9 Chapter 9
Marcus had never imagined that the pure, innocent woman he had adored for years could be capable of such a venomous scheme, one that made him the laughingstock of everyone present. His love instantly curdled into hate.
My mother came to see me time and time again.
Sophia… she wasn’t related to him at all.
Sophia was taken back to that sunless, secret room to suffer endless torment.
“Marcus, if you have the guts, then kill me! I would rather die than be married to a worthless man like you!”
Day after day, it continued.
But she never expected that from the moment she set foot in the Torrino home, someone had already reported everything to Dante.
In that instant, I understood everything.
Sophia had brought an aphrodisiac into the Torrino home, originally intending to use the opportunity to sleep with Dante and force his hand.
Viktor was rushed to the hospital in time, and though his life was saved, the injury was
critical. He would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
I was so furious I almost laughed. I originally thought she defended Sophia because she’d been fooled by those clumsy little tricks, but now she was telling me she knew everything Sophia had done!
She prided herself on her first-class looks and talents, believing it would be the simplest thing to capture Dante’s heart.
Dante’s information had been correct.
“And don’t you blame me. People are always climbing to greater heights. If Katya can be the matriarch of the Torrino family, then so can I!”
But it was too late. He was tormented by regret, tossing and turning through sleepless nights, the force of the whip in his hand growing heavier with each strike.
Until Viktor snuck in under the cover of darkness, attempting to rescue Sophia, only to be caught red-handed by Marcus.
In the ensuing struggle, Viktor, who spent his days in a drunken stupor, was naturally no match for Marcus.
As his life hung in the balance, he suddenly remembered.
“I know all about what Sophia did to you. I know she isn’t a good person, but she needs my protection. And you… you’ve always been so strong. Can’t you just show some
mercy…”
When she heard the words “biological daughter,” a flicker of guilt flashed in her eyes.
That was why on her wedding night, she had taken advantage of Marcus’s adoration for her and had not fully given herself to him.
Dante was the only one I had left to rely on. If she stole him away from me too, I knew I would completely fall apart.
The depth of his cruelty was as vast as the love he once held for her. In the cellar, her agonizing screams and the sound of a whip cracking through the air echoed day and night.
She begged me to intervene and save Sophia’s life.
“Katya, everything in the past was my fault, but I owe Sophia her life. Please, save her, won’t you? If this goes on, she’s going to be killed!”
“So, you just stood by and watched her bully and crush me, for ten years!”
Marcus chased after Sophia and caught her with little effort.
“You… how could you know?”
“I’m your biological daughter! How could you do this to me?”
It wasn’t until a close friend of hers confessed to buying the drug for her in secret that she finally resigned herself to her fate.
But even so, the matriarch had uncovered the whole story.
When Sophia realized her plot had been exposed, she vehemently denied everything.
He had also noticed her evasive glances during the banquet, the way she furtively looked around, and even how she secretly asked about Dante’s whereabouts.
Viktor’s vision blurred. In the final moment before he lost consciousness, he still couldn’t understand why the sister he had doted on for years would push him to his death at such a critical moment.
So, he decided to play along, having a Soldato put on his shirt and lure Sophia into a debauched tryst behind a dimly lit sculpture.
Marcus could only feel that he had been blind, to have betrayed our childhood bond for a creature like her.
In less than three days, Sophia was beaten beyond recognition.
“Was it because Sophia’s mother confessed on her deathbed that for her own selfish reasons, she secretly swapped us as babies? That Sophia is your real daughter, and I’m the one born to the Moldovan maid?”
He locked Sophia in the basement, torturing her day and night.
Seeing she was about to be dragged back to her cage, Sophia hardened her heart, gritted her teeth, and viciously shoved Viktor, who was shielding her, straight toward Marcus. He landed right on a sharp shard of glass in Marcus’s hand, and blood instantly gushed from the wound.
All of her subtle maneuvers were well within Dante’s control.
Her eyes widened in shock.
