Chapter 173/The Game Has Just Begun

Chapter 173: 173/The Game Has Just Begun

Chapter 173

Isabella’s point of view

How the hell could he do this to me?! How could he betray me with such a casual, detached indifference while I, throughout all these long years, protected the sanctity of our public arrangement and engagement? I had poured every single ounce of my effort, wealth, and elegance into ensuring I was the flawless, pristine fiancée who matched his terrifying status in front of every high-society cartel family!

He had been backstabbing me every single day, every single passing second while I remained blissfully blind. Yet, in my absolute stupidity, I had hoped and repeatedly brushed the warning signs aside, naively believing that once we were under one roof and locked behind our bedroom doors after the wedding, I would finally force him to see me and love me.

I had voluntarily blinded myself, intentionally closing my eyes to every glaring red flag. I ignored how much he absolutely despised the sight of me, how he constantly evaded our dates, and how his entire frame would lock up with fear, detachment, and pure revulsion whenever I tried to step close to touch or kiss him as if I were some highly infectious, rotting disease he was terrified of catching on his skin!

I had always comforted my delusional self by rationalizing that he was just a cold mafia prince a brutal, hardened tyrant whose blood-soaked lifestyle left him incapable of giving his heart to a woman. But today, through a brutal right hook of reality, the truth slapped me in the face: he *could* love! He was capable of loving to the point of absolute madness.

He was capable of drowning in secret promises, heavy, burning kisses, and breathless, desperate longing. It turned out that the arrogant, terrifying monster Cedric Volkov would willingly crawl on his hands and knees just for Stephanie’s approval and gaze, meekly and submissively agreeing to sacrifice his entire life and soul just to make her smile. And right now... she was carrying two pieces of his backstabbing blood inside her goddamn womb!

I violently struck the dirt with my trembling fist, a raw malice consuming me as a screech tore through my throat, shredding my vocal cords. "Damn it... damn my fucking heart! How can you be this stupid, naive, and pathetic, Isabella?!"

In that pitch-black second, the memories of that doomed day I drove out to the island estate violently flooded my mind. I distinctly remembered how I had swallowed that lie like a gullible little girl believing that Stephanie was Alexander’s woman, and that her sudden wedding was a forced punishment handed down by Grandfather Victor! She had been Cedric’s woman, his hidden lover from the very first step, the very first move! They had all played me for a goddamn fool.

They conspired against my pure intentions, blinded me, and weaponized my genuine feelings just to practice their filthy, low-class degeneracy in the shadows.

But I am Isabella. I am the daughter of the ancient, untouchable Morettiz bloodline a family that was never built to tolerate a devastating defeat, or swallow humiliation and brokenness in silent, submissive compliance like a beaten dog.

I am not going to let that low-class tramp Stephanie strip Cedric away from me this easily. I will never allow this disgusting farce to conclude with her grand, triumphant victory while I am left to choke down defeat and degradation alone in the dark.

I forced my body up from the dirt, aggressively wiping my face with a harshness that smeared whatever makeup I had left.

A dark, wicked, and venomous smirk carved its way across my lips, an overwhelming thirst for pure, bloody vengeance consuming my features. I looked out into the barren waste and whispered to myself, my cracked voice dripping with homicidal intent:

"I am going to utterly annihilate you and your entire existence, Stephanie. I am going to transform that grand palace into a pitch-black graveyard for your twins and this pathetic, cursed love that dares to challenge me. If Cedric can’t be mine completely, then he won’t belong to any other breathing creature in this entire fucking world. I will bury you and your bastards together."

I forced my legs back to the car, my strides locking with a hard, unyielding stability as every single shred of the trembling weakness that had just soaked my cheeks completely evaporated into thin air. In its place lived a dead finality, sharp as a freshly ground blade.

I climbed behind the steering wheel and forced myself to look at my flushed, swollen face in the rearview mirror. I was done being that broken, pathetic girl weeping and begging for a miserable scrap of affection. A brand-new Isabella was born right in that seat a ruthless woman who would set that entire palace on fire with every living soul inside it if that was what it took to resurrect her mutilated dignity.

I twisted the key in the ignition, the engine roaring to life as I tore back toward the city, my breathing settling into a rhythmic, perfectly even pace for the first time since this nightmare of a confrontation began. My brain, which had been temporarily paralyzed by the sheer, suffocating shock of catching them, was now spinning with a rapid, diabolical precision. Alexander knew about the babies... but he was entirely blind to the secret, degenerate bed Cedric and Stephanie had been continuously sharing behind his back ever since the wedding.

Cedric was ready to take a bullet and walk straight into hell for her... and Stephanie was shivering in pure terror, her stomach doing violent flips at the mere thought of a public scandal and a bloody family massacre.

A sickly, venomous sneer carved its way across my lips, my eyes narrowing into slits. The strings of this entire goddamn game were now resting entirely in the palm of my hand. I wasn’t going to run to Alexander like some weeping, desperate victim looking for a shoulder to cry on.

A brutal tyrant like the head of the Volkov family would never believe his brother’s fiancée without cold, hard evidence in fact, a man like him would probably put a bullet through my skull first just to scrub any taint of suspicion from his family’s pristine name. No, I didn’t need a savior. I needed a trap a real, flawless, airtight trap where both brothers would be caught red-handed in their sins right in front of Grandfather Victor and the entire high-society underworld.

I pulled up to my family’s estate, stepping through the grand entrance with a chillingly confident stride. In the main hallway, my mother intercepted me, her face tightly twisted with anxiety as she scanned my features. "Isabella... where on earth have you been? Your face is as pale as a goddamn corpse!"

I answered her with a rehearsed, flat calmness, forcing a dead smile that never quite reached my frozen eyes. "I’m perfectly fine, Mother. I was just putting some final touches on the arrangements for my wedding to Cedric. Everything is going to be handled beautifully, I promise you."

I walked up the grand staircase to my quarters, shutting the heavy wooden door behind me and throwing the lock securely.

Stepping out onto the balcony, I stared out at the sprawling horizon, my eyes burning with an absolute, homicidal thirst for vengeance. I leaned against the railing, a low, definitive whisper cutting through the quiet air:

"Enjoy your final days of peace while you can, Stephanie. Hold your precious little twins safely inside you for just a few more days. Because very soon, I am going to make Cedric himself throw you to the wolves just to save his own neck from the gallows."

I whispered in a low voice "I am going to watch every single one of your sickening family secrets burn to absolute ash, burying your pathetic dreams along with them. The game has just begun."