Page 84 of The Ruin I Chose

“He doesn’t give a fuck about you, Isabella. He never did. He discarded you at the first sign of trouble. Why do you think he sent you to Sophia alone?”

I studied her expression as it went from pleased to disbelief and a bit of sadness.

“He was waiting to throw you to the wolves. I’m sure someone else is already warming his bed.”

“Give me what I need, and I’ll make sure you live out your sentence with dignity. You know, there are some of them here from your camps.”

Her eyes went wide. She knew what that meant—death for her.

“He’ll come. He’ll get me out.”

“Who are you kidding? You and I both know Lorenzo doesn’t take back what he’s thrown out. You’re dead weight. You can either live in fear, waiting for someone to finish you off—or you can survive. Quietly. Comfortably. Forgotten.”

“He has plans for your girlfriend.”

I balled my fists hard till my knuckles went white. My breath stilled, and my jaw clenched.

“So… she is your girlfriend. Who would’ve thought the stone-hearted Marcello fell for a bouncing blob of fat. You really did a one-eighty.”

Her words were knives. Dull, but meant to wound.

“Watch your mouth, puttana,” Martin snapped.

I grunted towards him, a silent order not to interfere.

“The raids were just the tip of the iceberg. He was testing how much she could handle before she broke. He wanted to get to you through her. She had told him that she had nothing to do with you. You were just a holiday affair.”

She leaned in.

“Since she’s no longer in the picture and probably now wants nothing to do with you, we could maybe…” she said, stroking my hand.

I pulled away instantly.

“Enjoy your time in prison. Maybe you’ll live long enough to watch Lorenzo cut up and buried like the filth he is.”

I started to walk towards the door.

“Wait!” she called out, defeated. “I’ll cooperate.”

I smirked, nodding—denying her the satisfaction of seeing my face. Martin spoke to the guard in a low voice, instructing him.

With her intel, I’d pinpoint Lorenzo’s location. Drag him out of his hole. But first—I’d crush his empire to dust. Let him choke. Let him writhe in the ruins of his empire as I cut him down—piece by piece.

Walking out of the facility, the cold hit me like a blade. The mountains echoed an eerie sound. The wind howled like a hungry wolf. I lit a cigarette and took a deep drag, letting the nicotine send a rush through me and letting the smoke burn my lungs. The pain felt familiar.

We packed into the SUV and started down the winding mountain roads to civilisation. Santino seemed a little on edge.

“Spill it out.”

He hesitated and showed me his phone.

“There was an accident last week.”

I looked at him and then looked at the phone. A blurred picture of a mangled car against the parapet of the flyover. The car had been hit on the passenger side, and the airbags had been deployed.

A faint smear of red on the driver’s side airbag. Enough to suggest pain. From the outside, the car looked like a mangled corpse of metal and glass.

I looked at the picture in confusion, but somehow my heart started beating so fast I could hear it in my ears. Like a war drum. Like something was about to break. I furrowed my brows and looked at him.