Chapter 6
The bright, cinematic sunlight continued to pour into the ballroom, utterly indifferent to the absolute devastation that had just occurred. The beautiful, elegant space was now a chaotic war zone of broken music stands, scattered ribbons, and bleeding bodies.
Galen slowly adjusted the cuffs of his crisp white dress shirt. He rolled his broad shoulders beneath his dark three-piece suit, the deeply masculine, intimidating aura of the veteran Mafia boss radiating through the silent room. He turned his cold, sharp eyes toward the ribbon-wrapping station.
Ainsley was pushing herself up onto her elbows, spitting a stray piece of tissue paper from her mouth. She looked up at Galen, her eyes wide with a profound, consuming terror. The realization that she had just crossed the most dangerous man in Chicago finally sank in.
"Galen, please," Ainsley whimpered, her American accent cracking with desperate panic. "I'm sorry. I was just stressed. The wedding planning... it’s too much pressure. I didn't mean to hurt her."
Galen did not answer immediately. He reached out with his left hand, his fingers finding the heavy, flawless diamond engagement ring he wore on his own finger—a symbol of the merger between the Moretti and Vale syndicates.
He slowly, deliberately pulled the engagement ring off his finger.
He held it suspended in the air for a fraction of a second, the sunlight catching the gold band, before he simply opened his hand.
The ring dropped. It hit the polished hardwood floor with a sharp, metallic clink and rolled lazily until it came to a dead stop near the edge of the scattered white ribbons.
"You told me to choose," Galen said.
His voice was dead calm. It was not a shout of anger; it was the chilling, irreversible judgment of a man who held the power of life and death in his hands. Every word echoed with lethal finality.
"There is no new wife," Galen whispered.
Ainsley’s face became overwhelmingly, intensely frightened. The blood drained entirely from her rosy cheeks, leaving her looking pale and sickly. She looked at the discarded ring on the floor, and then at her brother, who was still unconscious and bleeding profusely across the room.
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"You can't do this!" Ainsley shrieked, crawling backward through the ribbons. "My father will not accept this insult! The Vale family controls the entire South Side! If you walk away from this merger, he will go to war!"
"Let him," Galen replied coldly, stepping back to shield Eira once more. "I welcome it."
