na

marble of the East Wing corridor s

ath with Chiara clinging to my arm, arriving late to the morning coffee ritual. We had found Val

ner blood against the sneers of the high-ranking women. I had wanted to scream, to invo

e with manufactured terror. *"You'll start a war with t

ile feelings, leaving Valentina to be brutally slapp

e cost Valent

to "comfort" her. That night, Valentina hung herself with the silver Castillo rosary I had gifted he

ark Don for a Vendetta. When his elite Enforcers ruled it a suicide, Chiara ha

ad struck the physical blow, but it was Chiara who had slithered into that apartment and psychologically butchered a grie

ide bled through the crack, sharp and venomous.

sneered. "First a commoner Queen, and now we are expected to host her

ice rang out, trembling but fiercely defiant. "You disr

the room, followed by th

po's wife like that?" Elmira's voice

r Capo's wife, murmured nervously, trying to de-

bsolute disdain. "She broke the hierarchy. Drag her out to the corridor. Let t

e doors swung o

ing her onto the freezing marble. Elmira and Isabella stepped out beh

wasn't here to dig h

my eyes locked on Elmira as the Enf