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I spent three excruciating years building an underworld empire for Cassius, only for him to give the ultimate symbol of his protection to a fragile girl named Serena on the very day he proposed to me. My biological brother Julian, my protector Enzo, and my ally Lucian all followed suit, prioritizing Serena's fake tears over my life. They forced me into a lethal bone marrow extraction to save her. When I welcomed the agony-using it to trigger my system's extraction protocol, my only way home to the real world-they violently aborted the procedure. They accused me of twisted manipulation and locked me in a high-security medical prison. There, they handed my care over to Serena, who tortured me in secret, calibrating my pain to hover just below the medical alarms. "You will live," she whispered, "so that you may watch them choose me-until the act itself becomes a prayer." I didn't understand. Why was my physical agony never enough to make them stop, yet a single tear from Serena became their absolute law? Why wouldn't they just let me die so I could go home? Then I saw my real brother Arthur, exhausted by my hospital bed, through the system feed-and I realized I couldn't die. Not yet. I wiped all emotion from my face and calmly signed the papers for their live public reconciliation broadcast. Before I leave this world for good, I will tear Serena's perfect facade to pieces.
Contents
Dying To Escape The Obsessive Mafia Don Chapter 1
I spent three excruciating years building an underworld empire for Cassius, only for him to give the ultimate symbol of his protection to a fragile girl named Serena on the very day he proposed to me.
My biological brother Julian, my protector Enzo, and my ally Lucian all followed suit, prioritizing Serena's fake tears over my life.
They forced me into a lethal bone marrow extraction to save her. When I welcomed the agony-using it to trigger my system's extraction protocol, my only way home to the real world-they violently aborted the procedure. They accused me of twisted manipulation and locked me in a high-security medical prison. There, they handed my care over to Serena, who tortured me in secret, calibrating my pain to hover just below the medical alarms.
"You will live," she whispered, "so that you may watch them choose me-until the act itself becomes a prayer."
I didn't understand. Why was my physical agony never enough to make them stop, yet a single tear from Serena became their absolute law? Why wouldn't they just let me die so I could go home?
Then I saw my real brother Arthur, exhausted by my hospital bed, through the system feed-and I realized I couldn't die. Not yet.
I wiped all emotion from my face and calmly signed the papers for their live public reconciliation broadcast.
Before I leave this world for good, I will tear Serena's perfect facade to pieces.
Chapter 1
Aria POV
As the West Coast's most formidable Don slipped a diamond circlet onto my finger, a voice like grinding gears whispered a sentence into the auditory device concealed beneath my hair:
"The target's allegiance has arrested at ninety-nine percent. You are ordered to initiate the lethal extraction protocol and return to your origin world, or forfeit the life of your brother." The voice was cold, clinical-but beneath its grinding cadence, I caught a frequency I'd heard only once before: the hum of the life-support machine in Arthur's hospital room, recorded and compressed into code.
I stared down at Cassius.
His knuckles told the whole story. Thickened, bone-white scar tissue. The kind you get from beating men to death with bare hands. And yet his hands were cradling mine like I was made of glass.
We stood on the manicured green of his legitimate baseball stadium, set perilously near the edge of the coastal cliffs. The ocean wind whipped my hair into a stinging veil across my face.
The Commission's mechanical voice echoed in my ear again.
"The infiltration mission has failed."
I refused to believe it.
Three years. Three excruciating years as the shadow architect for this man and his leviathan empire. Every sleepless night, every bloody ledger I balanced, every rival I helped him outmaneuver-it was all supposed to end here, with total allegiance.
The Commission spoke one last time.
"The failure is attributable to a single missing blossom."
I looked down at the roses in my arms. Ninety-eight white ones. Their thorns pricked my forearms through the paper wrappings, the weight forcing a curve into my spine. I had counted them myself.
Then I lifted my gaze past Cassius's broad shoulders.
Serena stood a few yards away, sequestered by his heavily armed soldiers. Pinned to the center of her white dress was a single red rose.
Not just any rose. The Family's heirloom rose.
In our world, that crimson bloom meant one thing: untouchable. The Don's absolute protection. His fortress.
And he had given it to her.
My sudden stillness drew his attention. Cassius followed my line of sight. For a fraction of a second, a vein pulsed at his temple before his expression went blank.
He rose from his knee and brushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear.
"I gave it to her to calm her nerves," he said, voice pitched low. Placating. "She had a violent panic attack after that cartel scare last week."
My throat felt lined with ground glass.
"Why did it have to be that specific rose?"
Cassius frowned. A shadow of impatience moved behind his eyes.
"Aria, I am giving you the marriage and the entire empire." He swept his arm toward the stadium. "You shouldn't fight Serena over a single flower when she has absolutely nothing else."
Ice water. That's what it felt like. A full bucket, dumped over my head, stealing the air from my lungs.
In that cold instant, I understood what ninety-nine percent meant.
Cassius operated on the logic that throwing money at a woman equaled love. He didn't understand the exclusionary nature of true fealty-the kind that leaves no room for another. He would always reserve that vital one percent for someone else.
The Commission's voice crackled.
"Are you ready to forfeit the medical reward for your brother and initiate the lethal extraction protocol to leave this underworld?"
I looked directly into Cassius's expectant eyes.
"Yes."
Cassius smiled. The tension dissolved from his shoulders. He looked so relieved. So certain I had accepted his proposal.
I reached over and worked the heavy diamond ring from my finger. Placed it gently back in his scarred palm.
"I am going home."
His smile vanished.
"You can give the ring to Serena, too."
I turned toward the precipice, where the ocean threw itself against the cliffs. The salt spray stung my face.
Behind me, the heavy thrum of a smuggling chopper tore through the bruised storm clouds. Enzo. Always circling. Always watching.
Cassius lunged. His grip locked around my arm like a steel shackle.
"Aria, stop."
He looked genuinely confused. Furrowed brow. Frustrated knot between his eyes. Like I was a math problem that wouldn't solve.
"I can buy another safehouse. We can delay the wedding until you calm down."
Before I could wrench free, soft footsteps approached.
Serena walked up, her delicate hands wrapped around Cassius's prized wooden baseball bat-the relic he never let another soul touch. Her eyes were red and puffy.
"I can return the rose, Aria. I will have the lawyers transfer the safehouse back to you tomorrow."
But her knuckles were white against the aged ash wood. And in the briefest flicker before she lowered her gaze, I caught it-something cold. Calculating. There and gone, like a shark's fin breaking still water.
My own brother, Julian, stood somewhere behind her. Watching with that clinical detachment he'd perfected-the same look he gave me when he developed the Aria Protocol from my genetics to save Serena, then refused to call me sister in public.
Enzo, circling above, ready to extract anyone who needed saving.
And Lucian-calculating the angles, like he calculated everything, including the day he gave my priority extraction code to Serena.
They had all made their choices long before this moment. I just hadn't been willing to see it.
The Commission's voice returned, colder.
"Lethal extraction protocol initiated. Proceed to isolation to avoid external stabilization."
External stabilization. The system had warned me from the beginning-any intervention that stabilized my vitals would abort the extraction. I had to die alone. Or not at all.
I turned toward the cliffs. The tide was coming in, and I knew exactly which cave would be underwater within the hour.
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