Chapter 4

Back in my room, I didn't treat my wounds.

I just sat there quietly in the dark.

I watched the blood slowly seep out and turn my ruined wedding dress red.

Late that night, someone pushed the door open.

Carlo walked in.

He was carrying a first aid kit, and he looked at me with an expression I couldn't read.

"Elsie, what happened today was an accident. Selena was only thinking about the family's safety. She has to stay alert all the time."

He crouched in front of me and tried to take my hand.

"Don't touch me."

I pulled my hand away.

Carlo's face darkened.

"I came here to patch you up myself. What more do you want?"

He bent down and leaned in, his expression turning cold.

"Enough. So the wedding didn't happen today. We'll still have our wedding night later. That'll make up for it."

He gripped my chin and bent to kiss me.

Just then, a jumble of footsteps came pounding down the hall.

"Carlo! It's not that simple!"

Selena stormed in with a group of guards.

She slammed a stack of papers onto the table and glared at me.

"Someone deliberately let the man who delivered the ring escape! And that's not all. We traced a huge sum of money to a rival family's account. The person who moved it was Elsie's mother!"

Carlo shot to his feet and turned to stare at me in disbelief.

"Elsie, you'd sell us out to our enemies just to get back at me?"

The words on those pages hurt to read.

Mom loved money more than anything. That much was true.

But she was a coward through and through.

She'd never have the nerve to work with a rival family, not in a million years.

This was clearly a trap designed to kill me.

"I didn't." I looked at Carlo calmly. "Selena has the authority to let people out, too."

"Enough!" Carlo cut me off. Fury, disgust, and disappointment twisted his face.

"Selena would never do something like that! Only that money-hungry mother of yours would pull a stunt like this! So the two of you cooked this up together to screw me over?!"

Before long, the guards dragged Mom in like a dead dog.

The second she was through the door, she dropped to her knees at Carlo's feet.

"Don, please, spare me! I took the money, but I swear I never worked with the enemy! It was all Elsie! She told me to do it!"

She couldn't meet my eyes, but every word cut like a knife.

"She said that bitch had the Don under her spell, and she wanted some money stashed away just in case!"

Faced with proof she couldn't argue with, she dumped all the blame on me without a second thought.

Carlo was so angry he laughed.

"Fine. Just fine. Elsie, you've really disappointed me. The family rules are clear. Anyone who betrays the family pays with their life."

He turned his back on me and didn't look at me again.

"Take her to the torture chamber."

The guards came at me like a pack of wolves.

They pinned me to the floor.

I didn't fight.

I just stared at Carlo's back.

This was my reward for giving him everything.

Framed.

Betrayed.

Thrown away without a shred of mercy.

The torture chamber was cold and damp.

They tied me to a rough wooden cross.

In front of me were red-hot branding irons and barbed whips.

Carlo sat on a high bench, his face blank.

Selena stood beside him with a cold, victorious smirk.

"Do it."

Carlo gave the order in a cold voice.

The executioner raised a red-hot iron and brought it down toward my chest.

The heat scorched the air.

It hissed and sizzled.

I closed my eyes and waited to die.

Just before the iron touched my skin, a terrifying force erupted from the deepest part of my soul.

Bang!

It was like an invisible sledgehammer had slammed into the executioner.

He flew backward.

He slammed into the wall and spewed blood.

The thick iron chains holding me snapped, link by link.

I slowly opened my eyes.

They had turned an eerie dark gold.

"You think this junk can hold me? Carlo, you're a disgrace to every Don who came before you."

My voice had changed.

It was no longer a woman's cool, clear voice.

It was a man's voice, deep and smooth and bone-chilling.

Vittorio had taken over completely.