.

Anna’s grip on the gun tightened as she aimed it at the maid, who had lost all hope of leaving this room alive. She cocked the gun, but instead of shooting at the maid, she shot at the butler instead.