Tobby coughed up a thick spray of blood, his chest heaving as the iron chains rattled against the concrete ceiling. "The... the antidote vial is in my locker," he wheezed, his glazed eyes flickering toward the corner of the damp basement chamber. "Inside the lower sector armory... locker number forty-two. It’s a sealed blue ampoule."

Bellero didn’t say another word. He gave a sharp nod to Jared, who instantly took a squad of enforcers and sprinted out of the cells to retrieve the chemical code. Within ten minutes, Jared returned, holding a small, metallic case. He popped the electronic seal, revealing a glowing blue liquid locked inside a thick glass syringe.

"We got it, Boss," Jared grunted, handing the case over.

Damian immediately reached out and snatched the metallic case, his heart hammering against his ribs as his medical mind calculated the remaining time Jannah had left. "Give it to me. I need to take this antidote to the Upper District Hospital right now. Dorrent is waiting, and Jannah’s system is collapsing."

"Hold your feet right there, you foolish boy!" Bellero roared suddenly, his arm shooting forward like an iron bar to block Damian from reaching the elevator bay. He snatched the metallic case right out of his son’s hands, his eyes flaring with a dangerous heat. "Look at you, running around like a headless chicken for a girl who is currently locked inside your rival’s fortress! You are being a complete fool, Damian! You want to just hand over the only key to her survival to Dorrent Grefo for free?"

Damian’s jaw clenched with an intense, long-standing resentment. "This is a human life, Father! Jannah is dying because of our family’s rogue hitman! If we delay any longer, her internal organs will completely shut down!"

"This is not a hospital, Damian, this is a war for the future of our bloodline!" Bellero hissed, his face hardening into a cynical mask as he gripped the case tightly. "We are going to use this exact antidote as the ultimate leverage to force Jannah back to your side. If you want to secure your future wife, you do not act like the pathetic weakling you are becoming. Pull your phone out and call Dorrent Grefo this exact second."

Damian hesitated, his fingers trembling slightly as he stood in the freezing, damp cellar. He hated his father’s brutal, underhanded methods, but he knew the old Mafia dictator held absolute control over the cure. Left with no other choice, Damian pulled out his smartphone and dialed the unlisted number Dorrent had forced into his device an hour ago.

The call didn’t even ring twice before it slammed open.

"Boren!" Dorrent’s deep voice roared through the speaker, vibrating with a predatory fury that echoed against the concrete walls. "Do you have the the antidote or not?!"

Before Damian could answer, Bellero brutally snatched the phone from his son’s grip. He held the device close to his wrinkled lips, a dark, wicked smirk curling his features.

"Listen to me perfectly clear, Alpha Grefo," Bellero barked, his voice dropping into a flat, terrifying purr that carried the weight of an absolute king. "This is Bellero Boren. If you want that beautiful little physician to keep on breathing past tomorrow morning, you are going to visit my estate alone. The faster your boots hit my pavement, the better her chances are. Do not make me wait."

"You old, piece-of-trash bastard—"

Click.

Bellero didn’t even let Dorrent finish his threat; he tapped the screen, hanging up the phone in the middle of the billionaire’s curse and shoving the device back into Damian’s lab coat pocket.

Damian adjusted his collar, staring at his father in absolute disbelief. "Do you really think a powerful, paranoid S-tier Alpha like Dorrent Grefo will actually show up to a Mafia stronghold completely alone? He knows it’s a death trap."

Bellero let out a low chuckle that dripped with dominant triumph. "That depends entirely on how intensely important Jannah is to him, Damian. And let me tell you something... if that tech tycoon actually compromises his own ego and walks through my front gates alone, then she must be far more important to him than we know. And that is a dangerous disadvantage to our family."

The old man’s golden eyes completely swamped with a sudden, icy calculation. "If he risks his life for her, it means maybe Dorrent already knows the secret. Maybe he knows about her hidden lineage—that Jannah is the singular omega who can give birth to an Enigma child. And if that is the case, that will be the ultimate reason for us to eliminate Dorrent from the picture much sooner than planned. I will not let a Grefo claim our prize."

"Don’t you dare touch him, Father!" Damian shouted, stepping closer as his own Alpha pheromones exploded in a desperate cloud to stop the old man’s madness. "Do not do anything to Dorrent unless you want to bring absolute ruin to this entire family! Have you forgotten what that monster is capable of? Nine years ago... when Dorrent was only twenty-six and underwent that catastrophic black cycle rut... he showed the entire city just how terrifyingly strong his S-tier biology is. He went completely berserk, destroying half the structures in the lower district and killing a huge number of people in the slums with his bare hands."

Damian’s breath hitched, his eyes widening as a sudden, dark memory surfaced in his mind. "He killed Jannah’s parents during that exact bloodbath. Her mother and father were slaughtered because they were in the wrong sector when his mind snapped. I constantly wonder... does Jannah even know that the Alpha hosting her in his estate is the exact killer who took her parents’ lives?"

Bellero stopped dead in his tracks right at the foot of the basement stairs, his massive shoulders going completely rigid under his tailored suit jacket.

Mysterious stillness settled over the room as the old Mafia boss slowly turned his head around. His sharp, wrinkled features were cast in shadows, a terrifyingly unreadable expression locking onto his son’s tense jaw. "That entire deal nine years ago was done perfectly, Damian," Bellero murmured, his voice dropping into a low rasp that rattled through the cellar.

Damian froze, a sudden, cold spike of dread piercing through his mind. "What... what do you mean by that, Father?" Damian asked, his voice cracking as a wave of intense suspicion washed over him. "What deal are you talking about?"

Bellero let out a dark, cynical chuckle, his golden eyes gleaming with secrets that had rotted in the underworld for a decade. "Jannah doesn’t know a single damn thing, Damian. She has absolutely no idea that Dorrent Grefo is the killer who spilled her family’s blood."

"How the hell do you know that for sure?!" Damian demanded, lunging forward to grip his father’s arm, his mind spinning with a sudden, suffocating confusion. "Did you have something to do with that night? Tell me the truth!"

Bellero calmly brushed his son’s hand off his sleeve, turning his back to ascend the dark stone steps, leaving Damian standing in the damp shadows of the basement.

"Of course I know, my naive boy," Bellero’s voice echoed back down the stairwell, cold and full of mystery. "You have a lot of things to find out about this game, Damian... but you shouldn’t be in such a desperate hurry to learn the rules."