Chapter 55 - "Tell Me, Red, Do I Have To Kill Him?"

"Why must you do this to me?" Persephone was on the verge of crying. Her clothes were dripping with water, her make-up was ruined and her hair was a tangled mess. "Giselle will kill me for ruining her clothes." 

Santiago scowled at her. Pulling her to his side, he glanced at her coldly from head to toe.

"Why did you borrow clothes from her?"

"Remember you kidnapped me from my wedding?" Persephone's innocent voice was filled with derision. 

"I do remember. But if you remember it so well, then why do you try to run away from me?"Santiago asked 

"Villain, you can't blame me for escaping when you run a brothel on the island. Do you know how disgusting your profession is?"Persephone sneered. "Not only this, you told me that the old perverted man wants me. From the time I met you, I have been kidnapped twice and also twice I almost got r*ped." 

Persephone shivered as a gust of wind passed through her. "Rest assured, I will not run away from you anymore. Not because I don't dare to, but because I am tired of escaping my fate. I will accept whatever it will throw at me. Even enduring an infuriating captor like you." Or marrying Nicolas after going back to New York. 

"Why do you always fight everything, Red?" Santiago asked her in a mellow tone. She shuddered as she felt his warm breath on her neck. Pulling her close to his chest, he nibbled on her ear and neck. 

"B-because I want to live. Not for myself but for someone else," Persephone managed to utter the words. She closed her eyes as she felt his warm lips trailing the nape of her neck to her bare shoulders, leaving nibs and bites on the passage. 

Santiago paused as he heard her words. "For who?" Yanking the thin strap of her wet dress with his index finger, he pulled it down her shoulder. Tracing the tattoo on her left side of the chest, he murmured, "For him, right?"

Jolting out of the daze, she took a step back and came out of his arms. She had promised herself that she would never go back to his arms again. And look at her already breaking her promises because of this man. 

But who would he be if let her leave just like this? He was Santiago Vitello, the hunter who lured his sinful prey to his cave to surrender not to let them go back. Persephone Marino was one of a kind, she had come to him on her own accord and he would be damned if he let her go back... ever. He would take and take and take until she would be nothing but an empty shell. A shell that would need him to survive. 

"Tell me, Red, do I have to kill him?"Santiago murmured as he took a step forward. 

The fire in her eyes died as she heard his words. A numbness spread to her body. Yet, she found herself replying to his question," Even after dying, he is still alive in my heart like a never extinguishing flame. Tell me, Villain, how would you kill him when all the biggest forces of the word failed to kill him here?" She ended her last sentence by pointing at her heart. 

Santiago could not understand what this burning kind of pain he was feeling when he heard her words. That man, whoever he was, still lived in her heart even after dying. He was the fuel to her blazing personality. And here he was, he had everything a man needed to live a life of a king, yet at this moment he, Santiago Vitello, was the poorest man he had ever known. 

He mocked himself as he realized that he was actually jealous of a dead man. He also realized that the ring Persephone was talking about, must be given by him. More reasons to throw that damned ring into the sea where she would never find it. 

Seeing that she was walking towards the door, he called out after her, "Where do you think you are going?"

Persephone didn't look back but she did pause in her footsteps. "I'm going back to my room."

"Do you not want to achieve your goal?" He was asking her if she didn't want to take what she came here for. 

Thinking that he was ready to grant freedom to Giselle, she immediately turned to face him. "Are you ready to grant freedom to Giselle---"

"Giselle? Who Giselle?" He furrowed his brows, feigning confusion. "I'm asking about the dance that I owe you." 

Clenching her hands in a tight fist, she controlled the urge to claw his face with her sharp nails. He was having fun tormenting her, wasn't he? 

"What? Do you not want to dance with the owner of a brothel now?" Santiago asked her in a mocking tone. 

"Sure, Villain. Sure. " 

_____

"Prime Minister Joseph, it seems like the situation is getting out of our hands. We have lost hundreds of millions of dollars in a single night. " The man sitting in front of PM Joseph said. 

PM Joseph was a tall and fit man in his early fifties. He was looking out of the window with a cigar in his mouth, was holding a pen in his hand whose tip was getting crushed against the paper. 

He would never forgive Santiago Vitello for ruining his plans. The City of Lorenta was his golden goose. But that ardent follower of His Majesty swallowed his golden goose in a single night. 

Behind the veil of poverty and backwardness of Loretta city, he was running several illegal businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars. 

"How did he get hold of our illegal businesses?" PM Joseph asked calmly. Anger and frustration didn't suit his face. He was a humble and kind-hearted politician in the eyes of people. Nonetheless, a politician indeed. 

"He didn't," the man quickly said. They all would be surprised to know that whatever Santiago did had nothing to do with the political agenda. 

The pen in Joseph's hand paused and he looked up to see his associate uttering nonsense again. He asked again to confirm if he had heard something wrong," He doesn't?" 

"Yes, PM Joseph, he has no idea about your side businesses." 

Joseph slammed his hand on the table. "Then, what the hell did he achieve by destroying my business? What was his intention?" 

The man hesitated to speak first but then thought that it was necessary to save his life right now. So he immediately confessed what he knew. 

"There are rumors. I mean there are several rumors floating in the area that Santiago Vitello did this for a woman. Apparently, a gangster in the west of Loretta tried to take away Vitello's woman. In retribution, he destroyed the entire city. He set an example for everyone not to eye his woman." 

"A woman?" Joseph chuckled. "A woman indeed. Who else but a woman would be the cause of a man's ruin." 

There was a woman in his life too who was the reason for his restless nights. But he would deal with her after the elections.

"What are the orders, PM Joseph?" The man straightened his back and asked. 

"You have twenty-four hours to bring that woman to me. His Majesty is planning something to stop me from winning the election this year. But what would be His Majesty without his four pillars of strength?" Joseph laughed loudly. Shaking his head, "The disappearance of the woman will keep Vitello busy with his personal matters. And so, he will not shove his leg in political matters."

The four dark horses were King Leonardo's pillars of strength. And the public had also acknowledged the fact. 

"But Mr. Vitello had cleared many times that he had no interest in politics," The man said with furrowed brows. 

"You perhaps don't understand His Majesty. He can be persuasive sometimes."

The man nodded understanding what Joseph was saying. "I will bring the woman to you within the time limit." 

Joseph hummed in reply. "Any news on Duchess of Orin?" 

"She has not responded to our messages. She is making her stance clear by her silence that she will not marry you." 

"Ridiculous!" Joseph growled. "Did she not know that in the entire empire no one would marry that woman? I'm doing a favor to her by marrying her but no...her pride is bigger than the consequences she would be facing after rejecting me." 

___ 

Duchess of Orin, Calliope Wilding, the wife of the late Duke, Orlando Wilding. She was married to Orlando Wilding when she was eighteen. Orlando Wilding wasn't a noble, he was a Sicilian businessman who once came to do trade with the empire. Since he was a very rich and influential man, Calliope's father, the then Duke of Orin, gave the hand of his only daughter to the wealthy businessman and passed his title to his son-in-law after his death, a few months after the wedding. 

It wasn't uncommon in noble circles to give the hand of their children to someone wealthy when you have the title but not wealth. 

Orlando Wilding (38) died two years after his marriage in a plane crash, leaving his twenty years old young wife, a widow with all of his wealth. Since Calliope was his only family and they had no children, she became the sole owner of his wealth. 

[And, yeah, Calliope Wilding is Callum's heroine. ] 

PM Joseph was obsessed with Calliope. He wasn't a noble but he was a very influential man in the whole of the country. He knew that after marrying her he would be not only getting the title of duke but also the immense wealth that Orlando Wilding has left behind. 

____