Chapter 4 - The Ring of the Castello DynastyThe silence in the hospital room became absolute. The rhythmic beep of the heart monitor seemed to slow down, echoing loudly in Sadie’s ears.
"A... what?" she whispered, her brain refusing to process the sequence of syllables.
"A wife," Victor repeated, his voice entirely deadpan, as if he were discussing a commercial real estate acquisition. "The federal prosecutors and the rival syndicates on the north side have been looking for a vulnerability in my perimeter for two years. They track my business associates, they lean on my contractors, and they watch my staff. But a domestic employee who suddenly vanishes into the background doesn't draw suspicion. A quiet marriage to a schoolteacher’s sister, however... that creates a very convenient blind spot."
"You want to use me as a shield?" Sadie demanded, a spark of hot anger finally overriding her terror. "You want me to play prop for your mob war so you can keep your empire running?"
"I want to protect what is mine," Victor corrected, his voice dropping into a register that brook no argument. "And as of last night, when you broke down outside my office door and let a piece of trash like Mick O'Shea treat you like property, your problems became my problems. In my world, we don't let outsiders touch what bears our name."
"I never agreed to bear your name!"
"You didn't have to," Victor said coldly, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a small velvet box. He flipped it open with one thumb. Inside sat a heavy, vintage platinum ring encrusted with old-cut diamonds that looked like they had history—heavy, expensive, and inescapable history. "The civil ceremony was filed at 4:00 a.m. through a judge who values his pension. You are legally Sadie Castello as of twenty minutes ago."
Sadie stared at the box, her breath catching in her throat. "You didn't ask me!"
"If I had asked, you would have said no," Victor replied logically. "And then your brother would have been left without his medical trial, and you would have walked back into Mick O'Shea’s lounge tonight. I solved your equations, Sadie. Now you live with the answer."
Before she could form a reply, the door opened behind them, and Sam stirred in his bed, his eyelids fluttering open beneath his baseball cap. He blinked sluggishly, looking from Sadie to the tall, intimidating stranger standing beside her.
"S-Sadie?" Sam mumbled, his voice raspy. "Who’s... who’s the guy?"
Sadie froze, panic clawing at her chest. She looked at Sam, then looked up at Victor.
Victor didn't flinch. He stepped closer to the bed, resting one large hand casually on the metal guardrail, his expression shifting into something remarkably controlled and steady.
"I'm Victor," he said, his voice surprisingly calm as he looked down at the seventeen-year-old boy. "I'm your new brother-in-law. And your medical bills are handled, so stop worrying about stupid things and go back to sleep."
Sam blinked sleepily, too exhausted to process the absurdity of the statement. "Oh... cool. Nice to meet you, man." His eyes drifted shut again, and within seconds, he was fast asleep.
May you like
Sadie stared at Victor, a mixture of fury and disbelief warring inside her chest. "You're insane," she breathed.
"I'm practical," Victor corrected, turning back to her and taking her uninjured hand. Before she could pull away, he slid the heavy platinum ring onto her left ring finger. It fit with terrifying perfection. "Pack your things, Sadie. My car is waiting downstairs. You're moving into the Castello estate today—not as a maid, but as its mistress."
