Chapter 4

My heart trembled.

I nervously messaged him, asking what he planned to do next, but he never replied.

With no way to prevent Dario from scattering Nico's ashes into a slum garbage dump, I had no choice but to compromise.

I agreed to attend tonight's family press banquet.

Before the banquet began, Dario's men kept me confined in a dressing room backstage.

Not long afterward, Colette walked in.

She wore a hypocritical smile as she made excuses to send away all the stylists and bodyguards.

The moment the door locked, her sweet smile transformed into disgusting malice.

She walked behind me and met my eyes in the mirror.

"Actually, I know that little cripple really is dead."

I gripped the leather armrests tightly and stared at her through the mirror.

"Because I don't know a damn thing about neurological detox."

She casually toyed with a makeup brush on the table.

"That stuff was industrial heavy-metal waste I bought for a few dollars on the dark web. It would cause organ failure in a dog, let alone a brain-damaged little freak."

I spun around. Even breathing made me tremble with rage.

Seeing that she had finally gotten a reaction, Colette became even more pleased with herself.

She leaned down close to my ear.

"And there's more… You weren't the only one suffering while you were strapped to that bed being electroshocked in the psychiatric hospital."

Her blood-red fingernails dragged maliciously across my cheek.

"When he vomited the medicine, I pressed the shock collar Dario used for training his dogs. While you were being treated like a dog, he was forced to crawl around the floor and fight the estate's hunting dogs for raw scraps of meat. In the end, he was so hungry that he knelt in a pile of dog food and begged me for a sip of water. It was pathetic."

Whatever reason I had left snapped.

Only one thought remained in my mind.

Kill her. Tear her apart.

I lunged at her without thinking and slammed her against the vanity.

The makeup mirror shattered.

My hands clamped around her neck.

Colette's eyes bulged as I tightened my grip, yet she still managed to force out a shrill, vicious laugh.

"I didn't expect that defective little thing to be so fragile! He even tried to grab Dario's pant leg and tell him what I'd done. So I increased the dosage and sent him straight to hell!"

"I'll kill you—I'll tell Dario everything you did!"

I screamed hysterically, my fingernails digging into her skin.

Instead of being afraid, she sneered viciously.

"Go ahead. Tell him. Even if you tell Dario the truth right now, he'll only think you're crazy!"

She looked at me with pity.

"Vittoria, do you think you're still the high-and-mighty Mrs. Falcone?! You're less than a dog now!"

Hatred erupted inside me like lava.

My knuckles turned white from the force of my grip.

I gritted my teeth.

"I have nothing left! Even if I go to hell today, I'll drag my way there through your blood!"

Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door.

Colette instantly changed her expression.

Tears flooded her eyes.

She even deliberately shoved her neck against my hands and let out a piercing scream.

"Vittoria! I know you hate me, but please don't kill me!"

With a bang, the dressing-room door was violently thrown open.

Dario stormed in like a hurricane.

He grabbed me by the back of my collar and flung me into the corner like a piece of trash.

Then he pulled Colette protectively into his arms and checked the marks around her neck.

"Are you okay?"

Colette leaned against his chest, trembling violently through her tears.

Dario turned toward me.

He looked at me as though I were a rotting corpse.

"Vittoria, you really never learn!"

I forced myself through the pain that felt as though every bone in my body had shattered and climbed to my feet.

I pulled the miniature recorder I had hidden inside my sleeve and pressed play.

"…industrial heavy-metal waste that costs only a few dollars… Even a dog would die from it…"

"…I increased the dosage and sent him to hell…"

The moment the recording played, Colette's face turned white as paper.

But Dario didn't even have the patience to listen to the end.

He strode forward and crushed the recorder beneath his boot.

With a sharp crack, the truth was crushed into pieces.

"You really think I'm going to believe this pathetic AI-generated stunt?"

Dario's eyes were vicious.

"To frame her, you're even using Nico as an excuse. How far is your damn jealousy going to drive you?!"

I stared at the shattered remains on the floor and let out a bitter, piercing laugh.

So his favoritism toward Colette had already blinded him so completely that reason no longer existed.

Seeing the contempt in my eyes, the violence in Dario's expression intensified.

He roared: "Someone get in here! Lock Vittoria in the underground cell! At dawn tomorrow, put her on a speedboat and send her back to the island. Double her sedatives until she comes to her senses!"

Two suited enforcers rushed in and roughly wrenched my arms behind my back.

As they dragged me away, I stared at Dario in despair, my voice hoarse but every word dripping with hatred.

"Dario Falcone… If hell really exists, I hope you suffer there forever. I only wish that Nico never meets a father like you again, in this life or any other."

Dario's pupils suddenly contracted.

His jaw clenched so tightly that it looked as though something had stabbed him straight through the heart.

Just as the bodyguards were about to drag me out of the dressing room—

A deafening boom erupted.

The heavy door was violently kicked apart from the outside.

Wood splinters and broken locks exploded across the floor.

"Let her go."

Through the smoke and the sharp smell of blood stood Dario from three years ago, wearing that rough, familiar old leather jacket.

Blood from a recent fight dripped from his knuckles.

He had crossed through time.

And like the Grim Reaper, he stood in the doorway.

Clutched tightly in his hand was an autopsy report stained with blood.