جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 18

Camilla’s POVWe left the DeLuca estate.Behind us, my father’s attempts to call us back were cut off by the closing doors.The moment the doors shut, the DeLuca family lost all Costa backing. No money. No muscle.Without a backer, the DeLuca family was doomed to be devoured in the brutal world of North American gangs.Two hours later, I was in a private room at an exclusive mafia cigar club in Manhattan.Across from me sat Clarissa Marino, the iron-fisted matriarch of the Marino family—Cassius’s mother.“Camilla, you took things too far today,” Clarissa said, exhaling a thick cloud of cigar smoke, her sharp eyes fixed on me. “Cassius was shot. He’s in the hospital. You not only humiliated him in public, but you destroyed the alliance between our families.”I took a delicate sip of my Earl Grey tea, my posture graceful and calm.“Ma’am, I didn't come here to reminisce, and I certainly didn't come to be scolded.”I took a black, top-secret file from my purse and slid it across the table

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

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

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