Chapter 4

I dragged my battered body through the cold corridors of the Donovitch estate, each movement sending searing pain through my whipped back. I ignored the agony.

In my past life, this was about when I received the news that my father had been shot dead.

I didn't know the details then, didn't understand what had happened. But now I did.

My father, Don of the Volkov family, though stripped of real power, was still my only family.

I had to save him. Since God had given me this second chance, I would change his fate.

My first thought was Leone.

The Donovitch family had formidable power; even a small team could turn the situation around.

I found him in the solarium with Anastasia, selecting wedding dress fabrics.

Silks and satins covered the long table, the air filled with sweetness and luxury.

"Leone," I interrupted them, my voice hoarse with urgency, "I need your help. My father's dealing in New York has gone wrong. He's been ambushed and needs immediate backup!"

Leone looked up from a stack of silk samples, his brow slightly furrowed with annoyance at being disturbed. "Trouble with the Volkov family?"

His tone was dismissive. "Shootouts happen in New York every day. Tell your Soldatos to handle it themselves."

"They can't handle it!" I stepped forward, nearly grabbing his arm. "It was an ambush, Leone! He needs Donovitch support, your men. We've always had a working relationship, haven't we?"

Anastasia gently set down the fabric in her hand, clinging to Leone's arm with her distinctive, delicate voice: "Leone, my love, New York is our territory. If there was a serious firefight, our informants would have heard and reported to you. How could there be no news at all?"

She turned to me with seemingly innocent curiosity: "Elena, are you perhaps too anxious and misunderstood what you heard?"

"I didn't misunderstand!" I pulled out my phone, showing him my father's distress message and the shocking photo of the scene—a chaotic warehouse with flashes of gunfire, blurry but clearly showing casualties.

"Look! This is what he sent! He needs help!"

Anastasia glanced at the screen, a barely perceptible cold smile playing on her lips.

She leaned close to Leone, whispering in his ear: "Leone, darling, we both know Miss Elena is resentful because she didn't become your bride. Could she and her father be... conspiring to deceive you? After all, when would the Don of the Volkov family casually come to New York for a deal?"

Hearing her words, Leone became cautious and suspicious.

"Elena," Leone's voice turned completely cold, laced with mockery, "Anna is right. I can't just blindly trust you."

My heart sank to the depths. Desperate to save my father, I had neither the time nor energy to argue with them.

"Leone, I'm begging you," I abandoned all dignity, my knees buckling as I crashed onto the cold marble floor, looking up at him. "For old times' sake, when my father still served the Donovitch family, please save him. I swear I'm not lying to you. If you just send men, I'll do anything!"

Leone looked at me—the Principessa of the Volkov family who had always maintained a scrap of pride before him—now humbled on her knees.

A flicker of something almost like pain crossed his eyes.

But Anastasia didn't miss this moment of hesitation. She immediately pressed herself against Leone, swaying his arm like a petulant child: "Look how pitiful she is, Leone. Maybe... we should help her?"

Her tone shifted, a malicious glint in her eye. "But we can't just waste our valuable Soldatos for nothing, can we? If Miss Elena is willing to humble herself and be my maid for a day, obey my every command, pass our little test... then we'll send a team, hmm... ten Soldatos to check things out. What do you say?"

I knew Anastasia wouldn't let me off easily. This meant subjecting myself to her whims, trampling my last shred of dignity.

But I hesitated for less than a second. My father's life was worth ten thousand times more than my pride.

"I agree." I looked up, meeting Anastasia's triumphant gaze directly.

"I'll accept your conditions. Please, Leone, send men to this address now!" I sent Leone my father's last known location.

Leone snorted coldly. He waved dismissively, instructing a Capo beside him: "Do as Anna says. Send a team of ten Soldatos."

"Go now!" I insisted, a tiny flicker of hope igniting in my chest.

"What's the rush?" Anastasia said airily. "People need time to prepare. Now then, Elena, your duties begin. Come with me, my shoes need polishing."

The next several hours were the most agonizing of my life.

Anastasia went to every extreme to order and humiliate me.

She made me use my tongue to lick crumbs of food she'd dropped onto her gown clean.

She poured an entire glass of red wine over my unhealed wounds, such intense pain I nearly fainted.

She made me clean the ashes from the fireplace with my bare hands, leaving me covered in soot.

She made me kneel and use my handkerchief to wipe the mud from the soles of her shoes.

I clenched my teeth and endured everything.

I had only one thought: Hold on. Dad will be saved.

During this time, I checked my phone. There was no good news from my father. I was burning with anxiety but dared not show it, fearing Anastasia might make Leone call off the soldatos.

Finally, while she had me precariously balancing on a ladder to clean a massive crystal chandelier, I overheard two Soldatos carried large boxes downstairs.

"This batch of air-fresh flowers from Provence is damn delicate. Miss Anna insists we personally escort them from the airport—such a waste of good men," one complained.

"Tell me about it," the other agreed. "We were supposed to have a special op today, but the boss said it wasn't as priority as escorting Miss Anna's wedding flowers, so it got cancelled."

My mind went blank.

Cancelled? The op was cancelled?

I scrambled down the ladder as if mad, rushing to the Soldato and grabbing his collar: "What op? Was it the op to the abandoned docks in the west? Was it?!"

The Soldato, frightened by my appearance, stammered: "Y-yeah, I think so? A capo assignment. The capo said it wasn't worth wasting time on the Volkov family's bullshit, that Miss Anna's flowers were more important..."

Lies! All lies!

Leone had never sent anyone! Anastasia had never intended to save my father from the beginning! She was just using this as an excuse to torture and humiliate me!

And that team that could have saved my father was dispatched to protect her damn wedding flowers!

I turned ice-cold, my blood seemingly freezing solid.

With the last of my strength, I dialed my father's encrypted satellite phone.

No answer.

Once, twice, three times... only busy signals.

Finally, an encrypted message came through, from our family's Consigliere, David.

"Elena... we found the Don... he... he and the men we sent... all wiped out... the enemy was clean... we were too late..."

My phone slipped from my numb fingers, crashing to the ground, the screen shattering.

I still couldn't save my father.

Reborn, and I still couldn't change fate. The last person in this world who truly cared about me was gone.

I had stayed in this hellish Donovitch family, enduring all this, for my father.

Now he was gone. What did I have left to fear? What was there left to lose?

The last support in my life vanished. I collapsed onto the cold floor.

I don't know how much time passed before my encrypted account received an email.

Sender: Cobella Family Office.

Subject: Invitation to Follow-up Discussion Regarding Marriage Alliance.

The Cobella family. That European arms behemoth rumored to have an old, twisted Don whose previous wives had all disappeared.

Before, I had hesitated, weighed the options.

None of that mattered now.

I extended a finger, trembling yet strangely determined, and clicked open the email.

"...You are cordially invited to Naples, Italy, for a personal meeting with Don Cobella to discuss subsequent arrangements..."

I took a deep breath.

Then I pressed reply, typing my response in the simplest, clearest words.

"I accept the invitation. Will arrive in Naples as soon as possible."