His Brother's Bride

They didn't take me home. They dragged me to a nondescript building on the outskirts of the city.

A heavy steel door opened into an underground casino. The air was thick with smoke, sweat, blood, and despair.

"Welcome to the real world of the Blackwood family," Dante said, shoving me forward.

In a corner of the casino, a few gamblers who couldn't pay their debts were being beaten by enforcers. The sound of bones snapping was sickeningly clear, blood spattering on the walls as the men screamed.

I felt a wave of nausea and covered my mouth, gagging.

"What's wrong? Scared?" Marco laughed mockingly. "This is just another Tuesday for the mob, Rose. If you can't handle this, what makes you think you can be a Blackwood?"

"I..." I tried to turn and leave, but the two of them blocked my path.

"You're staying here until morning," Dante said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "This is your punishment for trying to hurt Isabella. And it's a lesson in what real cruelty looks like."

"No! The sight of blood... I can't handle it, I'll pass out!" I shook my head, my voice choked with panic.

"Then pass out," Marco shrugged. "Pass out, wake up, pass out again. You'll get used to it."

They ignored my trauma, my history of being bullied, my physical state. In that place, filled with violence and blood, I fainted again and again, only to be jolted awake by a splash of ice water. Every time I fell, someone would kick me or douse me with water, forcing me to stay conscious.

I spent the entire night in that cycle of passing out and being violently woken up. The hatred I felt for those two men grew inside me, a poison spreading through my veins.

By dawn, I was too weak to even stand.

"Can you do me a favor?" I managed to grab one of Dante's men. "Go to the hospital... look for my grandmother's ring. It might be on the ground below..."

The man looked at me with a flicker of pity, but quickly shook his head. "Sorry, Miss Rose. I can't go against the boss's orders, and I can't afford to get on Miss Isabella's bad side."

Everyone refused to help me.

I had to drag my exhausted, broken body out of the casino and walk toward the hospital. Every step was agony, but I had to find that ring.

When I finally reached the hospital, breathless, the janitors were already cleaning up.

"Excuse me," I asked one of them. "Did you see a small object fall from one of the upper floors yesterday? It was an old-fashioned ring..."

The janitor paused, then looked at me apologetically. "Miss, last night's trash was already taken to the landfill. By now, it's probably..."

My world collapsed.

The only memento my grandmother had left me was gone.