Chapter 77 Chapter 77
mien’s POV
I slammed the study door shut behind me, the sound echoing through the hotel suite like a gunshot. Sophia sat tied to a chair in the center of the room, her wrists bound, her face streaked with tears and dirt, small cuts visible on her arms and face from the attack.
She looked up at me with red, swollen eyes, and I saw fear there. Real fear. She’d never looked at me like that before.
Good. She should be afraid.
“Did my flesh and blood betray me?” I thundered, my voice filling the room. “Did my own daughter hand our enemies the keys to destroy us?”
“No!” Sophia sobbed, struggling against her restraints. “Daddy, no! I didn’t betray you! I would never betray you!”
“Then explain to me how the Morellis knew exactly where to strike!” I roared, slamming my hand down on the desk beside her. “Explain to me how they knew our security codes, our safe room locations, our guard rotations! Explain to me how seventeen of my men are dead!”
“I didn’t give them anything!” Sophia screamed back. “I didn’t know Tyler was working for them! I thought… I thought I was just…”
“Just what?” I demanded, getting in her face. “Just trying to murder Hailey? Just trying to kill my unborn child? Your own sibling?”
Sophia flinched like I’d struck her. “I didn’t want to kill the baby,” she whispered. “Just Hailey. Just her. She was ruining everything. She was taking you away from me.”
“So you conspired with a stranger an enemy?”
“I thought I was using him!” Sophia cried. “I thought I was in control! I didn’t know he was playing me! I didn’t know he was working for the Morellis!”
Before I could respond, there was a knock at the door. Kai entered, carrying another folder.
“Boss,” he said quietly. “More information on the tutor.”
I snatched the folder from him and opened it, scanning the contents quickly.
Tyler Morrison. Twenty-four years old. No criminal record under that name.
“Tyler…. Is the one who tried to strangle Sophia the other day.” Kai explain.
“What?!” My eyes widen.
Sophia started sobbing again, her whole body shaking. “I didn’t know,” she kept repeating. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Tell me everything,” I said, my voice dropping to something calmer but no less dangerous. “From the beginning. Every conversation you had with him. Every piece of information you gave him. Everything.”
And Sophia did. Between sobs and gasps, she laid it all out. How Tyler had approached her at a party. How he’d seemed so understanding, so sympathetic to her pain over losing her mother.
How she’d released him from the dungeon after he’d supposedly tried to kill her, believing she now had leverage over him. How she’d given him the override codes to the safe rooms, thinking he’d need them to poison Hailey without getting caught.
How she’d sent Marco on wild goose chases to keep him away during the tutoring sessions.
How clueless she’d been to the larger plan unfolding around her.
By the time she finished, I felt sick.
My daughter. My own daughter had been the instrument of our near destruction, and she’d been too blind with jealousy and manipulation to see it.
I looked at her small cuts and injuries, the bruises forming on her arms where she’d been grabbed during the chaos, and knew I couldn’t bring myself to hurt her further.
“Kai,” I said quietly. “Take her to one of the rooms. Lock the door. Don’t tend to her injuries. She can sit with the consequences of her actions for a while.”
“Daddy, please,” Sophia begged as Kai moved to untie her from the chair. “Please don’t lock me away. I’ll do anything. I’ll make this right. Please.”
“You can’t make this right,” I said flatly. “Seventeen men are dead because of you. Seventeen families destroyed. Marco is…” I stopped myself before I could say more.
Kai led her from the room, her pleas echoing down the hallway until a door slammed shut, cutting them off.
Lorenzo appeared in the doorway. “Boss, we need to discuss next steps. How are we going to seek revenge? The Morellis can’t get away with this.”
“I know,” I said, moving to pour myself a drink. My hands were shaking slightly as I poured the whiskey.
“We have resources,” Lorenzo continued. “We can mobilize everyone. Hit them where it hurts. Show them they can’t…”
“I need time,” I interrupted, downing the whiskey in one swallow. “I need to think. To plan. This can’t be a rushed, emotional response. It needs to be calculated.”
Kai and Lorenzo exchanged glances.
“Boss, with all due respect, we need to act now,” Kai said. “Show strength, show that we won’t tolerate…”
“GET OUT!” I roared, slamming the glass down so hard it shattered. “Both of you! Leave me alone! I need to think!”
They both backed toward the door, hands raised in placating gestures.
The moment the door closed, I let the rage take over.
I swept everything off the desk papers, laptop, phone sending it all crashing to the floor. I picked up a chair and threw it across the room, where it shattered against the wall. I grabbed books from the shelf and hurled them, each one a physical manifestation of my fury and fear and helplessness.
My home destroyed. My men dead. My daughter a traitor. My family traumatized.
And I hadn’t been there to protect them.
I collapsed into the one remaining chair, my chest heaving, my knuckles bleeding from where I’d punched the wall.
The silence that followed was deafening.
I sat there, staring at the destruction I’d wrought on this room, and tried to think through the red haze of rage.
The Morellis needed to pay. But how? A direct assault on their compound would be expected. They’d be ready for it.
No. This needed to be smarter. More personal.
Antonio Junior had looked triumphant when he’d escaped. He thought he’d won.
I needed to show him how wrong he was.
A soft knock at the door interrupted my thoughts.
“I said leave me alone,” I called out.
The door opened anyway, and my mother walked in. Isabella looked around at the destroyed room, her expression unreadable.
“Are you finished with your tantrum?” she asked coolly.
“Get out, Mother,” I said, not looking at her.
“No,” she said, moving to stand in front of me. “We need to talk about how you’re going to keep this family safe. Because clearly, our current security measures aren’t working.”
“I know that,” I snapped. “I’m working on it.”
“Are you?” Isabella challenged. “Because from where I’m standing, it looks like you’re sitting here wallowing while our enemies are celebrating their victory.”
“I said I’m working on it!” I stood up, towering over her. “I need time to think! To plan! I can’t just…”
“We don’t have time,” Isabella interrupted. “The Morellis struck at us. If we don’t respond immediately and decisively, we’ll be seen as weak. Other families will think they can take shots at us too.”
She moved closer, her voice dropping. “I know you’re angry. I know you’re hurt. But you’re the Kingpin. You need to act like it.”
Before I could respond, there was another knock at the door.
“What?” I barked.
Kai opened the door, looking hesitant. “Boss, Vincent is here. He’s asking to speak with you.”
Vincent. One of my most trusted elders. And someone who, according to Lorenzo’s report, had survived the attack without a scratch.
“Bring him in,” I said, my eyes narrowing.
It had been bothering me since I’d seen the casualty list. Seventeen guards dead, dozens wounded. My home destroyed. And Vincent, who’d been there during the attack, had walked away unscathed.
That was suspicious. Very suspicious.
Kai left and returned moments later with Vincent. But the moment I saw him, I realized my suspicions had been wrong.
Vincent’s arm was in a sling, heavily bandaged.