Chapter 7
The heavy doors clicked shut, plunging the vast, luminous dining gallery into a profound, ringing silence. The cascading crystal chandeliers continued to cast their warm golden light over the abandoned gold-rimmed porcelain and half-empty crystal wine glasses. The opulent space, designed for celebration, now felt like a gilded cage.
Juliana backed away from the head table, her heels clicking unsteadily against the polished floor. She wrapped her arms around her waist, a defensive posture that crushed the sculpted satin of her expensive gown. Her diamond earrings shook as she wept, her carefully constructed facade entirely destroyed.
"Alden, you cannot believe this is worth ending us over," Juliana sobbed, her chest heaving. "My family arranged this marriage! We are supposed to unite our syndicates! Are you going to throw all of that away because of a crying child and a lying maid?"
Alden stood immovably in his tailored dark three-piece suit. He slowly crouched down, bringing his handsome, angular face level with the young boy’s.
"Can you tell me exactly what she made your mother do, Owen?" Alden asked gently, his deep voice softening significantly to comfort the child.
Owen sniffled, rubbing his nose with the back of his small hand. He looked at Mina, who gave him an encouraging, tearful nod, before looking back into the mafia boss's cold, perceptive eyes.
"She made Mommy listen at your door," Owen explained, his voice trembling but remarkably clear. "When you had meetings with the scary men. She said if Mommy didn't tell her everything you said, I would have to go to a bad place and never see her again."
Juliana let out a blood-curdling scream of denial. "He is lying! The maid told him to say that! She has been stealing information and trying to frame me for it!"
Alden rose slowly to his full height. He turned his broad, powerful shoulders toward his fiancée. The extremely short stubble on his jawline seemed to bristle with barely contained violence.
"Would Mina risk her life and her child in this house to manufacture such a claim?" Alden asked.
"Yes!" Juliana shrieked, pointing viciously at the housemaid. "Look at her! She thinks she's better than me just because she plays the innocent victim!"
Alden didn't look at Mina. He kept his perceptive eyes locked entirely on Juliana, dissecting her panic, reading the absolute guilt written plainly across her flushed, rosy skin. He had survived in the criminal underworld by being an unparalleled judge of human character. He knew when someone was lying to him, and he knew the awful, crushing weight of the truth.
"Are you capable of telling the truth, Juliana, or must I extract it from you?" Alden asked, taking a slow, deliberate step toward her.
"I love you, Alden!" she wept, falling to her knees on the luxurious rug, the sculpted satin of her gown pooling around her. She clasped her hands together in a begging gesture. "Please, darling! My father forced me to do it! He wanted to know your supply routes before the merger! I didn't want to hurt the boy!"
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"Did you believe that betraying me would secure your place at the head of this empire?" Alden asked.
His voice dropped to a terrifying, gravelly whisper. It was a sound that had preceded the end of many men's lives. Juliana stared up at his movie-star handsome face, realizing with absolute, horrifying clarity that there was no escape. The mafia boss had heard enough, and the consequences would be paid in blood.
