Their Cruelest Joke Cost Them Everything Chapter 08

Their Cruelest Joke Cost Them Everything Chapter 08 A House in Free Fall

Third-Person POV:

Word of the recordings spread through every allied family within days.

To those men, betraying a brother who had served faithfully for years was far worse than losing a few casinos or warehouses.

If Valdieri could sacrifice Renato, any one of them might be offered up next.

Renato’s former soldiers revolted first.

They withdrew their loyalty and took several port crews with them. Soon afterward, the captains overseeing the warehouses and casinos stopped turning over their earnings.

Within three days, nearly half the family’s crews had defected.

Celeste’s father called a family sit-down in an attempt to restore order.

More than half the chairs around the long table remained empty.

An older capo who had served him for years rose and publicly renounced his loyalty.

“Renato was loyal. He even took a bullet for you.”

“You sold his route to your enemies just to protect your position. Why should any of us believe we will not be next?”

Celeste’s father flushed with fury and drew his pistol.

Not one of the guards at the door stepped forward to obey him.

Celeste’s mother finally caught his arm.

She was not protecting the men at the table. She knew that if her husband fired, everyone still present would walk away.

Meanwhile, the Rinaldi family formally dissolved the engagement.

Every joint venture between the two families was suspended, and Alessio’s father withdrew his guards from several critical warehouses.

Without Rinaldi protection, rivals long suppressed by Celeste’s father moved at once to seize territory.

Two casinos were forced to shut down. Port authorities impounded the family’s outgoing shipments, and several suppliers arrived together to demand payment.

Only then did Celeste’s father discover that the family’s respectable businesses had been held together almost entirely by his daughter.

She had personally managed the hotel accounts, vineyard clients, and contacts along every shipping route.

After Celeste left, no one knew enough to replace her.

Her mother called dozens of times.

At first, she still spoke as though issuing orders.

“Come home now. You created this disaster, and you will clean it up yourself.”

Then several major hotel clients ended their contracts, and superiority gave way to panic.

“Celeste, we admit that we failed to consider your feelings.”

“If you return, we will restore you as the family’s designated successor. We can explain everything about Bianca too.”

Celeste answered none of the calls.

In the end, an attorney from Bellori & Finch delivered documents on her behalf.

They listed not only Celeste’s private holdings but every occasion on which her parents had diverted her money under the family’s name.

Celeste demanded repayment of the full amount within the stated deadline.

Otherwise, the remaining ledgers would go to their creditors.

Her father overturned the table after reading the notice.

“How dare she treat her own parents this way!”

The room offered him no response.

Once, his anger had made every head bow. Now even the household guards were quietly searching for new employers.

Bianca’s condition deteriorated as quickly as the family business.

She could not accept that Alessio had cut her off, or that the people who raised her had murdered her biological father.

She smashed every mirror in her room and ranted for hours that Celeste had destroyed her life.

When Mother tried to calm her, Bianca suddenly clamped a hand around her

wrist.

“You said he would marry me.”

“You killed my father and lied to me for years. Now Alessio has abandoned me too. How are you going to repay me for any of it?”

Mother had no answer.

A second family meeting was held days later.

Celeste’s father was removed as head of the family.

They did not kill him, but he lost all authority over the remaining members. One by one, others seized control of his casinos, warehouses, and freight routes as settlement for his debts.

The once-untouchable Valdieri family began to collapse at astonishing speed.

Elsewhere, Alessio examined the business ledgers Celeste had left behind for the first time.

He had thought she was a pampered heiress who lived on her family name.

Now he saw how often she had quietly solved the problems that kept both families’ ventures profitable.

She knew every client’s preferences and every weak point along their routes. Even losses Alessio had mentioned in passing had been recovered through her work behind the scenes.

He had never once asked what that work cost her.

Alone in his study, Alessio dialed Celeste again.

An automated message informed him that his number was blocked.

He stared at the phone for a long time and finally understood that she was not waiting for him to humble himself.

She no longer wanted him at all.