Chapter 5 Chapter5

Daniel's face was ashen gray in the dim glow of the remaining wall lamps.

"Who gave you the right to do this?"

His voice was cold as ice.

I paused at the auction stage, my fingers tracing the cold marble surface.

I gently placed the divorce papers on top of the equity freeze notice, the rustle of paper unusually sharp in the deathly quiet ballroom.

"It was my order."

I lifted my eyes, my gaze sweeping past Lola, whose face had turned deathly pale behind him. "By the way, sign this too."

Daniel's eyes darted between the two documents before fixing firmly on my face, a sarcastic grin twisting his lips: "Is this because I'm accompanying Lola during her pregnancy? Anna, in today's circle, who doesn't keep a few mistresses on the side? You grew up in this environment-how haven't you learned to handle these things yet?"

Lola immediately snuggled tightly into his arms, her eyes brimming with triumphant contempt as she looked at me.

I glanced at her still-invisible baby bump, then at the newly healed scar on Daniel's collarbone. Three months ago, Lola had "accidentally" been scalded.

To curry favor with her, Daniel had actually asked his private doctor to take skin from his own collarbone for a transplant.

"When you carried her away three months ago, you told me to learn how to be a mafia head's wife."

I leaned slightly forward, picking up the ten-million-dollar sapphire necklace on the auction stage, my fingers caressing the pigeon's blood ruby pendant-Chrismas gift my father had personally placed around my neck on my sixteenth birthday.

"Now I've learned."

"What a mafia princess should do. is clean house."

I tossed the necklace casually into the champagne tower behind me.

The sharp crack of shattering crystal mingled with the fizz of bursting bubbles.

Lola's scream died in her throat .

"Daniel, sign."

A collective gasp echoed through the ballroom.

Several timid guests tried to stand, only to be forced back into their seats by the crossed muzzles of the bodyguards at the door.

Daniel's face turned livid, he just stared at me intently, as if confirming whether I was the same woman who had smiled at him in a white wedding dress on Christmas six years ago.

Lola gently shook his arm, her voice overly sweet with feigned grievance: "Sister Anna, can't we talk about this at home? Do you really have to humiliate Daniel in front of so many people. I never wanted to replace you. I just want to stay by Daniel's side. After all, I only love him for who he is."

She turned to me:

"Sister Anna, you'll always be the rightful mafia head's wife. Why make everyone unhappy like this?"

Daniel's expression softened slightly as he put his arm around her shoulders.

Watching Lola's masterful performance, I suddenly remembered when she first arrived at Ivan House.

She'd thought the Browning pistol I kept in the hallway was a decoration. Now she'd memorized the lines of a wealthy socialite perfectly.

I smiled at her, my tone laced with the playful sarcasm:

"That haute couture dress you're wearing-1.2 million dollars. I bought it at an auction in Milan last year. The tag's still on the hem, isn't it?"

Lola's face blanched instantly.

I took a step closer, my fingers brushing lightly over the diamond earrings in her ears.

"Those earrings are 3.5 million. The Alpine manor was my father's wedding gift to me. And the pigeon's blood ruby ring you stole from the Venice jewelry vault was the Godfather's gift for my eighteenth birthday."

I paused, my gaze falling on the diamond-encrusted bra strap peeking from her shoulder. "Even the bra you're wearing."

I raised my hand, and a bodyguard immediately handed me an asset evaluation report. I slammed the paper down on the divorce papers with a crisp thud: "It's all bought with Daniel's and my marital assets. If Lola can't pay it back-"

I leaned in close to her ear, my voice dropping to a low, bloodstained whisper:

"Your youth is still worth something. But let me warn you-when my mother dealt with the woman who stole her man, she sealed her in a concrete barrel and dumped her into the Hudson River."

Lola's body trembled violently, and she almost collapsed to the floor.