The Mafia Donna’s Bridal Escape Night Chapter 04

The Mafia Donna’s Bridal Escape Night Chapter 04

The screen changed again.

This time, it was a document.

A share transfer agreement — the equity stake the Ashford family had promised to transfer to the Conti family after the wedding.

It was the guarantee that came with the alliance. What the Conti family was owed.

But now, the beneficiary line read: Liora Whitmore.

A sentence appeared beside it.

[I hereby voluntarily relinquish my rights to the above equity interest and consent to its transfer to Liora Whitmore.]

Liora’s voice carried a smile. “Lyra, just read it out loud. Say it, and we’ll let you out.”

“The guests, the dress, the hotel — everything’s ready. Everyone’s waiting for the wedding tomorrow. You wouldn’t want to cancel it, right?”

I turned my head stiffly and looked at Joren. “Is this real?”

“It’s real.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose, like he was handling something that barely mattered.

“But Liora doesn’t actually care about the money. She just wants to see how it feels to have her name on an equity agreement.”

“After the game, I’ll change it back.”

“Lyra, why do you always take Liora’s jokes so seriously?”

Jokes. Always the goddamn jokes.

I should have been furious. Should have screamed. But looking at the two of them through the screen, leaning against each other like it was the most natural thing in the world, all I felt was tired.

Right then, a hotel staff member came running in, panicked.

“Mr. Ashford! Mrs. Elise collapsed upstairs. She’s having seizures—”

My heart wrenched into a knot.

I forgot about the pain, forgot about the allergic reaction raging through my body. I threw myself against the door and screamed.

“Joren! You said you sent someone to bring her the medication!”

Joren’s expression hardened. He was about to stand and follow the staff member out when Liora grabbed his sleeve.

“Joren, I already have someone watching Mrs. Elise. She’s fine.”

“I planted that guy to put on a show for Lyra. Otherwise, you know how stubborn she is. She’d dig her heels in and we’d be here forever. Boring.”

Joren paused. Then he sat back down.

My face went white.

Because the medical monitoring band on my wrist had just lit up red, shrieking an alarm.

Grandma Elise was in real trouble.

Liora was lying.

I threw myself against the door and hammered on it with everything I had left.

“Let me out! Something’s wrong with Grandma Elise!”

“Joren, she’s lying to you!”

I beat on the door until my knuckles split and bled, smearing red prints across the surface.

But Joren just watched me, calm as ever. “Stop making a scene. It’s a game. Do you really need to embarrass everyone?”

“This isn’t— Grandma Elise is really in trouble!”

I screamed until my voice cracked. Liora kept smiling.

“Lyra, just read it. Everyone’s waiting.”

I bit down so hard I tasted blood.

Slowly, painfully, I lifted my head and looked straight into the camera. I spoke one word at a time.

“My name is Lyra Conti.”

“Tonight at eight ten p.m., after I explicitly refused to participate, Liora Whitmore locked me inside an uninspected hotel escape room.”

“Joren Ashford was aware of this and authorized staff to shut down emergency communications.”

“They displayed my private photographs. Under the guise of a game, they attempted to coerce me into relinquishing the Conti family’s rightful equity stake.”

The smile slid off Liora’s face.

“What are you talking about? Shut up!”

I didn’t stop.

“Everything I have just stated can be verified by every person present and by this hotel’s surveillance footage.”

“Effective this moment, I am dissolving my engagement to Joren Ashford.”

Dead silence.

Joren shot to his feet.

“Lyra, do you have any idea what you’re saying? You’re canceling the wedding over a game?”

“It’s not about the game.” My voice was ice. But steady.

Because in his eyes, my dignity, my privacy, and my trauma were nothing more than toys for Liora’s amusement.

Even Grandma Elise’s safety could be brushed aside.

His love required me to keep giving ground. Required me to accept his bottomless indulgence of Liora.

That kind of love? I was done with it.

By the time I finished speaking, my body had reached its limit.

Every breath was harder than the last. My vision blurred.

I slid down the wall.

“Lyra?”

“Lyra Conti, answer me!”

I didn’t have the strength.

All I could hear was his voice, spiraling out of control, calling my name over and over.

“Open the door! Open the door right now!”

“Joren, the escape room system is glitching. It needs admin authorization!”

My consciousness drifted further and further away.

The last thing I heard before everything went dark was Joren’s scream, raw and shattered.

“Lyra!”

“Please. Don’t close your eyes!”

Then nothing.

The whole world went black.