Chapter 6
699words
"This… This is a lie! It has to be!"
Lorenzo let out a guttural, animalistic roar, throwing his weight against the iron bars. With one casual stroke, I had shredded his final ace in the hole. For a man obsessed with control, this sudden stripping of power was more agonizing than any physical torture.
"Save your breath," I said, cutting him off. I looked at the man I had once loved with cold indifference. "We've finished liquidating your business assets. Now, it's time to settle the family debt."
"You? Settle a debt with me?"
Lorenzo was shackled to a reinforced chair. He looked wretched, but the arrogance of a Capo still clung to him.
"Elena, you've got it backward. I'm the one who provided for you all these years. And now you have the nerve to talk to me about debts?"
He glared at me, his lips twisting into a cold sneer. "You're only acting tough because your papa's got your back. But don't say I didn't warn you. Don Corleone didn't come looking for you for five years. If he's suddenly back in your life, he's definitely looking for an angle."
His self-importance was almost amusing.
"He hasn't looked for me in five years?"
I chuckled and pulled a document from my bag—the wager I had signed the day I left home five years ago.
"Lorenzo, why do you think I never reached out to my famiglia all these years?"
"It's because of this wager," I said, unfolding the paper right in front of his face. "Five years ago, I made a bet with Papa just so I could marry you. All these years, I renounced every privilege that came with the Corleone name. I never touched a cent of their money, nor called upon a single Soldato. I wanted to prove your love for me was real."
My voice was hoarse. "I wanted to show him I could help you secure your power on my own."
Lorenzo went still. His eyes went wide as he stared at Papa's handwritten signature on the wager.
"You did it for me?"
Disbelief crossed his face. His lips parted, a flicker of genuine emotion flashing in his eyes.
But the moment was short-lived. A dark thought seemed to cross his mind, and his gaze turned cold again.
"Hah! Nice story. You almost had me. You think I should be grateful? Grateful that you used our marriage as a cover while you slept around with other men?"
He spat the words at me. "Even if you won this round, so what? You brought a bastard into this world. You're still a stain on the Corleone honor."
I looked at him like he was a fool trying to argue that the Earth was flat. "Even now, you still don't believe Mia is your daughter?"
I pulled out the fresh DNA results and pressed them against the bulletproof glass between us.
"Open your damn eyes and look carefully. H-deficient phenotype. It's an extremely rare A-subtype that's easily misdiagnosed as Type O. That's your blood type, Lorenzo. The doctor tried to explain it, but you were too arrogant to listen."
The results on the report were highlighted in bold red, screaming a 99.9% probability of paternity.
Lorenzo trembled violently, shaking his head in frantic denial. "It's a lie! You forged it! That's not what Sophia's report said. She said—"
"Sophia, Sophia. You can't keep her name out of your mouth, can you?" I cut him off and played the recording. "Let's hear how your precious mistress talks about you when you're not around."
The speaker crackled to life, Sophia's familiar shrill voice cutting through the thumping bass of a crowded nightclub.
"Oh, Lorenzo? Please. Don't get me started. He's a total moron.
"I spent a little money forging the DNA report, whispered a few sweet lies in his ear, and he swallowed it whole. The idiot's actually trying to kill his own daughter. It's hilarious.
"Once he gets rid of his wife and that worthless daughter, I'll drain his accounts dry and kick him to the curb."
