Chapter 96 The law of betrayal
Lina’s POV
I waited. One second passed. Then two. Three. Four. Time stretched strangely inside the room, each breath scraping against the silence like broken glass. My heartbeat was loud in my ears, so loud it almost drowned out the faint noises in the hallway outside.
A minute crawled by.
Then—
The door opened.
At first all I saw was a shadow spilling across the floor. A long, stretched silhouette that crept slowly into the room before the person attached to it appeared.
But something about it felt wrong. The shadow wasn’t walking. It was rolling. My stomach tightened. The door pushed wider and the figure finally came into view. A wheelchair. And in it—
My breath caught in my throat. The view struck me like thunder.
Silvio Lacentra.
Carlino’s father.
My heart stuttered violently.
He sat in the wheelchair as one of Kailen’s men pushed him forward. His back was straight despite the restraints on his wrists, his silver hair with the stubborn strands of dark hair combed neatly back, his expensive suit still immaculate as though he had walked straight out of a boardroom rather than a prison.
But his eyes…
They were wide open. Cold. Empty. There was no fear in them. No anger. Nothing. Just a hollow, numb stillness, as if the entire situation bored him.
The man pushing the chair stopped close to the center of the room. His eyes fell on me but words weren't spoken
Then Kailen stepped into the doorway behind them. The silence still stayed like an invited visitor.
“Well,” Kailen finally said, breaking the silence, he spoke slowly, clapping his hands once in mock celebration. “Look who finally joined us.” His lips curled into a thin smile.
“Here comes the culprit,” The words sounded dramatic, almost theatrical. But the tone beneath them carried something much darker. Pure contempt. My stomach twisted.
Kailen walked into the room with that same steady limp I had noticed earlier. The dried blood on his shirt had darkened to a dull brown now, the bruises on his face even more visible under the room’s light.
He dropped onto the couch like a king settling onto a throne. “So,” he said casually, leaning back. “How about we talk about a few things, yeah?”
My legs finally obeyed me.
Slowly, I pushed myself off the floor, still staring at the man in the wheelchair like I was witnessing something impossible.
He actually did it. Kailen actually did what he said he wanted to do. He took Carlino’s father. The Silvio Lacentra.
One of the most feared men in the underworld. My mouth opened.
“Did you—”
Kailen raised a hand without even looking at me. “Quiet,” The single word sliced through the air like a blade.
I clenched my jaw.
But I stayed silent.
Kailen leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees as he looked directly at Silvio. “So,” he said slowly. “Silvio Lacentra.”
His voice dropped lower.
“Today I’ll be the judge… the lawyer… and perhaps even the witness.”
The room felt smaller somehow. Tighter.
“Tell me something,” Kailen continued. “Why did you kill my father?” The question landed like a stone dropped into deep water. No one moved. No one breathed loudly.
Kailen’s expression hardened.
“A man who did nothing wrong,” he went on, his voice tightening. “A man who helped build the SD Empire from nothing,” His fingers curled slowly. “The empire that later became the Lacentra Empire.”
His gaze sharpened. “You took everything from my family.”
Silvio didn’t blink. Didn’t shift. Didn’t react.
Kailen’s voice began to crack with something deeper. Something raw. “Because of you,” he continued quietly, “my mother died.”
A silence followed.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
“My brother lost himself,” Kailen said. “Drugs became the only thing that could drown the anger you left behind.”
His jaw clenched.
“He overdosed two years later.”
Something flickered in Kailen’s eyes.
Pain.
Real pain.
“And my sister…” he continued hoarsely. “She couldn’t handle it.”
His fingers tightened until his knuckles turned white.
“She killed herself.”
The room felt frozen.
“You ended my father without even thinking about what would happen to his family,” Kailen finished. The words trembled with years of buried rage. “How we were supposed to survive without him.”
Silvio finally moved.
Just slightly.
He tilted his head.
And looked at Kailen.
Like he was looking at a child throwing a tantrum.
Bored.
Unimpressed.
A slow breath left his lips.
“You talk too much.”
The room went completely still.
My heart skipped.
Kailen’s eyes darkened.
Silvio leaned back slightly in the wheelchair.
“One rule stands above everything in the underworld,” he said calmly. His voice was deep. Rough. The voice of a man who had commanded armies.
“Betrayal has no place in forgiveness.”
He looked directly into Kailen’s eyes.
“Betrayal is the end of everything.”
My pulse quickened.
Silvio’s expression hardened.
“When a man betrays you in our world…” he continued, his voice low and controlled, “he signs his own death warrant.”
Kailen let out a cold laugh. “So that’s your excuse?”
Silvio’s gaze didn’t waver. “It’s not an excuse,” he replied. “It’s the law.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
“You’re lying,” Kailen snapped.
Silvio shrugged slightly. “You want the truth?” he asked flatly.
“Yes,” Kailen hissed.
Silvio leaned forward slightly in the wheelchair. “Your father Travien Dwan, betrayed the entire syndicate.”
My breath caught.
Kailen froze.
“What did you say?” he asked quietly.
Silvio’s eyes sharpened. “Your father made a deal with federal authorities.”
The words struck the room like a gunshot.
My stomach dropped.
“He was going to hand over the names of every major capo,” Silvio continued coldly. “Every shipment route. Every bank account.”
Kailen stared at him.
Unmoving.
“That would have destroyed everything,” Silvio said. “Decades of power. Entire families,” The old man’s voice turned icy. “So I ended it.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Suffocating.
I couldn’t stop myself.
“That doesn’t make it right,” I blurted out.
Kailen’s head snapped toward me.
“Lina,” he said softly.
Dangerously.
“Shut the fuck up.”
Anger had already taken over.
“You killed him without proof!” I said. “You destroyed an entire family based on suspicion!”
Silvio looked at me for the first time.
Amusement flickered in his eyes.
“Your sister speaks boldly,” he murmured.
Then he looked back at Kailen.
“Just like your father.”
Something snapped inside Kailen.
His chair scraped loudly against the floor as he stood.
“You’re lying.”
Silvio laughed. A cold, dry laugh.
“You think betrayal is rare in our world?” He leaned closer. “Your father, Travien, sold us all out.”
Kailen’s breathing grew heavier. “You expect me to believe that?” he demanded.
Silvio’s smile was merciless. “I didn’t kill him for revenge,” His voice lowered. “I killed him because he betrayed us first.”
The words hung in the air like poison.
No one spoke. Kailen's silence said he was thinking, calculating. He slowly turned his head toward the door.
The look in his eyes made my blood run cold.
Rage.
Pure, uncontrollable rage.
“Enough,” he said quietly.
Two of his men stepped forward immediately.
My stomach dropped.
Kailen walked toward the door. Then he stopped. And looked back at Silvio. “You know what the funny thing is?” he said softly.
Silvio raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t care if you’re telling the truth.”
My chest tightened. Kailen’s smile was terrifying now. “You still killed my father. You still ended my family.”
Silvio didn’t respond.
Didn’t even blink.
Kailen looked at his men. His voice became ice. “Tie him up.”
My heart started racing. “What are you doing?” I asked.
Kailen ignored me.
His men grabbed the wheelchair and began dragging it toward the center of the room.
“Wait—” I started.
Kailen turned his head slowly. “Lina,” His voice was deadly calm. “Not another word.”
I swallowed. But the horror crawling up my spine wouldn’t let me stop.
“You already tortured Pathy almost half of the night,” I said. “Is this really necessary?”
Kailen smiled faintly. “Oh,” he said softly. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
My stomach twisted violently.
Silvio remained silent as the men forced him out of the wheelchair and tied him to a metal chair in the middle of the room.
His expression never changed.
Not once.
Like pain meant nothing to him.
Kailen walked slowly around him.
Studying him.
Then he stopped in front of me. His eyes gleamed with something dark. Something cruel.
“You should watch closely, Lina.”
My pulse pounded.
“Why?” I whispered.
Kailen’s smile widened. “Because this is what happens to men who destroy families.”
He turned toward his men. And his voice dropped into something that felt like pure darkness.
“Torture him.”
He paused. Before adding quietly—
“Right in front of her.”