Chapter 110: Marriage Alliance
Dante’s POV
I knew Gianna’s promise not to harm herself wasn’t enough. I had to give her a way out, some control she could hold onto, or she’d never stop trying to escape.
“And in return for giving me your word, I’ll strike another deal with you.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “What kind of deal?”
“I propose a marriage alliance.” I watched her face.
Her mouth opened slightly. Her eyes went wide, then confused. “Alliance? With the daughter of your enemy?” Her voice carried a bite. “Interesting. I thought I was your captive.”
A small laugh left me before I could help it.
“If you were truly a captive, you wouldn’t be standing here arguing with me every chance you get.”
Her eyes rolled before she caught herself.
“That’s exactly why I’m talking about this. You defy me at every turn,” I went on. “Maybe I need to keep you on a tighter leash since you don’t seem interested in the alliance anyway.”
Her face changed. She looked down, shoulders dropping. “I never said I wasn’t interested.”
“But you didn’t let me finish.”
She bit her lip. “I’m sorry. Go on.”
“A marriage,” I repeated, slower this time. “Not just something on paper. Something real. No more fighting me. No more trying to leave or hurting yourself to get away. You would be my wife. You would take your place beside me. To the world, we would look like the perfect couple. And after five years…”
I forced the words out even though every part of me rejected them.
“I’d let you go.”
The moment the promise left my mouth, a dull ache spread through my chest. I didn’t want to let her go. Not now. Maybe not ever. But if I wanted her loyalty, her trust, her heart, she needed a door she could open someday.
Her eyes lit up with hope. “Don’t mess with me, Dante. You’d really let me go? Just like that?”
“There’s a clause,” I said quietly. “For you to walk free after five years, you would hand your father over to me.”
The air left her lungs.
“My father?” She gasped. “I don’t understand.”
I held her eyes, calm on the outside even though everything inside me burned.
“Your freedom for the head of your father. He’s the one I want. I can’t spare his life, and I won’t pretend I can. I need my revenge.
“You seem so sure he’s alive.” Her voice softened, almost breaking “What if you’re wrong and he’s dead? What if all of this, everything, has been for nothing? You could have found healing with your family. Real healing. Peace.”
Anger rushed through my body. She kept using that word, peace, as if she even knew what it meant. She wasn’t there that day. She didn’t see the glint in Lorenzo’s eyes he shot at Esme. She didn’t hear her screams as she fell to the floor.
She didn’t watch the light leave her eyes as she breathed her last.
She didn’t know the kind of pain Lorenzo carved into us.
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Chapter 80 Moringa Aliance
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My face went hard like stone as I pulled away from her, trying to control my emotions.
“I won’t have peace. Not until I put a bullet in his head. Not a second before. When I said blood for blood, I meant your father’s. Not yours.”
She let out a deep breath, almost like relief, though fear still lingered around her eyes.
“Do you have any proof?” She lifted her chin, back to being controlled. “Any leads? Because if he’s dead and I can’t give him to you, then I’ll be tied to you forever.”
For a moment, the thought didn’t bother me at all. Would it be so terrible?
Her beside me every day, marking my life in ways she didn’t even understand.
She made being married to me sound like being married to the devil himself.
The answer rose to my tongue, but I swallowed it whole.
She wasn’t ready to hear that.
I studied her face, weighing the truth. The money trail was a secret that could ruin my plans if she ever repeated it. But this was also a test. If it slipped to anyone else, I’d know where it came from
“I have proof your father is alive.”
Relief washed over her first, then confusion, then pain. All in one breath. She didn’t know what or how to feel.
I understood. No matter what he’d done, he was still her father.
“Then where is he?” She demanded it like I’d told her I had him chained in my basement.
“We don’t have his exact location yet,” I answered. “But we found his money man. He confirmed Lorenzo has been moving money. Approvals. Transfers. Codes only he can use.”
Her hand rose to her chest as if she needed to hold herself up.
“My father is alive.” She stared straight at me. “But if what you’re saying is true, why hasn’t he contacted me? Why hasn’t he looked for me?”
A short, humorless breath left me.
“Lorenzo’s always been a coward. And there’s no way he could reach you now. You’ve been under my roof. Under my people. He needs you alone if he ever wants to reach you.”
Her eyes narrowed a little at that.
“So you want to use me to lure him out. That’s the real plan.”
A slow nod.
“Smart. Exactly. He would come for you. You’re his only blood. His only heir. Maybe he’s trying to gather men and money so he can face me.” My voice dropped as I stepped closer. “But by the time he tries, it will be too late. Because you will already be my wife.”
I lifted her chin so she had to look at me. “You must remember your father brought this on himself. You’ve seen the pain he caused my family. I can’t possibly let him live. So what’s it going to be, pretty doll?”
My thumb brushed her jaw.
“Your father’s life for yours?”
She pulled in a breath and held it. “What if I hand my father over to you before the five years is up?”
Of course she’d think like that.
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Chapter 10 Marriage Alliance
Clever girl. Always looking for the loophole.
Five years was enough time to make sure she stayed. Enough time for her to fall into me, whether she wanted to or not.
It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t a noble alliance, and it didn’t need to be.
“If you bring him to me sooner,” I murmured, “even better. But I won’t release you before five years are done.”
Her mouth twitched as if she couldn’t decide whether to fight or accept it.
“Would you put this in writing? Like a real contract marriage?”
