Chapter 3

Dent's hand froze mid-pour, red wine spilling onto the expensive carpet. His face filled with disbelief. "What did you say? Dead?"

The guard's panicked voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. "Yes, boss. Mrs. Elena's body has gone stiff. No pulse."

Dent slammed his wine glass to the floor. Shards scattered everywhere. "She's still acting!" He laughed bitterly.

"Get a doctor to do electric shock resuscitation, or throw her in ice water to wake her up! Years ago, she took the fall for me and went to prison. The detectives tortured her for a confession—three of her ten fingernails were ripped out, and she didn't make a sound. She survived that hellhole!"

Back then, when Dent picked me up from the detention center, I'd forced myself to say I was fine because I didn't want him to worry. His eyes had reddened. "Elena, for the rest of my life, you'll be the woman I trust and love most."

But now, because of Sophia—a woman he'd only known for six months—everything had changed. He began to despise me for not being gentle enough, for having killed too many people. Yet he'd forgotten whose sake my hands were stained with blood for.

I didn't want to look at this man's face anymore. I wanted to drift away from this villa. But no matter how hard I tried, some force kept pulling me back. After several attempts, I realized what bound me—the black obsidian ring on Dent's hand.

It was a relic my father had left me, a symbol of the Rossi family's power. It was also the dowry I'd personally placed on his finger on our wedding day.

I was my father's only bloodline, though I was merely an illegitimate daughter kept in the shadows. After Father died, my uncles fought endlessly over territory. Unable to protect myself, I became a sweet prize for the taking.

When I was fifteen, during a gang shootout, Dent saved my life when I was critically injured. Naturally, I fell in love with him. Later, to get close to him, I desperately trained in combat and firearms, just so I could help him.

So when he proposed a marriage alliance to merge our two families, I agreed immediately. I even ignored the ambition and calculation in his eyes. Back then, I didn't know he was only marrying me for the ring that could mobilize resources.

Before I placed that ring on his finger, Dent had been genuinely considerate toward me. He would personally bandage my wounds when I got hurt. He'd give me custom firearms on every anniversary. I drowned in his tenderness, offering up my father's legacy with both hands.

With the Rossi family's assets and power, Dent quickly eliminated his rivals and became the underground emperor of this city. Yet he found me too strong. He resented that my hands were stained with more blood than his.

He wanted a pure, clean woman who would only worship him. And so Sophia appeared.

We used to fight back-to-back through hails of bullets, our movements in perfect sync during slaughter. I would only entrust my back to him. Only I could guard his life. In life-or-death battles, he would risk everything to protect me too.

But that devotion had shattered to pieces because of Sophia's tears.

Dent roared into the walkie-talkie at his assistant: "Tell Elena if she doesn't get her ass out here right now, I'll burn down the Rossi estate!"