Pustaka
Cari
Beranda / Mafia / The Donna’s Final Gift / Chapter 4

Share

Chapter 4

Penulis: Peachy
The second I stumbled into the VIP lounge, I started shaking uncontrollably.

The cramps got tighter and tighter, like bloody razors slicing up my insides.

I leaned against the cold marble sink, gasping for air, cold sweat beading on my forehead.

I needed to leave. Go to a hospital. Now.

Forcing myself up, I dragged my bad leg and limped toward the door.

I grabbed the handle and yanked.

Locked tight.

I froze, then yanked harder. The door was practically welded shut, deadbolted from the outside.

"Open the door!" I pounded on the heavy soundproof wood. "Is anyone out there?"

"Save your breath, sweetie."

A sweet but venomous voice drifted through the door. It was Bianca.

"You could scream your lungs out in there, the Dons partying outside won't hear a damn thing. This club has top-tier soundproofing."

Her voice reeked of sickening triumph and mockery.

"Bianca, open up. I'm sick." I ground my teeth, fighting the dragging pain.

"Sick? Or just hurting from what Cassius said?" She chuckled, the sound shrill and grating. "Camilla, look at yourself in the mirror. You're repulsive. What made you think you could hoard him for three years?"

"You're just a useful dog the Family kept around! He just used you for three years to secure his power! He thinks you're bulletproof, but what he feels for me—that's how a man loves a woman!"

The stomach cramps spiked again. I fell to my knees in agony, my nails digging into the edge of the carpet.

"Say whatever you want..." I gasped, my voice trembling from pure weakness. "I don't care about him anymore... Open the door, let me out!"

"Don't care?" Bianca scoffed like it was the funniest joke. "Trying to play the victim to get his pity? Dream on!"

Then, I heard metal clanking outside.

"I turned the climate control down to freezing. Enjoy your stay."

The click-clack of her heels faded away until there was nothing.

Trembling, I pulled my phone from my suit pocket.

No signal. Blocked.

"Help..." I beat on the door with everything I had left, my voice so hoarse I could barely hear myself.

But nothing answered except my own desperate echoes.

The freezing AC slowly drained the warmth right out of me.

The pain finally broke me. The world went black, and I passed out cold on the floor.

When I opened my eyes again, it was daylight.

A morning bartender had accidentally unlocked the door.

My bones felt crushed. My clothes were soaked in cold sweat, clinging to my freezing skin. I couldn't stop shivering.

Gritting my teeth, I used the wall to pull myself up.

The whole venue was dead empty, nothing but empty champagne bottles and leftover food.

I had been missing all night in a dangerous underground club.

And my husband hadn't called once to look for me.

Walking out of the building, the morning sun stung my eyes. I hailed a black car and gave the driver my address.

Sitting in the back, I turned on my secure phone now that I had a signal.

Zero missed calls.

Zero texts from Cassius.

Thinking back to last night, when he left with Bianca, he must have been cold as ice.

"Where is she?" He probably asked casually.

"Camilla was mad you embarrassed her, so she threw a tantrum and left early," Bianca probably hinted with fake innocence.

And Cassius? He definitely thought I was strong and independent enough. He probably scowled and said, "Just an accountant who doesn't know her place. Let her go, let's go home."

This was the man I loved for ten years.

My life meant less to him than a single complaint from Bianca.

My phone buzzed. I looked down.

It wasn't Cassius. It was the man sitting at the absolute top of North America's power ladder.

One short, domineering line you just couldn't refuse.

[I know what happened tonight. You have one week, Camilla. I'm coming to collect what's mine.]
Lanjutkan membaca buku ini secara gratis
Pindai kode untuk mengunduh Aplikasi
Bab sebelumnya Bab selanjutnya

Bab terbaru

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 18

    Cassius’s POVI don’t know how I crawled back to the penthouse.The apartment was dead silent. No lights. Cold as a tomb.Once, there was a warm lamp she left on for me. A hot soup waiting. A gentle smile.Now, there was nothing.I dragged my broken, bleeding leg across the expensive carpet, leaving a long, dark smear.I crawled into the master bedroom, into the walk-in closet, and opened her side.Empty.I had no more tears to cry.All I could see was the image of her in a wedding dress tomorrow, walking toward Nikolai.“Camilla… my Camilla…”My hand trembling, I pulled the gun I’d used to kill Bianca from my coat pocket.I had nothing left.My pride, my love, my child. I had destroyed it all myself.I was a cripple with nothing. A joke living in an endless hell of regret.I slowly put the cold barrel of the gun in my mouth and closed my eyes.A final, desperate tear slid from the corner of my eye.BANG.A muffled shot broke the silence of the penthouse. Blood and brain matter splatte

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 17

    Camilla’s POVTwo weeks later, the night before the wedding.New York was hit by the storm of the decade.Fierce winds and torrential rain slammed against the windows of the Costa estate.I was sitting in the warm walk-in closet, looking through the last few wedding dress lookbooks flown in from Paris.My Enforcer, Roy, hurried in, his expression conflicted. “Ma’am. There’s someone outside… they’ve been kneeling in the storm for four hours.”My hand paused. “Who?”“Cassius Marino. He’s been stripped of his title. Kicked out of the family’s inner circle.” Roy lowered his head. “He says… he just wants to see you one last time. Say one thing to you. Then he’s ready to die.”I closed the lookbook and walked to the security monitors.Outside the estate’s massive, black iron gates, a man was leaning on a crude cane.He was kneeling in the mud and rain, soaked to the bone, looking like a stray dog.It was the once-untouchable Cassius.He was so thin his cheekbones jutted out. His once-perfect

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 16

    Camilla’s POVUnlike the blood and despair of the underground hospital, a transfer of power was taking place at the same moment in the Costa family’s lavish, Sicilian-style fortress on the Upper East Side.The grand dining hall was thick with cigar smoke. A dozen grizzled capos, their faces scarred from years of violence, sat on either side of a long table.These were the old guard, the men who had built the Costa empire with their own bloody hands. Their eyes were wild and untamed.At the head of the table sat the Costa family’s iron matriarch, Valentina.She wore a black velvet gown, her fingers slowly turning a string of blood-red prayer beads.The murderous glint in her eyes was more terrifying than that of any man in the room.I walked forward, hand-in-hand with Nikolai, dressed in a sharp, black silk gown.“So you’re the one. Camilla,” Valentina said, stopping the motion of her beads, her eyes scanning me up and down. “You sign divorce papers with the Marino kid, then you publicl

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 15

    Cassius’s POV“Cassius! I was wrong! Please, forgive me!”Bianca finally understood the game was up. Her mask was shattered.She crawled across the floor like a dog and clutched the leg of my bed.“Cassius, I may have done those things, but I truly love you! I was just jealous of my sister because I love you so much, I wanted to be with you… Please, after everything we’ve been through, forgive me just this once!”Looking at her disgusting face, listening to her lies, made my stomach turn.“Don’t touch me with your filthy hands!”I roared, grabbing the heavy brass lamp from the nightstand and bringing it down on her head with all my strength.“AGH!” Bianca shrieked as the lamp split her forehead open. Warm blood poured into her eyes.She clutched her head, saw the murder in my eyes, and knew that begging was useless.She had nothing left to lose. She scrambled to her feet, her face a bloody mess, and let out a shrill, mocking laugh.“Cassius, who are you to judge me? You think you’re st

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 14

    Cassius’s POVDozens of high-definition photos and documents spilled from the file onto my blood-stained hospital bed.I looked down.The moment my eyes hit the pictures, my world exploded.In the photos, Bianca—the same Bianca who acted so pure and innocent with me, blushing at a single touch—was in the grimy back rooms of Paris’s red-light district, wearing skimpy lingerie and straddling fat, old men.The next photo showed her being stripped naked and beaten in the street by a few burly Europeans after she was caught stealing from a client.She was bruised and naked, kneeling on the ground and begging for mercy like a dog in heat.But the worst were the medical receipts from a black-market clinic in Paris.Her name was printed clearly on them, next to the procedure: “Virginity Restoration.” Three separate times.“What… what is this… This can’t be real…”I was shaking violently, my fingers crushing the disgusting photos.“That is the pure, innocent fiancée you swore to protect!”Clari

  • The Donna’s Final Gift   Chapter 13

    Cassius’s POVThe underground mafia hospital in Manhattan reeked of antiseptic and blood.I jolted awake on the hospital bed, my forehead slick with cold sweat, my heart squeezed tight by an invisible hand.I tried to sit up, but a tearing pain shot through my right leg, and I collapsed back onto the pillows.“Boss, you’re finally awake.”The man standing by my bed was North America’s top black-market surgeon.He pulled off his blood-stained gloves, his face grim.“What’s wrong with my leg? Why can’t I feel anything below the knee?” I demanded, my voice a raw rasp.The doctor took a deep breath and delivered the sentence. “That shot from Nikolai’s man was nasty. The bullet only went through your calf, but the bone fragments acted like razors. They completely severed the main nerve. And because you forced yourself to stand on it back at the estate, you missed the window for a successful repair…”“Shut up! Just give it to me straight!” I roared, grabbing the glass of water from the night

Bab Lainnya

Anda juga akan menyukai

Jelajahi dan baca novel bagus secara gratis
Akses gratis ke berbagai novel bagus di aplikasi GoodNovel. Unduh buku yang kamu suka dan baca di mana saja & kapan saja.
Baca buku gratis di Aplikasi
Pindai kode untuk membaca di Aplikasi
DMCA.com Protection Status