Chapter 100 MESS OF MARRIAGE.
\~~~LUCIANO.
I settled into the chair opposite Irina, folding my hands slowly like I had all the time in the world.
She looked smaller than I remembered. Not weak, by the way. Irina Volkov had never been weak. She looked cornered.
Her hair was messy, her eyes sharp with rage and fear she refused to acknowledge. Ten years, from when I was twenty to when I was thirty, was a lifetime, wasted on convenience, power games, and blood-stained loyalty.
Of course, I knew placing Irina in this condition was going to cause fights. Chaos, even.
Her father, Carlo, was one of the Caporegimes in our organization. Hot-headed didn't even begin to cover it. He was a bull of a man, all muscle and temper, who valued his daughter more than anything. She was his only child, the apple of his eye, and he'd molded her into a force in our world from a young age. Carlo had pushed her toward me back then, seeing alliances in every shadow. Crossing him meant war, but so did letting Irina's betrayal slide.
Now, she had crossed a line that could not be erased.
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees, meeting her glare.
“Do you know why I am in fact taking things easy on you?”
She chuckled, a bitter sound that echoed off the walls. “You call this easy?”
She glanced around the dim room, at the bare bulbs swinging overhead and the shadows of my men lurking in the corners.
“Having your men rough-handle me and tie me with chains as though I were some criminal is easy? That is easy?!”
Her voice cracked, rising to a scream that almost shook the walls.
I didn't flinch. I’ve heard her screams before in passion, in anger, and in the heat of our ten years together.
From when I was twenty, fresh and hungry for power, until thirty, when I walked away. She was seventeen when it started, pushed into my arms by her father for leverage.
We'd been a power couple in the shadows, but it was always of convenience. No real love, just survival. Still, seeing her like this twisted something in my gut.
Not pity, never that, but a reminder of the life we'd shared.
“If you were such a gentle girl, you wouldn't have gone after my wife,” I said, keeping my voice steady.
Her breathing came ragged, and her chest heaved under her rumpled blouse. “I have gone after many women in the past whom you fucked while you were with me. You never batted an eye,” She spat the words like venom with her eyes narrowing.
“And now, you should listen to yourself. First, we're no longer together, and now that woman is my wife and not some hoe. You made the mistake of your life messing with her.”
“So? What are you gonna do? Kill me?” She laughed hysterically, throwing her head back. The sound was grated, wild, and unhinged. “I was your woman for ten fucking years. You think you have the balls to do anything to me?”
I exhaled slowly, shaking my head.
“Oh, princess,” I said, almost tired, “Now, this is where you are wrong.”
I lifted my hand slightly. Viktor stepped forward at once.
“First, our union was just for convenience. This is something we both knew. Your father wanted to raise his power so badly, and he pushed you, who was just seventeen, to me. And I went on with it. I mean, I needed every hand I could back then. But you're making a mistake here, Irina. I am not the same person I was at eighteen, twenty, even three years ago at thirty.”
I could see the shift in her eyes now. The bravado was starting to crack, and fear was creeping in. Good. She needed to feel it.
'So... you're going to kill me?' she asked again, her voice smaller, like hearing it directly from me would ease the tension starting to coil in her body.
“What do you think?” I replied, tilting my head.
“You can't. You might have killed your father, but you never kill me. Never. You loved me. You did. Y... you loved me. At least, once!”
That word again. Loved.
I laughed softly, shaking my head.
I stood up slowly, circling her chair like a predator.
“Oh, princess, is that what you've been telling yourself?”
“What?” She twisted to follow me, her face paling.
Just then, Viktor arrived from the back room, his boots heavy on the concrete.
He dropped a branding iron onto the small table beside her. A thick metal rod, glowing red-hot at the tip from the portable forge he'd set up earlier. The heat shimmered in the air, and the metallic tang mixed with the sizzle of embers. Irina's eyes widened, locking on it.
“W... what... what is this?’' she stuttered, her voice breaking for the first time. She pressed back into the chair, as far as she could.
I stopped behind her, placing my hands on her shoulders. She flinched under my touch, a sharp intake of breath. “I will not kill you, but death you shall see. I will make you see and taste what death feels like. You wanted to see fire, right? I mean, that is why you thought it was best to set my wife on fire. And now, I am going to show it to you, directly. Oh, Irina, brace yourself.”
Her body went rigid, breaths coming in short gasps. “Luciano, please... My father will…”'
“Light it up,” I said to Viktor, cutting her off. I moved backward, giving him space. The forge roared as he pumped the bellows, the iron's tip flaring brighter, orange-white heat promising agony.
Irina screamed then, a raw, piercing sound that filled the room. “No! You bastard! After everything… after ten years! I did it for us! To get you back, to make you see what you threw away!”
I crossed my arms, watching her squirm.
Lies.
It was always about power with her, just as it was with me. The bombing had caused a bigger wedge between Raina and me and had even almost cost her life.
For that, she'd pay.
Not with death, Carlo would burn the city for that, but with pain.
Enough to break her, to make her spill everything she knows and doesn't even know. Oh, and those who had pulled this off with her.
Either they knew what they were getting into or not.
Viktor approached, the iron hissing faintly. Irina thrashed, tears streaming down her face.
“Stop! I beg you! The bombing, it was me, yes. Hired the crew through old contacts. I just wanted to get back with you.”
As she cried frantically, about the grudges from our breakup, and the twisted obsession, my mind wandered back to Raina.
Home waited, with her threats and tears.
Oh, who would've guessed the mess of marriage could hit harder than the chaos of my empire?"