Chapter 3 You are no longer my daughter.

V I V I A N A

My ears are ringing, and my body vibrates with rage, with shock, with betrayal. The applause for Victor is deafening, bouncing off and marble walls and rattling my skull. I am the only one frozen as the crowd surges around me, some moving forward to shake his hand, to kiss his cheek, to congratulate him as the new Don of the Costanzo famiglia.

My father's words hang thick like smoke, suffocating me, making my head spin, making me refuse to believe that this is real.

He's chosen Victor. My younger brother. Not me.

I feel the ground beneath me shifting, as if I am going to fall over. For years, I bled for this family. Trained until my muscles tore, till my knuckles bled, till my hands became calloused. I've killed at my father's command. Moulded myself into the perfect weapon he demanded I be. And now...? Now he hands everything to Victor, who has never lifted more than a wine glass in his life.

A bitter heat rises in my throat. My fists clench at my sides, digging into my palms, and finally, I speak up.

"Father." My voice cuts through the crowd, sharp and cold as ice. The applause slowly falters until the room is dead silent, every head now turned to me.

My father, still standing at the centre, swivels his gaze toward me, and for a second, his eyes are colder than the marble underfoot.

"This-... this must be some kind of mistake." My voice is shaky, but I stand straighter, forcing every ounce of control I can summon into my words. "I am your firstborn. I am your heir. You trained me for this. Everyone here knows it should be me." Gasps ripple through the crowd. No one speaks to Ettore Costanzo like this. But I can't stop. I won't stop.

I then narrow my eyes to my little brother, not being able to help the frown that forms on my face as I shake my head at him.

"Victor is weak," I say, my voice rising. "He has never earned anything. He hides behind your name, while I have fought for it. If anyone deserves to lead this family, it is me."

Victor's smug grin stretches wide, delighted by the spectacle. While his mother, Lucia, tilts her head, her eyes gleaming with poisonous satisfaction.

And my father.... he does not smile. In fact... he looks furious.

He steps forward, and the air grows heavier with every stride. The crowd parts like water, afraid to be too close to his fury. When he stops before me, his shadow swallows mine whole.

"You dare question me, girl?" His voice is low, deadly, carrying across the room. "You embarrass me. Tonight was meant to be a celebration, and you made it a circus."

"I'm only asking for what's mine!" My voice cracks, but I press on, desperation clawing out of me. "For what you promised me. For what I bled for."

His hand whips across my face before I see it coming. The crack reverberates through the silent hall. My cheek stings, hot, my ears ringing again. He just slapped me... in front of everyone...

"You are nothing," he spits. "Do you hear me? Nothing. Nothing but a liability. Did you truly believe I would hand over this family to you? A woman? A disappointment?"

Each word cuts deeper than the slap, and the weight of his disgust destroys me, squeezing the air from my lungs.

Victor laughs softly behind him, and the sound makes me want to tear my own skin off.

"You were never the heir," my father continues, his voice booming now, cruel enough to echo into every corner. "Victor was always destined for this. He carries the Costanzo blood with pride. He is strong. He is a man. He will lead this family into glory while you..." He pauses, eyes narrowing. "...you will be erased from it."

The crowd stirs, whispers hissing through the room. My stomach drops as I stare back at him with confusion.

"What... what are you saying?" My voice is barely more than a whisper.

His next words destroy me.

"From this moment on, you are no longer my daughter. You are stripped of the Costanzo name, the wealth, the title. You are nothing but a burden I am finally rid of."

It's like the floor vanishes beneath me.

The Costanzo name. My blood. My identity. Gone with just a sentence.

I stumble back, the room spinning, and for a moment, I forget how to breathe. My whole life, I've carried the weight of being Costanzo, even when they treated me like an outcast; I bore it like armour. And now... stripped away in front of everyone, in front of men who once bowed at my presence and women who once whispered my name.

They will forget me. Worse, they will laugh at me.

Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them away. I won't give them the satisfaction.

"Don't look so broken, Viviana," my father says, his voice thick with contempt. "I have found a way for you to be useful, at last."

The silence is suffocating, and every eye is on us, every ear listening and waiting for the bomb my father is about to drop, and finally he does...

"You will be married off." He informs me.

My entire body locks. "What?"

"Yes," he says smoothly, like the decision was always this simple. "Your existence has been a stain on this family long enough. But your name still has value, even stripped of its honour. Your marriage will bind us to a power that exceeds even our own."

My nails dig into my palms until I feel the sting of blood. "You can't-..."

"I can. And I will. You will marry, and you will go quietly, or I will see you in the ground."

My breath comes shallow, my mind spiralling. Married. Sold. Shipped away like property. I thought losing the title was the end of me, but no-... this is the final nail.

Just when I think the humiliation can't get any worse, the double doors of the ballroom slam open.

The music has long since stopped, but the silence now is deafening. All heads swivel toward the entrance... all the attention landing on who has just walked in...

A man...

Tall. Broad-shouldered. Every step he takes is dangerously slow and lethal. His suit is pitch black, the cut sharp, the fabric clinging to a body built like steel. Behind him, an entourage of men in matching dark suits follows, their presence radiating nothing but danger.

But it is the man himself who commands the entire room. His aura is powerful, filling every corner of the ballroom with quiet menace. His eyes... dark, unblinking... sweep across the crowd before settling on me. For a moment, I feel stripped bare under his gaze, as though he can see every thought, every fracture in me.

My father smiles for the first time tonight.

"Viviana," he says, his voice dripping with satisfaction. "Allow me to introduce your future husband."

The man steps closer, his presence consuming the space between us.

"Don Dante Accardi."

The name crashes into me like ice water.

The Accardis... the family whispered about in boardrooms and back alleys alike, feared for their ruthlessness. A name that makes enemies vanish, fortunes crumble, and empires bow.

And this is their heir. Their Don.

The man I am to be chained to.

Dante stops only a few feet from me, and the silence thickens, becoming unbearable. His gaze does not shift, his expression carved from stone. Around him, his men stand like shadows, their hands clasped, their faces stern and focused.

I can't move. Can't think.

Stripped of my name, disowned, and now... sold to the devil himself.

The room seems to close in, the walls pressing tighter. My father's satisfaction, Victor's grin, Lucia's excitement, the crowd's whispers... they all fade into a blur. And now all I see is him.

Don Dante Accardi. The man I am supposed to marry...