บททั้งหมดของ Claimed By My Ex’s Mafia Father in-law : บทที่ 71 - บทที่ 80

Chapter Seventy TwoValerio’s POV200,000 thousand dollars is like 20bucks to me but I can’t take this issue lightly because if I let this slide. The discipline I instilled in my men will waver. They know me as monster , a beast and that’s who I am continuing to be. I stood there, hands in my pockets, staring at the girl kneeling on the cold concrete floor of the holding cell. Elena. Small, shaking, soaked in tears and humiliation, a fragile thing folded in on herself. And still… the money was gone. Two hundred thousand dollars. Cash. From my project. My name. My investment.Her voice echoed again in my ears.“I swear I did not steal it.”But I had heard that sentence too many times in my life. Crooks always swore innocence. Thieves always cried. Liars always knelt.And fools always believed them.I was not a fool.I pressed my tongue to the inside of my cheek and inhaled sharply, trying to swallow the frustration that had been piling on me since morning. Everything about this pro

Chapter Seventy Four Valerio’s POV Time did not move. It just sat there in the room with us. Heavy. Cold. Watching. Elena’s body hung limp in the chair. Her head had dropped forward, her hair hiding part of her face. Blood shone dark at the corner of her mouth and under her nose. For a long strange second, nobody breathed. Even Brian went silent. I took a step toward her. It felt like stepping into deep water. “Unstrap her,” I said. No one moved. The officer closest to the panel swallowed. “Sir, we should wait for medical to clear protocol first…” I turned and looked at him. Just once. He rushed forward and started unclipping the restraints with clumsy fingers. The moment the straps loosened, Elena slid sideways. Brian lunged and caught her before she hit the floor. He gathered her into his arms with a sound I could not quite name. His hands were shaking. “Elena, hey. Hey. Open your eyes,” he whispered, tapping her cheek. “Come on, sweetheart. Don’t do this. Not now.” She

Chapter Seventy SixValerio’s POVThe world outside the hospital windows moved in slow motion. Cars slid by like shadows and people passed like ghosts. Inside the private hallway everything was too bright, too white, too silent. Still, all I could hear was the echo of her scream. The sound had drilled itself into my skull and refused to leave.Tommaso stood at my side, waiting for orders. Brian paced at the far end of the corridor with his shirt stained in dust and dried blood. His eyes shot fire every time they landed on me. I ignored him. Or tried to.The doctor had said she would live. Barely. That the shocks had been too strong. That her heart had stopped for one short second. One second that could have erased her completely. One second that could have turned me into the kind of monster even I would not forgive.I never should have watched her break. I never should have allowed myself to feel anything when she did. I had moved past compassion a long time ago. Compassion was expens

Chapter Seventy Eight Elena’s POV The moment the word left my mouth it felt like the air thickened. Every man in the warehouse froze. Even the architect stopped breathing for a second, his chest locked in shock. I stood there trembling from the weight of my own voice, but something inside me refused to break this time. Live I said again, steady now. Live but lose everything you used to hurt me. Your contracts your prestige your partners your fake respect. Let him wake up tomorrow and be nothing. Let him taste the same fear he gave me. A murmur rippled through the room. Some of the men looked at me differently now not with pity not with disgust but with a kind of sharp, startled respect. Valerio stared at me for a long moment. His eyes were dark and unreadable, as if he was trying to understand what I had just become. Then he tilted his head slightly. Done he said. The architect collapsed forward. His knees smacked the floor. Miss Elena please he begged. Please I have a family. C

Chapter EightyElena’s POVVoices echoed around me before the light even reached my eyes. Everything sounded far away and underwater, as if the world had been dipped in thick glass. Machines beeped. Shoes scraped against the floor. Someone kept calling my name but it felt like the sound was bouncing off the inside of my skull instead of sinking in.Clear one of the doctors said. Her pulse is unstable.Again another answered.A shock ran through my body and I gasped so hard my throat burned. Air dragged into my chest like knives. My fingers twitched first then my eyelids fluttered. My vision wavered until the blurry ceiling sharpened above me.She is coming back another voice said with relief.I blinked slowly. My limbs felt heavy and my head throbbed, but I was alive. Barely.When I shifted my gaze, I saw him.Valerio stood at the foot of the hospital bed, hands clasped behind his back, shoulders stiff, jaw clenched. His face held no expression but something about the air around him f