✔️ SLANDEROUS INTENTIONS | +18

Chapter 41

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A WEEK LATER

ANTONIO

My love is a plague.

Every soul I touched with my heart eroded, ending up in a grave. I loved my mother, and now she is nothing but soil, lying six feet under the cold ground for what has been years. But it feels like yesterday.

Because my heart clenches — and the pain is so familiar. My heart clenches, suffering from the loss of my significant other half. Though my father built me not to love, turning my heart stone cold — like with Medusa's gaze, making it irreversible.

My father ripped out my heart to make sure I wouldn't fall weak. My wife's father ripped out her backbone to make her weak, obedient. I fixed her backbone, and she touched my heart, making it beat again — for her.

She is like my sacred light potion, making me feel love again. Though I know I should not love. I should not fall for the little Drakon. Yet, I did. And she made me softer — though I shouldn't have let her in.

I shouldn't grow softer every time she smiles at me. I shouldn't sigh in contentment every time she kisses me. I shouldn't relax in relief and feel peace every time she hugs me. She made me ignorant — and that may be our fatal end.

So, I have to restore myself back to my old factory settings. I have to be harsh, not soft. I have to only include my rational mind as I carry out the plan to get my wife back — and exclude my heart.

Ring! Ring! Ring! My phone buzzes on the table — snapping me out of my thoughts. I look at the screen and see her grandfather calling. "Yes," I pick up the call — not wasting a second, as every second I waste, I run the risk of losing my wife.

"My investigation on Helena Williams is done, and the DNA results are in. You married my granddaughter, my blood, my family — a Drakon," he tells me, not wasting a second after I answer the call. Am I surprised? No.

"I don't care what she used to be. She is an Alessi now, my wife," I grit out, the name "Alessi" reminding him of her current last name. Because she is mine. My little wife.

"I didn't call to argue, Antonio," he grunts, but I already know why he is calling — he's coming to aid his grandchild. "I called to tell you I'll help you save my grandchild from Petrov." Just as I predicted.

Everything is going according to my masterpiece; I'm gaining more allies. And the more allies I have backing Petrov into a corner, the weaker he gets, until he waves the flag of defeat. "I accept your help," I tell him, my voice laced with smug satisfaction.

"I'll come by with my son to plan how we'll get my granddaughter back. Are you home?" he asks, sounding as impatient as I am to get my little Drakon out of Petrov's claws.

"I'm home, waiting on you," I reply without hesitation. Though, there's already a plan: We will unite as one on Petrov's neck, watch him suffocate under our weight, and die. He'll die.

"Then, see you soon," he mutters, ending the call. I quickly dial Lilly, telling her to bring Alec to my office as soon as he arrives. Every second counts. Because every second I run means Petrov is making the one who's mine suffer.

A knock on the door makes me look up. "Yes," I call, and in walks Valerio. "What did you find out?" I demand immediately, my eyes locked on him as he closes the door behind him.

"No one knows where she is, and Petrov hasn't told his sister a thing. He excluded everyone when he devised Helena's kidnapping, trusting no soul, knowing I'm the mole under his roof," he says, making me cuss under my breath in frustration. "But I know what he plans for your wife."