Chapter 170: Save your tears

Chapter 170: Save your tears
Allegra walked through the chaotic, brightly lit public corridor of the detention facility, her mind calculating every step. The journey from the entrance had been a gauntlet: a mass of hungry reporters, flashing cameras, and curious onlookers desperate for a glimpse of the man who had returned from the dead. Allegra, supported by her lawyers, navigated the crowd with a heartbreaking performance of strength and fragility, the grieving wife enduring scandal for love. The press, despite the divorce scandal, were eating it up.

She reached the visitation room, the thick safety glass separating her from Kieran. He was seated opposite her, dressed in a standard-issue jumpsuit, his frame looking impossibly large and contained. His visible eye was sharp, unyielding, but the deep lines of fatigue around it told the story of his imprisonment.

Allegra lifted her hand, placing her palm against the glass, her face melting into a look of tender, tearful relief. She forced a small, soft smile. "Hello, my love," she whispered, though the glass muted the sound, relying on the intercom. "I am so glad to see you."

Kieran didn't move, his expression a mask of cold, absolute contempt. He brought his hand to the intercom receiver. "Go fuck yourself, Allegra."

Her performed composure shattered. Her fingers trembled against the glass. "Kieran, please, don't talk like that. I am just so happy you're alive. I've been trying to be strong for you, for the baby, for the family—"

"Stop the performance," Kieran cut in, his voice low and lethal through the speaker. "We both know why you're here. You conspired with your uncle to get me killed, and now you’re parading around, claiming that fucked up incest pregnancy of yours is mine."

Allegra recoiled, her face flushing crimson, but she quickly regrouped, leaning into the microphone, her voice rising in a desperate, feigned outrage. "You don't know what you're talking about! This baby is yours, Kieran! I swear on my life! You need to believe me! I love you! I just wanted us to be a family!"

“If you got pregnant from the last time I fucked you, that baby would be old enough to drive by now, Allegra. You're sick," Kieran stated, his voice a chilling monotone. "I tried to help you. I spared your life more than once. I married you to protect you from your own family's crap. I tried to do right by you and your father's memory, and all you did was lie, manipulate me, and harm—"

"Harm? Harm who?" Allegra spat, the victim façade finally collapsing entirely, replaced by a searing hatred. "That Santoro bitch? The one who ruined your life, the one who caused your mother's death?"

Kieran’s eyes, already dark, narrowed into sharp points of pure danger. He leaned into the speaker, his voice dropping to a terrifying, deadly growl. "Don't you ever talk about my wife."

"I am your wife!" Allegra screamed, pressing her face against the glass, her eyes manic. "Catherine Santoro is dead! For all that matters, she is dead! You can't just resurrect her! You chose me in the end and you know it!"

"You know damn well she is not dead," Kieran countered, utterly calm now. "And even if she was… You still wouldn't be worth half of her rotting corpse."

Allegra dissolved into fresh tears, but this grief was rooted in pure humiliation. "I just wanted us to be a family, to be happy," she wailed. "You had all my love, all my loyalty, and you still decided to go after that bitch just because you used to fucked her in her daddy's car when you were her bodyguard... You told me you were going to kill her! You told me you didn’t love her!"

"I never said I didn't love her," Kieran corrected, his voice brutally cold. "I said I hated her for betraying me, for causing the circumstances that led to my mother's death. But in the end, it wasn't her fault. Unlike you, Catherine never betrayed me. She is my wife, my one true, legitimate wife... And I love her. Like I will never love you, Allegra. And I hope you know that I won't back down. I'm going to kill you. It could be today, it could be tomorrow... It could be by my hands or not... But your death will be under my name. You will pay for trying to hurt my wife and my daughter."

“Daughter…” Allegra's tears stopped. Her eyes widened, a final, despairing realization washing over her. "I didn't want to believe it... That bitch is not only alive... But she has a child of yours... A baby girl... Like I always begged you to give me." Her voice was a broken testament to her obsession. "I always knew who you were, Kieran Karakatsanis, the assassin, the criminal... The Ghost. But I never thought you would be such a cruel husband to me."

"Are you done?" Kieran said, his voice hard. "Get the fuck out of here, Allegra."

Allegra walked out of the detention facility, her face a mask of blazing, cold fury. The humiliation of the visit—Kieran’s unwavering contempt, the confirmation that Catherine was not only alive but was loved—was a fresh, open wound. But the moment the doors opened and the swarm of journalists and photographers went to her, her professionalism snapped back into place. The fury was instantly extinguished, replaced by a soft, tearful smile, and her hand instinctively went to clutch her pregnant belly. Her bodyguards formed a tight wedge around her, trying to navigate the mass of people.

The noise was deafening, a chaotic wave of shouted questions and flashing bulbs. A journalist, pushing a microphone into the fray, managed to make her voice heard above the din. "Mrs. Karakatsanis! What did Mr. Karakatsanis say about your claims of still being married to him at the time of his disappearance?"

Allegra stopped, turning slowly to face the cameras. Her lower lip trembled, and her eyes filled with well-timed tears. "Please," she said, her voice catching with emotion, "I urge you all to give me and my family some privacy at this troubling time." She paused, letting the silence build. "I prayed for a miracle, and I was given it... My husband is alive and well, and my baby will get to know his father. That's all I ever wanted."

She let the relief of the truth hang in the air, using the genuine miracle to soften the edges of her lie. "But the situation is very difficult. After months of grief, I cannot hold my husband. He cannot feel his baby kicking, and all of you should be ashamed of harassing a pregnant woman with your cameras and intrusive questions, and... and..."

Allegra’s eyes rolled back dramatically. Before she could finish her sentence, her body went slack. Her bodyguard reacted instantly, seizing her by the waist and shoulders just as she passed out, preventing her from hitting the ground. The crowd erupted into pandemonium, the desperate, triumphant screams of the journalists confirming her collapse. Allegra, the wronged, fragile, and pregnant wife, was rushed back to the safety of her car, having successfully painted herself as the victim and secured the public's sympathy once more.