The Don’s Consigliere Charged Me By The Minute To Touch Him Chapter 05
Blood
[Dante’s POV]
Blood hit my face before I heard the shot.
Time stopped.
I watched Elena crumple — slow, soft, like a puppet with its strings cut. My knees hit the ground before my brain caught up. I caught her and pulled her into my arms tightly.
“Lena!!”
Her body was limp. Blood soaked through my shirt, pooling between us faster than I could stop it.
“Doctor! Someone get a fucking doctor!”
Valentina had scrambled to the far corner of the room. She stood there frozen for a few seconds, watching Elena bleed out on the floor.
Then something shifted in her face.
The panic smoothed over. Her chin lifted.
She fixed her hair and walked toward me.
“Boss, don’t be fooled. Elena is a professional liar — she probably planned this whole thing. Blanks, a blood pack, the whole act. She’s jealous of how well you treat me, and this is her way of manipulating you. If you call the doctors, you’re playing right into her hands.” She crossed her arms. “Think about it. She’s doing all of this for family’s money. Greedy and selfish — that’s all she’s ever been. Don’t give her a single cent. Just wait a few hours. When she can’t keep the act up anymore, she’ll show her true colors.”
Valentina kept talking. On and on.
Before today, I would have believed every word. I would have nodded along, praised her dedication, her sharp instincts, her loyalty.
But right now — all I could see was Elena. She was getting cold in my arms. Her blood was seeping through my fingers no matter how hard I pressed.
Valentina’s voice hit me like boiling oil poured onto open flame.
“Shut up!” The words came out frozen. Barely human. “If you don’t want to end up in a hole tonight, go get me a doctor. NOW.”
She flinched. For the first time, real fear crossed her face. She scrambled up and yanked open the door.
Doctors rushed in. The room erupted into chaos.
They pushed me out.
I stood in the hallway like a hollow shell.
Blood everywhere. Mine. Hers. I couldn’t tell anymore.
Valentina appeared beside me, cradling that fucking dog.
Her perfume hit me first — thick, cloying. I frowned without thinking.
Should consiglieres be like this?
“Boss, based on my professional assessment, Elena is deeply calculating. She definitely has a backup plan. You should immediately separate your assets from hers. Don’t leave her a single dollar.”
I turned my head and looked at her. At that smug expression. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
She took that as encouragement and lifted her chin higher. “Boss, I’m just looking out for you. Elena is a compulsive liar who attempted to skim from the family’s books. Given the severity of her offenses, she should be required to pay $500 million in compensation before a forced divorce is finalized.”
Five. Hundred. Million.
The number hit me like ice water.
I thought back. From the moment I’d made Valentina my consigliere — every fine she’d imposed on Elena, every ‘compensation’ she’d extracted — it all went into Valentina’s pocket.
Before, I’d told myself it didn’t matter. Elena was my wife. She’d never leave me no matter what. Letting Valentina skim a little to keep her running things was harmless.
But now —
A few days ago, Valentina had swiped Elena’s card for $500,000. Said she “deserved it” for a handbag.
Valentina’s single handbag cost $500,000.
And Elena — my wife of ten years — her entire life savings were $500,000.
That’s what “skimming from the family’s books” looked like?
I remembered Elena’s voice on the phone. Shaking. Breaking. Begging me.
“That’s Mom’s surgery money…”
She was begging me.
And I didn’t believe her. I listened to Valentina. Decided Elena was putting on a show.
But what if she wasn’t?
My chest caved in. I couldn’t breathe.
The terror came late — but when it hit, it devoured me whole.