Chapter 3

The judgment hall of the Corsica family was eternally steeped in the metallic, iron-scented odor of old blood.

Two massive syndicate enforcers pinned my arms behind my back, forcing me to my knees on the floor.

Enzo sat in the high chair like a bloodthirsty Asura. Tossed at his feet were several blood-stained daggers and a confession document marked with bloody fingerprints.

"Katerina, what else do you have to say for yourself?" Enzo's voice trembled with a violently suppressed, homicidal rage.

Gianna was in the hospital. The baby was gone.

The doctors said the blade had pierced her uterus with terrifying precision. She would never be able to conceive again.

And those captured "assassins," after enduring brutal torture, had unanimously confessed that I was the one who paid them. My motive: to eradicate the bastard child growing in Gianna's belly.

"And if I told you it was a pathetic, self-inflicted setup, would you believe me?" I raised my head, staring directly into Enzo's eyes.

"A setup?" Enzo shot to his feet. Closing the distance in three strides, he delivered a brutal kick into my shoulder.

A sharp gasp ripped from my throat as the agonizing pain hit, and I crashed heavily to the floor.

"Her uterus was destroyed, and you're telling me it was a setup?!" Acting like a rabid beast, Enzo grabbed a fistful of my hair, violently jerking my head back so I was forced to look at him. "Katerina, I thought you were just jealous! I never imagined you could be this venomous!"

"If I had hired those hitmen, how the hell were your guards able to catch them so easily? A confession? In the Corsica torture chambers, you could make a dead man confess to being Jesus Christ!"

"Shut your mouth!" Enzo cracked a vicious backhand across my face.

Half of my face instantly went numb, a high-pitched ringing exploding in my ear.

"Hit me again," I laughed. My laughter echoed through the cavernous hall, unnerving and utterly hollow. "Ten years ago, you swore on your life that you would never let me suffer a single injustice. And now, for a cheap whore and her little bastard, you're putting your own wife on trial in the family hall?"

"You're no longer fit to be the Donna of the Corsica family." A flicker of complex emotion flashed through Enzo's eyes, but it was immediately swallowed by absolute coldness.

He turned his back, loudly issuing a chilling order to the enforcers: "Throw her in the water dungeon. Until I give the word, no one is to bring her food or water. Let her soak, and let her reflect on her sins."

The water dungeon.

It was the most barbaric punishment the Corsica family reserved for traitors.

You spend your days with half your body submerged in freezing, biting seawater. When the tide rolls in, the water rises to your neck, with rats and water snakes swarming around you in the pitch black.

No one could survive there for more than three days without completely losing their mind.

"You will regret this, Enzo," I said, staring at his back the moment they began dragging me out of the hall.

"The only thing I regret is marrying you." He didn't even turn his head.

...

The water dungeon was more hellish than I ever could have imagined.

The freezing sea water swallowed my chest. Every breath I took felt like swallowing razor blades.

In the briny water, my wounds began to inflame and rot. The agonizing, bone-deep pain made me black out more than once.

My guards were Enzo's most trusted men.

Under his direct orders, they came every few hours, cracking a barbed leather whip across my exposed shoulders and back just to ensure I stayed awake.

"Just confess, Madam," one of the guards mocked, swinging the whip. "The Boss said that as long as you sign the confession and crawl to the hospital to grovel at Miss Gianna's feet, he'll spare your life."

I bit down on my lip until it broke, warm blood trickling down my chin and vanishing into the murky water.

Grovel and apologize? I would rather die a thousand times than bend the knee to the butcher who murdered my son.

In the pitch black, time lost all meaning.

I didn't know how long I had been rotting there. Maybe it was a day. Maybe a century. My consciousness began to slip, the remaining warmth leeching from my body drop by drop.

The realization hit me: Enzo truly wanted me dead.

Ten years of devotion meant absolutely nothing.

My numb hand fumbled beneath the icy water.

When they first dragged me in, I had noticed a piece of shattered glass resting on the stone floor.

My fingers brushed against the jagged edge, and I gripped it tightly. The glass sliced deep into my palm, but I couldn't feel the pain anymore.

Leo... Mama is coming to keep you company.

Gathering every last ounce of my fading strength, I drove the shard of glass violently into my own abdomen.

Warm blood instantly erupted, staining the surrounding seawater a dark, murky red. A violent spasm racked my body from the sudden, excruciating pain... and then, a bizarre, profound tranquility washed over me.

I slowly closed my eyes, letting my body sink deeper into the icy abyss.

...

Meanwhile, inside the study of the Corsica estate.

The encrypted phone on Enzo's desk suddenly began to ring.

It was an untraceable number.

Frowning, he picked up the receiver. "Who is this?"

There was no voice on the other end. Instead, an audio recording began to play directly.

"... You should have seen how beautiful it was when that little brat was blown to pieces. Enzo is such a fool—he actually thinks the Lucchese remnants did it."

It was Gianna's voice!

"... Now, all I have to do is rid myself of this bastard in my belly and pin the hit on that old hag, Katerina. She'll be totally ruined. After all, who's going to doubt a pathetic, grieving mother? Once I become the Donna, the Lucchese family can fully swallow the Corsica ports..."

All the color instantly drained from Enzo's face. The hand gripping the phone began to tremble violently.

"No... that's impossible..." he muttered.

A digitally altered, robotic voice came through the speaker: "This is the truth the Donna asked me to uncover. You personally condemned the only woman who bled for you to hell, while cradling the snake who murdered your son. Sweet dreams, Don."

The line went dead.

Enzo stood frozen, his mind relentlessly replaying the words I had spoken as they dragged me away: You will regret this.

"Katerina..."

Like a madman, he tore out of the study and plunged into the rainstorm.

"Get the cars to the water dungeon! NOW!!!"