Scarlett POV
I left the freezing air of the terrace and stepped back into the grand hallway's gilded warmth. My only thought was to find my driver, to put distance between myself and this building before my father's men could intercept me.
Before I could reach the exit, Leo stepped out from behind a marble pillar, blocking my path.
His eyes had narrowed to slits, the pupils like pinpricks of black ice.
He clearly assumed I was marching back into the ballroom to aggressively reclaim the tiara.
I looked at the man whose life I had saved in the orphanage.
I had used my meager funds to protect him back then, and leveraged my mafia ties to make him a Capo now.
I attempted to step around him without saying a word.
But as Leo glanced over my shoulder and saw Chloe looking our way from the ballroom doors, his demeanor shifted.
He suddenly tightened his jaw and forcefully grabbed my wrist.
"Where do you think you are going?" Leo demanded, his fingers clamping down like a vise, the bones of my wrist grinding together.
The sudden, violent shift in weight sent me off balance. The heel of my shoe, no wider than a dime, skated across the polished lip of the marble step. My equilibrium vanished in an instant; there was no graceful tumble, only a clumsy, jarring fall backward down the flight of stairs, a chaos of tangled limbs and silk.
My right knee met the unforgiving stone with a sound like a dry branch being snapped under a heavy boot. A wet, internal tearing sensation followed immediately after.
A white-hot shock of pain lanced up my leg, and the air was punched from my lungs.
Leo froze at the top of the stairs for a single, hesitant second.
Then, his face twisted into a harsh scowl.
"Stop playing the sympathy card, Scarlett," Leo accused loudly.
"Chloe only has Julian, while you hold all the power. Stop acting like a victim."
Drawn by the commotion, Luca and Gabriel rushed out of the ballroom and hurried down the stairs.
They stopped in front of me, staring at my swollen knee pressing against the silk fabric of my dress.
"Putting on a theatrical act to manipulate Julian into staying?" Luca asked coldly.
Gabriel let out a cynical laugh.
"Did you calculate the exact angle of your fall in your little blackmail ledger?" Gabriel mocked, each word carefully polished and sharp. "Just like you did three years ago?"
I bit down so hard on the inside of my cheek that the slick, metallic taste of blood filled my mouth.
Ignoring them, I pushed my hands against the cold floor and forced myself to stand up.
My right leg trembled violently, but I refused to stay on the ground.
I shoved Gabriel out of my way, causing Luca to lose his patience.
"You are making a scene," Luca growled.
He reached out and violently yanked my left arm to pull me back.
With a brutal twist from the Enforcer, there was a grotesque, grinding pop from my left shoulder as the joint was wrenched from its socket. It was a sound I felt more than heard.
The pain was a blinding, silent scream that wiped all sight from my eyes, plunging me into a brief, suffocating darkness.
Cold sweat erupted across my forehead and dripped down my neck.
Luca stared at my left arm, which now hung uselessly at a grotesque angle.
His voice turned stiff and hesitant.
"Are you deliberately fighting us just to steal a man back?" Luca asked.
Gabriel sneered, though his eyes darted nervously to my mangled shoulder.
"She is the hardened true heiress who survived the streets," Gabriel declared.
"This minor injury is nothing to her. Do not expect our pity, Scarlett."
I stood in the middle of the hallway, enduring a pain so sharp it made my stomach heave.
I looked at the three men I had protected with my life, and I smiled at Gabriel.
"You are right," I said, my voice eerily calm despite the agony.
"I am used to suffering. This is nothing."
I released my grip on my own elbow and let my left arm drop completely dead against my side.
Gabriel's smirk vanished instantly.
He looked away, unable to stomach the sight of my dislocated joint.
Luca's hands began to tremble.
"I will call the syndicate's private doctor," Luca offered, his voice shaking.
"No," I refused flatly.
"Rumors of my weakness will tank the Falcone Family's stock and reputation," I stated.
Luca stared at me like I was a ghost.
"You are a lunatic," Luca cursed. "You only care about the syndicate's bottom line."
His guilt quickly morphed back into defensive rage.
"You locked an allergic Chloe in a warehouse years ago to secure a territory deal!" Luca shouted.
"You are a monster who only understands profit, never loyalty!"
With that, Luca turned around and stormed up the stairs.
Gabriel shook his head with a cold, dismissing laugh.
"Even if you cripple yourself tonight, Julian will never return to you," Gabriel said.
He turned and followed Luca back into the glittering ballroom.
Leo refused to look at me. He simply walked away to join Chloe.
I limped to the dark end of the corridor and leaned my heavy body against the cold wall.
Every breath I took sent white-hot daggers through my shoulder.
I stared at the empty hallway, and in the ringing silence, a cold certainty settled over me. It was time to sever this dead weight from my life.
In my coat pocket, my fingers brushed against something cold and metallic—the encrypted satellite phone Dante Vitiello had slipped into my palm six months ago. I had laughed then, tucked it away, and forgotten it existed. Now my thumb found the single programmed number, hovered over the call button for one heartbeat, two. Then I pressed it. The line began to ring.
