The next morning, before I could recover from the night's torture, several sturdy maids barged in and dragged me up to serve Elena.

"The Don said since Miss Ivy likes scrubbing floors on her knees, she can learn how to serve properly."

I was dragged to the master bedroom that used to be mine. Elena was leaning against the headboard having breakfast. She saw me and smirked.

Her gaze fell on my neck. I was wearing my mother's silver necklace. It wasn't expensive, but the pendant held her ashes.

"Ugh, that thing looks ominous. No wonder I had nightmares last night." Elena frowned and looked at the maid with disgust. "Throw it in the fireplace. Don't let it scare the baby."

"You dare!" I lunged to grab it back.

Two maids pinned me down. I watched helplessly as the necklace was thrown into the roaring fire.

"No!" I screamed. My heart burned with the flames.

Rage overwhelmed my reason. I broke free and slapped Elena hard across the face.

Smack.

Elena threw herself onto the carpet, clutching her stomach and screaming. "My stomach! Alex, help, my baby..."

Alexander rushed in. He shoved me aside without a word.

My lower back hit the corner of the table hard. I gasped in pain.

He saw the necklace burning in the fireplace. A flash of hesitation and pain crossed his eyes, but Elena's screams replaced it with coldness.

He picked Elena up. As he passed me, he looked at me like I was dead. "If anything happens to Elena or the child, I will bury you with them."

While the manor was in chaos and Alexander took Elena to the hospital, I escaped.

I had to contact Papa. Once I returned to my family, I would be safe.

I borrowed a phone from a passerby and dialed Papa's number with trembling fingers.

The line was dead.

Panic set in. I searched for news online. The results froze my blood—Alexander's family had acquired all my family's businesses overnight under the guise of a "merger."

My father was wanted by the police for "money laundering."

Impossible. This was Alexander's doing.

I ran into the police station.

"I want to report a crime! Alexander is illegally imprisoning me! He's framing my father!" I grabbed the chief's sleeve.

The chief turned around slowly, a cigar in his mouth. He looked at me with a smirk. "Princess, I think you're confused."

He took out his phone and dialed a number, his tone subservient. "Don Alexander, your fiancée is here. She looks... mentally unstable."

I stepped back in despair. Even the police were Alexander's puppets.

Half an hour later, Alexander's car pulled up.

He dragged me back to the car and took me to that hellish manor.

In the courtyard, he had his men drag in the passerby who lent me the phone.

"I don't like disobedience," Alexander said coldly. He waved his hand.

Snap.

Bones cracked. The man screamed in agony as his legs were broken.

Alexander squeezed my pale face, his voice terrifyingly gentle. "Ivy, this is the price of running. Next time, it will be your father's legs."

Alexander was completely enraged by my escape.

He dragged me back to the room like a prisoner, produced a pair of cold handcuffs, and locked my wrists to the headboard.

"Since you have so much energy to run, let's put it to better use."

He tore my clothes apart. There was no tenderness, only the plunder of a beast.

"Alexander! You bastard! Get off me!" I screamed and kicked, trying to push him away. "You have Elena! Why won't you let me go?"

He pinned me down with one hand, his heavy body rendering me immobile.

"Let you go?" He scoffed. His fingers maliciously explored my most sensitive spots, sending waves of shameful shudders through me. "Ivy, look at yourself. Your body is honest... You are soaking wet."

"Shut up! Stop talking!" I was dying of humiliation, tears streaming down my face.

"You will stay by my side for the rest of your life. Don't even think about leaving." Alexander bit my ear, his voice low and dangerous, like a sentence from hell. "You are mine, Ivy. Even if you die, you die in my bed."

"You are mine, Ivy. Even if you die, you die in my bed." He was ready to take me.

I squeezed my eyes shut, tears of humiliation and despair sliding down my temples, wetting the pillow.

I stopped struggling, lying there like a broken doll, waiting for the execution.

But the pain I expected never came.

A drop of hot liquid landed on my cheek. It wasn't mine.

I opened my eyes in shock. Alexander had stopped. He was hovering over me.

That pair of blue eyes, usually so cold and ruthless, was now filled with a shattering pain and self-loathing as he looked at my tear-streaked face.

He saw the fear in my eyes. The fear of him. "Dammit!" He roared and slammed his fist hard against the headboard.

Wood chips flew, scratching his cheek, but he didn't seem to feel it.

He rolled off me as if he had been burned, stumbling back to stand by the bed.

He walked to the door, pausing with his hand on the handle, his back stiff and lonely.

"Don't try to run again, Ivy. You know I can't let you go. But..." He took a deep breath, closing his eyes in defeat,

"I don't want to hurt you. Don't force me." He slammed the door shut.

A single tear rolled down my cheek, and I sat there quietly until midnight.

I heard two maids whispering outside the door.

"Looks like we're getting a new Donna . That Elena sure has means."

"Yeah, Miss Ivy is so pitiful... I heard her father didn't run away at all."

"Shh! Keep it down! I heard the bodyguard Jack say it when he was drunk. The Don actually locked Miss Ivy's father in the dungeon."

"Oh my God, that dungeon is hell on earth. No one comes out alive! Why would he do that?"

"I heard that six months ago, when the Don was drugged and almost died, the person who sold him out was Miss Ivy's father... He sold the Don to a rival family for profit."

That sentence exploded in my mind like thunder, instantly chasing away my sleepiness.

Impossible!

That was absolutely impossible!

How could Papa sell out Alexander?

Six months ago, on the day Alexander was attacked, Papa was with me the entire night celebrating my birthday. He never left my sight! He didn't have the time to commit the crime!

This must be another lie Alexander invented to torture me, or he was deceived!

But thinking of Alexander's ruthless methods and the rumors of the torture devices in the dungeon, fear gripped my heart.

If Papa really was in the dungeon... If Papa was being tortured...

I had to save him.

I dragged my heavy body to the master bedroom to beg Alexander to spare my father.

That was the dungeon. I knew what went on down there; Papa wouldn't last three days.

But Alexander wasn't there.

Lying on the black velvet king-sized bed, symbolizing absolute power, was Elena, wearing sexy lace lingerie.

She was holding a glass of red wine. Seeing me enter, her mouth curled into a vicious smile.

"Looking for the Don in this house? Ivy, have you forgotten who the mistress is now?"

I turned to leave, not wanting to look at her disgusting face.

"Don't be in such a hurry," Elena's lazy voice came from behind. "Don't you want to see what your dear father looks like now?"

I froze.

Elena threw a stack of photos at me.

In the photos, Papa was suspended in the water dungeon, covered in blood and barely alive.

My hands trembled violently, and my heart felt like it was being torn apart.

"How dare you..." I stared at her with red eyes.

Elena walked up to me, lowered her voice, and spoke with triumphant arrogance. "Ivy, let me tell you the truth. Your father didn't sell out Alexander."

I looked up sharply.

"I set the whole thing up." Elena laughed, her body shaking with mirth. "I was the one who put the aphrodisiac in the wine that night. I was the one who leaked Alexander's location to the rival family. Otherwise, how would I have had the chance to climb into his bed? How would I have had the chance to get pregnant with this 'treasure'?"

The truth hit me like a lightning bolt.

"You psycho!"

"So what if I'm crazy? Alexander believes me." Elena gently stroked her manicured nails. "Next, I'll have them chop off your father's hands and feet..."

My sanity snapped.

"I'm going to kill you!"

I screamed and lunged at her, my hands strangling her neck.

Elena didn't fight back. Instead, she screamed dramatically, "Help! Guards! Ivy is trying to kill me!"

The bodyguards outside rushed in instantly, roughly pulling me away and pinning me to the floor.

I tried to struggle but was suppressed.

"I am the Donna ! Who gave you the guts to stop me!" I screamed.

The head bodyguard said coldly, "The Don ordered that no one is allowed to hurt Miss Elena."

I looked at Elena in despair.

She walked up to me, looked down, and slapped me across the face a dozen times.

"Donna ? Not for much longer."

My cheeks burned with pain, and my consciousness began to blur.

Before I passed out, I saw Alexander storm in.

He kicked the bodyguard holding me, sending him flying. I heard a sickening crack—the sound of breaking bones.

"You bastards!" Alexander picked me up, his eyes terrifying as a demon's. "Who gave you the courage to touch my woman!"