Chapter 7 7

Isabella POV

The morning sun offered no warmth as I stepped out of the private elevator and into the Russo penthouse on Fifth Avenue. It was nine o'clock. I had exactly one hour before Dante Meltoni would arrive to collect his new Queen.

The air inside was thick with the cloying scent of Victoria's Chanel perfume and the bitter undertone of lingering fear.

Victoria sat on the gilded living room sofa, not even bothering to look up from her teacup. "That black card I gave you has been deactivated," she announced, her voice tight. "You get nothing from this family."

I ignored her and walked straight down the hall to my old bedroom.

The door was wide open. My bed, my desk, the life I had before the federal penitentiary-all of it was gone. The space had been gutted and transformed into a massive walk-in closet, lined with Mia's tasteless, logo-covered designer dresses. In the far corner, tossed carelessly onto the hardwood floor, sat a single black plastic trash bag. Inside were the only things I cared to retrieve: my mother's old biochemical notes, a few faded photographs, and her silver necklace.

"Trash belongs in a trash bag, doesn't it, sister?"

Mia leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed, a malicious smirk playing on her lips. She was trying desperately to pretend the highway ambush hadn't terrified her.

I picked up the bag and walked toward the door. As I passed her, Mia made the childish, spiteful mistake of sticking her foot out to trip me.

Prison had trained my reflexes to be lethal. I didn't stumble. I simply shifted my weight and brought the heavy heel of my combat boot down directly onto her instep.

The sickening crunch of delicate bones echoed in the hallway.

Mia let out a piercing, breathless shriek and collapsed to the floor, clutching her rapidly swelling foot.

"Mia!" Victoria screamed, rushing down the hallway. Her face twisted into a mask of pure, unhinged fury. "You rabid dog!" she roared, raising her hand-heavy with a massive diamond ring-to slap me across the face.

My hand shot out, my fingers clamping around her wrist like a steel vise, stopping her strike dead in the air.

"I am done being your punching bag," I whispered, my voice a dead, icy calm.

I twisted her wrist sharply and shoved upward. A loud, wet *pop* tore through the air as her shoulder dislocated from its socket. Victoria's eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to her knees, howling in agonizing pain.

On the floor, Mia blindly grabbed a half-full glass of red wine from a decorative side table and hurled it at me. I sidestepped effortlessly. The crimson liquid splashed against the expensive silk wallpaper behind me, dripping down the floral pattern like fresh blood.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out my phone, and tapped the screen.

Victoria's own voice, recorded just yesterday in the limousine, filled the chaotic hallway: *"A blood oath of exile... Or I have an Enforcer fit you for concrete shoes in the Hudson before midnight."*

The howling stopped. Both women froze, staring at the device in my hand with absolute horror.

"If I send this to Dante Meltoni," I said, looking down at my stepmother, "do you think he'd enjoy watching the Russo family destroy itself from the inside?"

Victoria turned the color of ash. "Maria!" she shrieked to the trembling maid cowering at the end of the hall. "Call security!"

Maria didn't move an inch. Her terrified eyes were fixed on the front entrance.

The heavy oak door had swung open.

Six massive men in bespoke black suits stepped into the foyer. They were Meltoni *Soldiers*, moving with a lethal, synchronized precision that instantly suffocated the room. They formed a silent wall, parting only to let their king through.

Dante 'The Ghost' Meltoni walked into the penthouse.

His broad shoulders seemed to eclipse the morning light. His storm-gray eyes swept over the wreckage with chilling indifference-the wine-stained wall, Mia sobbing on the floor, Victoria clutching her dislocated shoulder, and me, standing in the center of the violence I had orchestrated.

He didn't look at them. His gaze locked entirely onto me.

"Ready?" Dante asked, his deep, gravelly voice vibrating through the sudden, terrified silence of the room.

I dropped the black trash bag onto the floor. I didn't need the remnants of my past anymore. As I stepped over it and walked toward him, the towering *Enforcer* at his side, Marco 'The Wall' Gallo, gave me a single, respectful nod.