Chapter 4 - The Viper’s Last Strike
Two weeks passed, transforming the atmosphere inside the Rossi estate entirely.
The oppressive, cold fear that had lingered during Victoria’s reign was completely gone. The halls were filled with light, music, and the sound of Lily’s sweet laughter. Beatrice had moved fully into her new role. She managed the estate's staff with gentle grace and deep empathy, treating every worker with the dignity she had always been denied.
And the transformation was not just operational; it was personal.
Leo spent every evening at home. The man who used to stay out until midnight managing his vast underworld empire now made it a point to return by six o’clock every night. He sat at the long dining table with Beatrice and Lily, eating homemade meals, listening to Lily read stories, and watching Beatrice with an intensity that made Beatrice’s heart race in her chest.
Leo didn't look at Beatrice like she was a former maid. He looked at her like she was the most captivating, precious woman in the world. He bought her soft, elegant dresses that embraced her broad curves, making her feel beautiful for the first time in her life.
However, in the dark underbelly of Chicago, wounded vipers do not die quietly.
Victoria Kensington had lost everything. Her reputation was destroyed, her family had disowned her to avoid Leo Rossi’s wrath, and her dream of acquiring the massive Rossi fortune was reduced to ashes. Driven insane by bitter humiliation and burning jealousy, she sought out the one force capable of standing against Leo: the Moretti family, Leo’s fiercest rival in the Chicago underworld.
On a rainy Thursday evening, Leo was delayed at a emergency syndicate meeting downtown. Mateo was with him, leaving only four guards posted at the estate gates.
Inside the mansion, Beatrice was in the second-floor nursery, helping Lily finish a puzzle before bedtime.
Suddenly, the lights throughout the entire estate flickered and died, plunging the house into pitch-black darkness.
"Beatrice?" Lily whimpered, reaching out blindly in the dark.
"Shh, stay calm, baby," Beatrice said smoothly, pulling a flashlight from the nightstand drawer and pulling Lily behind her. "It's just a power outage. The backup generator will kick in—"
BANG! BANG!
Muffled gunshots echoed from the lower courtyard, followed by the heavy thud of a breaching axe splintering the glass doors of the conservatory downstairs.
Beatrice’s blood turned to ice.
It wasn't a power failure. The estate was under attack.
"Lily, under the bed! Now!" Beatrice ordered in an urgent whisper, shoving the small girl beneath the heavy mahogany frame and dragging a velvet bedskirt down to hide her completely. "Do not make a sound, no matter what you hear. Do you hear me?"
"Beatrice, I'm scared!" Lily sobbed quietly.
"I know, sweetie. I am right here. I won't let anyone touch you," Beatrice vowed.
Beatrice grabbed a heavy bronze candlestick from the mantelpiece, her knuckles white around the metal. She stepped toward the nursery door, her heart hammering wildly against her ribs.
Outside in the corridor, heavy, rushed footsteps approached.
The door burst open. A figure holding a flashlight and a silenced pistol stepped into the room.
"Where is the little brat?!" a sharp, hysterical voice shrieked through the shadows.
It was Victoria.
She looked unhinged—her clothes dirty, her eyes wild and bloodshot, backed by two heavily armed mercenary hitmen provided by the Moretti family.
"Victoria," Beatrice said, stepping into the beam of the flashlight, her broad frame completely blocking the view of the bed behind her. She held the heavy bronze candlestick like a weapon, standing tall and unyielding. "You shouldn't have come back here."
Victoria let out an ugly, crazed laugh. "Look at you! Playing lady of the manor in your fancy dress! You stole my life, you fat pig! Where is the girl?! Moretti wants her as leverage to force Leo to hand over the shipping docks, and I want to watch Leo weep!"
"You will never lay a hand on that child again," Beatrice said, her voice dropping into a cold, terrifying register that sounded eerily like Leo's.
"Kill the maid," Victoria barked at the mercenary standing beside her. "Find the kid!"
The mercenary stepped forward, raising his gun—but Beatrice didn't wait to be shot.
Using her broad size and pure, instinctual protective rage, Beatrice threw her entire weight forward, slamming the heavy bronze candlestick directly into the mercenary’s jaw.
CRACK!
The man grunted violently, stumbling backward into the second hitman as his gun went off, blowing a hole into the ceiling plaster. Beatrice lunged forward, using her strength to shove both men against the doorframe, knocking the flashlight to the floor.
"Run, Victoria shrieked, scrambling toward the bed as she noticed the rustling bedskirt. "I'll get her myself!"
Victoria reached under the bed, grabbing Lily’s arm and dragging the screaming child into the open.
"Got you, you little—"
Beatrice turned like a storm, grabbing Victoria by her platinum hair and slamming her violently against the stone fireplace mantel. Victoria dropped Lily with a screech of pain, her face covered in fresh blood as she collapsed to the floor.
The two mercenaries recovered, charging at Beatrice from behind, pinning her heavy arms back.
"Hold her down! Shoot her!" Victoria screamed, scrambling on her hands and knees, reaching for a fallen pistol on the rug.
"TOUCH HER AND YOU DIE!" a voice echoed through the dark house like a thunderclap.
Before the mercenary could pull his trigger, a heavy shotgun blast shattered the room. The hitman holding Beatrice’s arm was blown backward through the drywall.
Leo Rossi burst into the nursery like an unstoppable force of nature, flanked by Mateo and ten heavily armed enforcers.
Leo didn't hesitate. He raised his weapon and fired two rapid shots, taking down the second mercenary instantly.
Victoria let out a blood-curdling shriek, trying to grab the gun on the floor—but Leo stepped on her hand, his heavy boot crushing her fingers into the floorboards with a sickening crack.
"AHHHHH!" Victoria screamed, weeping in agonizing pain.
Leo didn't even look down at her. He kicked the gun away, grabbed Victoria by her collar, and hauled her off the floor, tossing her like trash into Mateo’s waiting grip.
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"Take her to the harbor," Leo commanded, his voice dripping with pure, absolute death. "Ensure she is buried where no sun will ever touch her face again."
"No! Leo! LEO!" Victoria screamed as Mateo dragged her out of the room for the very last time, her hopeless cries fading into the dark, silent night.
