Chapter 3 - The King's Claim
Valentina Rossi had stood up from the table now, watching the exchange with narrowed, furious eyes. But even she didn't dare interrupt Nico when he was establishing territory.
"Dad, you can't be serious," Liam stammered, sweating through his collar, looking frantically between me and his father. "She's my ex! She's just doing this to get back at me because of Amber!"
"If she is using me to destroy you, Liam," Nico replied, a dark, terrifying smile curving his lips, "then I am more than happy to be the weapon she wields."
Liam recoiled as if he had been physically struck. The psychological devastation was absolute. In one sentence, his father had validated me, humiliated him, and publicly aligned the power of the Rossi syndicate against his own son's mistress.
"As for you," Nico said, shifting his gaze back to Amber, who was now trembling in her pink dress. "If you ever speak to Luna with disrespect again, in public or in private, you will find that the city of New York is entirely too small to hide you from my displeasure. Do you understand me?"
Amber couldn't speak. She nodded frantically, tears of genuine fear welling in her eyes, looking nothing like the triumphant woman in my bedroom the night before.
Nico turned back to me, the ice in his eyes melting into something dangerously warm. He ignored his son. He ignored his ex-wife. He ignored the hundreds of people watching us.
"Shall we, Luna?" he asked softly. "I believe the champagne on the terrace is much better than the company in here."
May you like
"I would love that, Nico," I smiled, a genuine, radiant smile.
I turned my back on my sister and the boy who broke my heart, leaning into the protective, commanding embrace of the Mafia boss who had just handed me the keys to my revenge. And as we walked away, leaving Liam and Amber in the ashes of their public humiliation, I knew my life would never, ever be the same.
