6
Dante stood there, his body rigid, the veins on his clenched fists bulging. His eyes, crimson and feral, were fixed on the two of them.
Marco jumped, about to curse, but when he saw it was Dante, he scrambled off the bed and fell to his knees, trembling uncontrollably. “Boss, you misheard! It was Miss Peaches who saved you! I was just… just joking with her!”
Hearing his pathetic excuse, Dante squeezed his eyes shut, a deadly, suffocating aura emanating from him.
“Bone–breakers! How dare you!”
He yanked the gun from his waistband and fired twice, the bullets tearing through Marco’s kneecaps.
Marco writhed on the floor in agony. Dante knelt, grabbing his throat, hissing each word through his teeth. “Who. Saved. Me. Tell me the truth!”
“Brother, Marco and Anya are having an affair! I just found out, and he was threatening me! Kill him, quick-”
BANG.
A bullet grazed Peaches‘ cheek and embedded itself in the wall behind her.
Dante turned his head, ignoring her terrified, pale face. The tenderness was gone from his eyes, replaced by a chilling, murderous intent. “Say one more word about my wife, and I will kill you.”
Marco knew he was done for. Realizing that this woman, for whom he had risked everything, was now trying to throw him under the bus, he snap- ped He grabbed Dante’s pant leg, his leg a mangled mess, and sobbed like a drowning man. “Boss, I was wrong! It was this bitch Peaches who
seduced me, who convinced me to lie! Eight years ago, the person who saved you was Anya! To save you, she broke two ribs and got a crescent- moon–shaped scar on her right shoulder. She was in the hospital for two months! After Peaches found out, she deliberately got a matching tattoo
to impersonate her!”
“Boss, I was blinded by this bitch! That day in the alley, she was the one calling Anya a whore, saying her baby was a bastard! I was wrong, I know I
was wrong! Please, Boss, spare my life!”
Dante’s mind seized on the word ‘bastard.‘ Anya knew she was carrying Peaches‘ child; she wouldn’t call her own child a bastard.
A horrifying realization hit him like a physical blow. His hands began to shake uncontrollably. “The baby in Anya’s womb… it wasn’t Peaches‘ embr-
yo?”
Marco shook his head frantically, clinging to Dante like a lifeline. “Boss, the baby in her belly is yours! It was Peaches who changed her mind at the last minute! She planned to let the baby die right before birth, then tell you that Anya found out the truth and killed the baby out of spite! She wou-
Id cry to you, and in your rage, you would kill Anya!”
“It was all this woman’s idea! It has nothing to do with me! Boss, please, spare me!”
Hearing Marco turn on her, Peaches stopped feigning illness. She leaped off the bed and started attacking him. Though his legs were shattered,
Marco was still strong. He grabbed her hair and slammed her to the ground. They began to fight, screaming and cursing, spitting out every dirty
secret from the past few years, each desperately trying to pin the blame on the other.
Dante listened, and with every word, his despair grew. His heart felt like it was being pierced by a thousand blades, the pain so intense he let out a
choked sob. Three years. Anya was the woman he truly loved. And his six unborn children… gone.
He was in agony. He roared, firing his gun again and again.
His men burst in, freezing at the horrific scene.
Dante, covered in blood, pointed a shaking, crazed finger at Marco’s lifeless body on the floor. “Drag him out. Chop him up. Feed him to the dogs.”
On the bed, his phone vibrated.
Peaches, who had been shot but was not yet unconscious, screamed and tried to grab it. Dante kicked her away.
He snatched the phone, thinking it was a message from me. He opened it, and the hope on his face froze.
It was a video. Me, being held high in the air, and then thrown into a pool of crocodiles.
