Chapter 5

Elena Vitiello POV:

The Grand Ballroom of The Pierre didn't just sparkle; it dripped with crystal and hypocrisy.

The air was thick with the cloying scent of lilies and expensive perfume, a floral shroud meant to mask the stench of blood money.

Ostensibly, it was a memorial for the "tragic misunderstanding" at the gala-the Syndicate's code for my mother's execution.

I stood by Dante's side, a silent shadow in black.

Sofia Moretti was the center of attention, wearing a red dress that looked like an open wound against the pristine decor.

She was laughing, holding a champagne flute, surrounded by sycophants who knew better than to mention the nurse she had poisoned.

"Smile," Dante murmured, his hand resting on the small of my back.

It wasn't a caress; it was a clamp, a steel trap wrapped in silk.

"Judge Sterling is watching."

Judge Sterling. The man who had signed the warrant for the raid on the rival family last month. A man Dante owned, or at least, rented by the hour.

We moved toward the VIP table.

Sterling was a bloated man with watery eyes that stripped me bare the moment we approached.

"Dante," Sterling boomed, ignoring me entirely at first. "And the lovely Mrs. Russo. You look... subdued tonight."

"She is in mourning," Dante said smoothly. "For the tragedy."

"Ah, yes. Terrible business." Sterling waved a hand, dismissing my mother's death like a bad weather report. "But we are here to celebrate new beginnings."

The auction began.

It was a charity front, of course, laundering money through overpriced trinkets. The main item was a sapphire necklace, deep blue, like the ocean I wanted to drown in.

"Start the bidding at fifty thousand," the auctioneer announced.

Dante raised his paddle. "Sixty."

He was buying Sofia a gift. I knew it. He had to appease her father.

"Seventy," Sterling countered, grinning at Dante with yellowed teeth.

"Eighty," Dante said, his voice bored.

"One hundred thousand," Sterling said. He leaned in close to Dante, the smell of scotch and decay rolling off him.

"But perhaps we can make a trade, Russo. I don't need the necklace. My wife hates blue. But I do need a companion for the weekend in the Hamptons. Someone... discreet. Someone elegant."

His eyes slid to me, heavy and wet.

I felt bile rise in my throat. He was asking to borrow me. Like a car. Like a whore.

I looked at Dante.

I waited for the rage. I waited for the Consigliere to break Sterling's fingers for disrespecting his wife.

Dante didn't move.

He stared at Sterling. He was calculating. He was weighing the value of the Judge's influence against my dignity.

The silence stretched. One second. Two. Three.

In that silence, my husband died.

"I will consider the logistics," Dante said finally, his tone devoid of emotion.

The room spun. I couldn't breathe. He hadn't said no. He had said he would consider it.

I turned and ran.

"Elena!" Dante's voice was sharp, but I didn't stop.

I pushed through the crowd, bumping into waiters, gasping for air. I made it to the hallway, my heels clicking a staccato panic on the marble.

Dante caught me near the elevators. He grabbed my arm, spinning me around with enough force to rattle my teeth.

"Let me go!" I hissed, trying to claw at his face. "You pimp! You were going to sell me!"

"Lower your voice," he snapped, pinning me against the wall. "Sterling is drunk. I was placating him. It's business, Elena. Politics. I would never actually let him touch you."

"You hesitated!" I screamed. "You thought about it!"

I gathered every ounce of saliva in my mouth and spat in his face.

Dante froze.

He wiped his cheek slowly. His eyes went black, the pupils swallowing the irises.

"That," he said, his voice terrifyingly, unnaturally calm, "was a mistake."

He didn't hit me.

He signaled to a waiter passing by with a tray of drinks. Dante took a glass of champagne.

"Drink," he ordered.

"No."

He squeezed my jaw, forcing my mouth open. He tipped the glass.

Liquid burned my throat, bitter and wrong. I choked, coughing, swallowing half of it before I could stop myself.

"Calm down," he said.

I slumped against the wall. My limbs felt heavy almost instantly, as if lead had replaced my blood. The room tilted. The lights blurred into streaks of neon.

"What..." I slurred, my tongue feeling too thick for my mouth. "What did you..."

"Just something to help you relax," Dante said. His voice sounded far away, underwater.

"You're making a scene, Elena. You need to sleep."

He guided me toward the service elevator. I tried to push him away, but my hands felt like they belonged to someone else.

The doors opened. He pushed me inside.

"Leo is upstairs in the penthouse suite," Dante said to the guard in the elevator. "Make sure she gets there. Tell him to get the photos we need. If she wants to act like a whore, we'll make sure we have the leverage to keep her quiet."

The doors closed.

I slid down to the floor, darkness swallowing me whole.

My last thought was of the ocean. I needed to get to the water. I needed to wash him off my skin.