Chapter 161
KATYA POV
I walked two steps behind Gina as we moved toward the main staircase. I kept my eyes fixed on the stiff cotton of her uniform, maintaining a good distance.
Not knowing when Gina might want to just "accidentally move back and give a slap to the face." She hated enough to risk it.
The descent was agonizing. The top floor was silent, but as we dropped one level, the sounds of the house—the distant hum of conversation, the clatter of life—grew louder.
This was the second floor, the main residential floor, filled with important suites and the more permanent family rooms.
This was the floor where Marina was staying.
My stomach twisted tighter. Every step down confird my initial, sickening thought.
I was walking to my final resting place. I should have at least eaten enough yesterday. Gina stopped at the bottom of the stairs, not turning to , but nodding toward the end of the long hallway.
"That room." she spat, not bothering about what I needed. "She wants you there." Marina’s room.
She was the one who summoned . She was using the title "Donna" to command the house staff and drag into her personal space.
The fear I had felt of Roo’s judgnt was instantly replaced by the raw, primal fear of Marina’s unpredictable cruelty.
"Try to look less pathetic," Gina sneered, finally turning to , her eyes lingering on the bruise on my face.
With that final warning, Gina continued her walk, leading down the opulent hallway, passing nonna’s room.
I so desperately want to run inside and hid but I need to face that bitch and with Gina by my side who always says I’m being favored I needed to prove that I couldn’t stand on my own even in face of death.
We stopped outside the massive, double-doored suite at the end of the wing. Gina didn’t knock. She simply opened the door, wide enough to expose the interior, and stepped aside, her face impassive.
"She’s ready for you," Gina said, stepping aside. The silent ssage was clear. Go in and face your deserved fate.
I took one last breath that barely filled my lungs and stepped across the threshold. The room was vast, filled with morning light that revealed thick, expensive fabrics and plush chairs.
It was clearly a room for soone of high post and it had been personalized quickly by Marina.
There was a faint scent of expensive, cloying perfu that I instantly recognized as Marina’s.
And there she was, seated on her large bed. She was regal, calm, and utterly detached, she wasn’t in lingerie now.
She was fully dressed in an expensive, sleek white dress, her hair perfectly coiffed, her makeup flawless.
She wasn’t like the Marina who attacked yesterday. The only indication of last night’s was the tight, rigid set of her jaw.
She looked at —at my damp hair, my simple cloth and the bruise on my face—and her lips curved into a slow, malicious smile.
"Ah, Katya," Marina purred, her voice dripping with triumphant sweetness. "Thank you for joining . I believe we have so unfinished business to discuss."
I stood rooted to the spot, my heart hamring against my ribs like a trapped bird. The room felt too large, the ceiling too high, the white of Marina’s dress too bright.
She looked like a saint, but the glint in her eyes was pure demon. At this mont, I finally knew why she and Roo was a match. Marina didn’t look at for more than a second.
Instead, her gaze shifted over my shoulder toward the door. She gave a single, sharp nod—a silent command that sent a fresh wave of ice through my blood.
I didn’t understand the unsaid communication until I heard the heavy thud of the double doors closing.
The click of the lock was the loudest sound I’d ever heard. Gina didn’t leave. She didn’t return to her duties.
She walked past , her footsteps heavy and purposeful on the plush carpet. She didn’t look like a maid anymore; she looked like an executioner.
In her hand, she held sothing she must have fetched from the corner of the room. It was long, slender, and made of polished dark wood.
A cane. My knees turned to water. I knew what was to co.
Marina stood up from the bed, smoothing the front of her pristine white dress. She looked perfect—the perfect fiancée, the perfect future Donna.
She walked toward with the grace of a predator, stopping just inches away. The cloying scent of her perfu was so thick I could almost taste it.
"You had a very busy night, didn’t you, Katya?" Marina asked, her voice dropping to a low, dangerous hiss. "Lurking in the shadows. Watching things that don’t belong to you. Making the Don lose his temper."
I didn’t do anything, this girl knew how to twist words to her favor. She reached out, her manicured fingers catching my chin and tilting my head up, forcing to look at her.
Her touch was cold, "You think because Roo threw out of his room that you won sothing?"
She laughed, a dry, hollow sound. "He was tired. He was stressed. But he is still mine. And you? You are just a stray dog that needs to be taught where to sleep."
She let go of my chin with a sharp flick and looked at Gina. "She was very disrespectful last night, Gina," Marina said, her tone conversational, as if she were talking about the weather.
"She stood there and watched in a mont of vulnerability. In my family, witnesses to a Donna’s struggle are silenced."
Gina stepped closer, the cane gripped firmly in both hands. The hatred on her face was no longer simring; it was boiling over.
She had waited months for a reason to break , and Marina had just given her a golden ticket.
"She needs to learn her place, Donna," Gina whispered, the title coming out of her mouth with a sick reverence.
"I agree," Marina said, stepping back to give Gina room. She folded her arms over her chest, her smile returning, wider this ti, more jagged.
"And since Roo is ’busy,’ I decided to take care of the household staff myself."
I backed away, my heel catching on a chair leg. "Please," I whispered, my voice breaking. "I won’t say anything. I promise. I’ll stay in my room—"
"Oh, I know you won’t say anything," Marina cut off, her eyes flashing. "Because by the ti we’re done, you’ll be too afraid to even breathe my na."
She nodded to Gina. "Start with the legs," Marina commanded, her voice cold and flat. "I want her to rember this every ti she tries to walk down a hallway she doesn’t belong in."
Gina didn’t hesitate. She raised the cane, the wood whistling through the air.
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