Chapter 8 - Heartbreak in Satin and Tears
Salvatore turned away from the wreckage of the gift table and strode swiftly back toward his weeping daughter.
The murderous hardness in his sharp facial features melted into a mask of pure, devastating heartbreak.
Elena took a trembling step forward, leaning heavily away from Maria and extending her arms toward her father.
Salvatore closed the distance instantly, falling to his knees so that his eyes were level with her pale, tear-streaked face.
He wrapped his long, powerful arms around her slender frame, pulling her tightly against his custom black tuxedo.
Elena collapsed completely into his embrace, burying her face into his broad chest and weeping uncontrollably.
Her delicate hands gripped the lapels of his suit jacket with desperate, frantic strength, as if afraid he might disappear.
Salvatore held the back of her chestnut head gently, his large hand shielding her from the stares of the whispering crowd.
"I've got you, sweetheart, you're safe now," he murmured repeatedly, his voice thick with unshed tears.
Elena’s shoulders shook with violent tremors as she gasped for air against the fabric of his white dress shirt.
She pulled her face back just enough to look into her father’s piercing gray eyes, her hazel gaze swimming with trauma.
Her lower lip quivered as the horrifying memory of the dark, suffocating box rushed back into her mind.
"Dad..." she sobbed, her voice breaking so painfully that several women in the crowd began to weep openly.
"She pushed me in... she told me to stay quiet..." Elena choked out through suffocating sobs.
Salvatore wiped a fresh tear from his daughter's pale cheek with his thumb, his jaw tightening dangerously once more.
"What did she say to you, Elena?" Salvatore asked, his voice shaking with a terrifying mixture of grief and wrath.
Elena buried her forehead against his chin, her words tumbling out in a heartbroken, humiliated whimper.
"She said nobody wanted me!" Elena cried out, her confession echoing through the cavernous ballroom.
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"She said you were finally going to be hers, and that I was completely worthless to this family!"
Salvatore shut his eyes tightly as the venomous cruelty of Victoria’s words sliced deep into his paternal heart.
