Chapter 3

Vivienne clicked on the third video.

In the frame, I was holding up the newly signed port contract, beaming at the camera. "Vivienne! I nailed it! Am I something else, or what?"

"I'm going to use this money to buy you that pink diamond you've been eyeing! I know you've been eyeing it for a while but were too polite to say anything. It's okay, I'm going to be rich soon. I promise, once you marry me, I'll never let you suffer. I'll give you everything you want!"

In the video, my eyes were bright with joy and deep devotion.

Comments flashed across the live stream:

"He looked so in love with her..."

"Is this really the vicious, calculating Cassius everyone talks about? Am I seeing things?"

Vivienne's hands trembled slightly, her gaze complex.

Julian lunged forward to snatch the phone. "Vivienne! Cassius is in the past! I'm the one marrying you today! Turn it off, please!"

When she didn't answer, his face darkened. "There are so many people here. You're humiliating me..."

Carmela chimed in, "Exactly. Cassius took his money and is probably whoring around somewhere having the time of his life. He forgot about you a long time ago. Just stop watching."

My spirit hovered beside Vivienne, and I shook my head desperately. I wanted to scream that I hadn't forgotten her.

But I could only watch. I couldn't do a thing.

To everyone's surprise, Vivienne pushed Julian away and let the video play.

On screen, I was still eagerly planning our future.

The next second, Julian kicked the door open. "Cassius, what are you so happy about?"

He covered his mouth, feigning shock. "Wait, you didn't actually think that contract would put you back on top, did you?"

I froze. "What do you mean?"

Julian pulled out his phone and put it on speaker. "Hey, man, were you actually going to give that port to Cassius?"

From the phone came the sycophantic voice of a minor mob boss. "Of course not, Julian. Everyone knows he's just a fake taking up space. I'd have to be brain-dead to give him the port. I was just messing with him."

"You should've seen him when he signed the papers—bowing, scraping, so damn excited. Hahaha, it was pathetic."

"Zero dignity. He actually thinks he can marry into the Valentis and become a Don. What a joke."

My blood ran ice cold. My face burned.

It all made sense now. The bid was nothing but a trap Julian set up just to watch me get my hopes up and have them crushed.

I pointed at Julian, my voice trembling. "Why... why would you do this?"

Julian crossed his arms, looking down at me. "Why? Just to remind you of your place. People like you are born cheap. You don't deserve anything."

I totally lost it.

Even when my adoptive father took my Capo title, I wasn't this furious, because I knew it didn't belong to me.

But this time, I'd bled for this chance.

I clenched my fists and lunged at Julian in a blind rage.

Right at that moment, my adoptive parents burst in.

Seeing the scene, Carmela immediately shielded Julian. "Cassius, you're bullying him again?!"

Don Carlo glared at me furiously. "You have zero respect for this Family!"

I froze, not even bothering to explain this time.

Because I knew it was useless.

Julian suddenly started crying. "Mamma, Cassius just said... this house isn't big enough for the both of us. Is that true?"

"You!" Carmela shook with rage, slapping me across the face again and again. "I'm sending you away! Right now!"

Julian rolled his eyes and suggested, "I heard there's a place called 'The Abyss'. Everyone who comes out of there is perfectly obedient. Why don't we send Cassius there to learn some manners?"

The Abyss...

I knew of that place. It was a private, underground slaughterhouse and brothel where billionaires and tycoons went to torture people for fun.

"No!" I dropped to one knee, desperately clutching Don Carlo's coat. "Godfather, please! Don't send me there! I swear my loyalty to the Russos forever!"

I suddenly remembered Vivienne and yelled, "I am Vivienne's fiancé! You can't just dispose of me like this!"

His response was a brutal kick to my chest.

Don Carlo sneered. "Once you're tossed into The Abyss and passed around like a toy for men, you think the Valenti family will still want your filthy ass?"

"When that happens, Julian will be the only one fit to marry into the Valentis!"

Even in death, my chest ached with a phantom pain.

The parents I lived with for over twenty years never loved me. Not even for a second.

As the video ended, people in the crowd started questioning: "Didn't they say Cassius was partying abroad? Why was he sent to The Abyss?!"

"Nobody comes back from there in one piece!"

Julian panicked and reached for the phone again. "It's AI! It's deepfake! Cassius faked it all! He went there himself because he's a sick freak!"

Before he could touch the phone, Vivienne's bodyguards slammed him face-first onto the plush red carpet.

My adoptive parents reached for their guns, but multiple red dots from sniper lasers instantly painted their chests.

Vivienne's eyes welled with tears. Her voice choked as she said, "We are going to watch exactly what Cassius went through in The Abyss... every single second of it."