Chapter 5 5

Isabella POV

The heavy thud of the ledger hitting the mahogany table seemed to echo in the suffocating silence of the sitting room. For a split second, no one breathed.

Then, the reality of my words pierced through Carlene's shock.

"You cannot do this!" Carlene shrieked, her voice cracking with raw, unadulterated panic. She lunged forward, her manicured hands snatching the ledger and the brass keys from the table. She tried to shove them back into my chest. "You are a Riggs wife! Your duty is to provide for this family! You are just jealous because Angelo found a woman of true blood, and now you want to ruin us!"

I took a deliberate step back. The heavy ledger slipped from Carlene's trembling fingers, hitting the floor with a pathetic slap. The keys clattered loudly against the marble.

I didn't blink. I didn't raise my voice. I simply stared at her.

Carlene stood there, chest heaving, looking less like a respected Mafia matriarch and more like a desperate beggar. I glanced at Angelo. A muscle feathered in his jaw, his face flushed with profound embarrassment. Even Cecelia shifted uncomfortably on the sofa, her triumphant smirk melting into a grimace at her future mother-in-law's crass display of greed.

"If the rest of the Chicago Outfit knew how the Riggs family repays a wife who saved them from ruin with a million-dollar dowry," I said, my voice a low, lethal whisper, "they wouldn't praise your new alliance. They would laugh at your blatant betrayal."

Carlene choked on her next words, her face turning a mottled red.

Before she could recover, Kandi sprang from her armchair like a cornered wildcat. The prospect of losing her endless allowance had finally shattered her smug facade.

"You ungrateful bitch!" Kandi screamed, pointing a shaking finger at my face. "Who do you think you are? At least Cecelia's father is a Capo! She has real honor! You are nothing but a merchant's daughter reeking of copper and common dirt!"

Kandi took a step closer, her eyes wide with venom. "My brother is going to throw you out like the trash you are! Without the Riggs name to protect you, you are nothing!"

The air in the room seemed to freeze. Angelo didn't intervene to stop his sister; he just watched me, waiting for me to break.

But the Isabella who would have cried at their cruelty was dead.

I let my gaze slowly, deliberately drag over Kandi. I took in the pale pink Parisian silk of her dress-the one I had paid for last month. I looked at the diamond studs glittering in her ears-a birthday gift funded entirely by my accounts.

"You are absolutely right, Kandi," I said, the eerie calm in my tone making Geno and Boone stiffen in their seats. "I am just a merchant's daughter. So, since you despise my common money so much, I expect you to take off every single thing you are wearing that my 'copper' paid for."

Kandi's breath hitched.

"Take off the silk," I commanded, my voice slicing through the room like a blade. "Take off the diamonds. Leave them on the floor."

I shifted my gaze to Cecelia, who suddenly looked very small and very pale beside Angelo.

"And then," I continued, my eyes locking back onto Kandi, "you can go on your knees and beg your honorable Sister Cecelia to dress you. Let us see how far her father's honor goes when the tailor's bills come due."

Kandi's mouth opened and closed like a suffocating fish. Her face flushed a deep, ugly plum, her whole body trembling with a rage she was entirely powerless to act upon. She couldn't speak. None of them could.

The illusion of their superiority had been shattered, leaving nothing but the pathetic reality of their greed. I stood amidst the wreckage of their pride, no longer a pawn, but a queen executing her *Vendetta*.