Chapter 24
"They raised a daughter like you, so they deserve to be punished."
Kane didn't want to waste words on her. He just gave Bandel a look.
Bandel immediately stepped forward and pinned the struggling girl to the ground.
Feeling her life was threatened, the girl finally screamed desperately.
"It was Sophie who made me do this! She said she wanted to teach Sonya a lesson. Sophie told me to do it!"
But Kane didn't let the girl off because of this.
"Looks like you still haven't figured out that the head of the mafia family is Moretti, not Brown."
With that, Kane snapped his fingers, and the girl was lifted and carried toward the edge of the deck.
Just then, a wave hit and the cruise ship swayed. The girl let out a heart-wrenching scream.
I watched helplessly as the girl was just thrown off the deck and swallowed by the waves.
I was so scared I almost fell backward, but Kane caught me in his warm embrace.
Although I also found the girl's actions annoying, it shouldn't have ended like this. After all, it was a human life.
I looked up at Kane with trembling eyes. Kane seemed to sense my fear.
But this time, he didn't comfort me gently. Instead, he said coldly, "After I announced you as my fiancée, they still dared to do this. That means they don't take the Moretti Family seriously. They're challenging my authority."
So that's how it is?
I felt inexplicably scared.
I didn't dare to think - if one day, when I'm by his side, I do something he doesn't like, would he treat me this cruelly too?
Kane sensed my fear, but he didn't say anything.
Because Sophie had already been brought before him.
"Sophie, for your father's sake, I won't do anything to you. But I'm warning you one last time."
"If you insist on being stupid and targeting Sonya, I don't mind making the Brown Family disappear from mafia history, too."
Although I wasn't quite sure what kind of presence the Brown Family was, I often saw their involvement in the news.
So they must be pretty powerful, too.
Kane actually threatened to say this in front of everyone.
Wasn't he worried about hurting the feelings of other allied families?
Sophie couldn't believe Kane would say such things in public either. She struggled and screamed.
"What's so good about this woman? She's from the slums; who knows how many men she's been with? She's not good enough for you. I'm the one who loves you, Kane!"
Everyone present fell silent, not daring to speak, afraid Kane would take his anger out on them.
Kane's heart skipped a beat, and he looked up at the crowd.
I saw his gaze fall on a nervous-looking middle-aged man.
After seeing Kane looking at him, the man immediately stepped forward.
Without saying a word, he slapped Sophie twice across the face.
"It seems I've spoiled you too much, making you so reckless that you almost destroyed the entire family."
Sophie's face quickly swelled up and even started bleeding. Her father had really hit her hard.
Even though Sophie had treated me that way earlier, seeing this scene, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
A high-and-mighty young lady, slapped by her own father in front of everyone - it had to be humiliating.
The man turned to Kane and said respectfully, "Mr. Moretti, please rest assured. Starting today, Sophie will never appear before you again. I'll send her to Mexico immediately."
Kane said nothing, just put his arm around me, and walked toward the stage. I was still soaking wet.
But with him by my side, I didn't feel cold at all.
He brought me onto the stage, looked around, and picked up the microphone again.
"Listen up. She is my future wife and will be my only wife. If anyone dares to disrespect her in any way, they're challenging me and the entire Moretti Family and me."
I had never been watched by so many people before, and their eyes showed fear.
After saying this, Kane took me straight away from the scene, back to the room from earlier.
No matter how James called after him, he didn't look back.
"Go take a shower first. Today's incident was my oversight. I'll find you two bodyguards to stay with you at all times."
Kane's expression was hidden in the darkness. I couldn't quite read his emotions right now.
But the alcohol on my body felt really uncomfortable, so I just nodded without saying anything and obediently went to shower.
The warm water hitting my body calmed me down.
My mind was full of scenes of Kane protecting me just now.
I couldn't help but smile slightly.
Yes, I had to admit I was a little moved by Kane's dominance.
Although he wouldn't really love me and only saw me as the mother of his child, I thought life should be pretty good from now on.
Yes, I didn't have to worry about going hungry, didn't have to worry about my stepfather's beatings, and didn't have to worry about being sold off one day for no reason.
After thinking this through, my mood became cheerful.
Maybe I could ask him to let Nina go.
I would stay by his side obediently, marry him, and have children for him.
I thought as long as I could do this, he would be easy to talk to.
Without realizing it, I hadn't even noticed that my perception of Kane had changed completely.
When I finished washing my hair and came out of the bathroom, Kane was sitting in a chair in the room, looking at his phone.
Hearing me come out, he locked his phone screen, stood up, and walked over to me, taking the towel from my hands.
Oh my god, he was actually drying my hair!
And his movements were very gentle, carefully drying the water from my hair bit by bit.
Then he leaned down close to my ear.
"I've already had my yacht come pick us up. There's no need to stay here anymore."
Hearing Kane say this, I nodded. Actually, I did feel uncomfortable here.
We were like people from two different worlds.
In their eyes, I was an ugly girl from the slums clinging to power.
Even with Kane's authority keeping them from saying much, I could still feel they didn't genuinely respect me.
But none of that mattered anymore. Life is lived for yourself.
My life couldn't be worse than before, when it was controlled by my stepfather.
Soon, my hair was dry, and Kane's yacht had arrived.
We got on the yacht and returned to shore.
"Now we'll go back to the estate and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I have to go out for something. You know, you should be obedient, or I'll be angry."
Hearing Kane's warning, I hesitated for a moment, then reached out and hugged his arm.
As he looked at me in surprise, I looked up at him.
"Okay, I understand. You be careful too."