---- Chapter 10 Alessia POV: The sight of the kiss broke Eleanor Moretti. All the fight went out of her. She slumped onto the sofa, a ghost of her former self, her family's reputation utterly destroyed. Don Moretti's face was a mask of complete and desperate failure. He turned to me, his pride gone, his voice a hoarse plea. "Please, Alessia. Delete the video. Don't subject us to any more public shame." | held all the power now. Their fate was in my hands. "| will consider it," | said, my voice as sharp and cold as a razor's edge, "under these exact conditions. One: the annulment is immediate. Two: | receive fifty percent of Santino's marital assets and all of his company shares. And three: he formally renounces any future claim to the title of Moretti Don." Don Moretti stared at me, the weight of my demands sinking in. He knew my father's power was absolute. He knew the evidence was undeniable. He had no choice. "We accept," he whispered, the words of surrender tasting like ash in his mouth. ---- They left soon after, Eleanor looking like a specter, her spirit crushed, their legitimate facade permanently tarnished. | immediately called my family's lawyer and instructed him to draw up the annulment papers with my precise terms. Then, | put on a sharp business suit, a suit of armor for my final battle, and drove myself to Santino's company headquarters -or what was left of it. | found him in his office, surrounded by ringing phones and panicked employees. He looked desperate, visibly shaken by the impending financial ruin. He saw me and tried to offer a pathetic, hollow attempt at reconciliation. He refused to sign the papers | placed on his desk. My voice was like the crack of a whip. "You will sign this by the end of the day. If you don't, that video will be sent to every major family and news outlet on the coast. Your betrayal will be confirmed for the entire world to see." His phone rang. It was his father. | watched as Santino listened, his face crumbling. The frantic, desperate tones of the old Don were audible even from across the room. His pride shattered, his honor stripped away, Santino Moretti picked up the pen. With a shaking hand, he signed away our marriage, his fortune, and his future. | walked out of that building a free woman. That very evening, | boarded a plane to a secluded luxury villa in Italy. | needed to breathe, to reflect. ---- As | stood on the balcony overlooking the sea, a familiar figure appeared. Damien Costa. He had followed me, a silent guardian. He didn't come with condolences. He came with a proposition, his eyes full of a fierce, unwavering loyalty. He came to offer anew family pact, one built not on duty, but on devotion.