Chapter 2 - The Red Marks
Dante didn't move. The feared apex predator of the city looked down at the tiny girl clinging to his leg.
He didn't speak immediately. His cinematic, slow eye movement traveled from Sophie’s tear-filled eyes down to her small, trembling hands. Her fingers were stained with melted chocolate. But it wasn't the mess that made the mafia boss stop breathing.
A tight focus on Sophie’s small wrist revealed the horrifying truth. Directly above her chocolate-stained fingers, raised angrily against her pale skin, were four fresh, bright red slap marks.
The shape of a grown woman's hand.
Isabella stopped abruptly. The furious, cruel monster completely vanished in the span of a single second. She slowly lowered her raised hand, smoothing down her designer dress. A realistic facial micro-expression of sheer panic flashed across her eyes before she forced a bright, sickeningly fake smile onto her face.
"Darling, you're home early," Isabella cooed sweetly, her voice completely smooth, trying desperately to pretend she hadn't just been caught committing the ultimate sin in Dante’s home.
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Dante didn't answer her. His unreadable, cold expression remained locked entirely on the red welts on the three-year-old’s wrist.
👉 Isabella’s fake smile began to tremble, but the heartbreaking scene behind her was about to push Dante to the edge.
