Divorced by the Mafia Queen: My Death System Awakens

Chapter 5: The Beggar Queen and the Patriarch's Awakening

The morning after the Elysium Auction, the financial district of the city was dominated by a terrifying new monument. Overnight, the Shadow Vanguard had purchased the tallest, most advanced skyscraper in the metropolis—paying five billion dollars in raw, untraceable cryptocurrency. It was now officially christened the Vanguard Spire.

Inside the ultra-luxurious, glass-walled penthouse overlooking the clouds, Ren stood with his hands resting behind his back. The Death-Prediction System hummed quietly in his peripheral vision, analyzing the global data streams flowing through his empire.

The elevator doors chimed open. Dante, the Supreme Commander, stepped out, his massive frame blocking the entrance.

"My Lord," Dante sneered, his voice dripping with disgust. "A rat has wandered into the lobby. Isabella Rossi is downstairs. She is demanding an audience, claiming she is your legal wife and still holds leverage over your emotions."

Ren didn’t turn around. He simply watched the rain hitting the reinforced glass. "Send her up."

A few minutes later, Isabella stepped into the penthouse. She had abandoned her usual cold, authoritative business suits. Instead, she wore a deeply plunging, incredibly expensive white silk dress, her hair perfectly styled to frame her pale, desperate face. She was playing her final, pathetic card: the delusion that the man who had silently endured two years at her side still harbored a weakness for her beauty.

She walked slowly toward Ren's back, forcing tears into her eyes, adopting a fragile, trembling persona.

"Ren..." she whispered, her voice cracking perfectly. "I was wrong. Marcus blinded me. My family manipulated me. But last night... seeing you up there... it made me realize who you truly are. You took the fall for me two years ago. You went to that horrible prison for me. You did that because you loved me, Ren."

She reached out, her trembling fingers inches from his tailored suit jacket. "We can start over. With your power and my family's legacy, we could rule this city together. I am still yours."

Ren finally turned around.

The moment Isabella looked into his eyes, her artificial tears froze. There was no anger, no resentment, and absolutely no love. He was looking at her with the chilling, sterile detachment of a scientist observing a dying insect on a microscope slide.

The deep-blue cybernetic code of the Death-Prediction System flashed across his retinas.

[Target: Isabella Rossi]

[Emotional State: Fabricated vulnerability. Desperation level: Terminal]

[Calculated Threat: 0.00%]

Ren didn't take a single step toward her. He simply raised his hand, and the massive holographic projector in the center of the penthouse roared to life.

It didn't display romantic memories. It displayed a highly classified, real-time physiological scan of an old man hooked up to dozens of life-support machines in a heavily fortified underground bunker.

Isabella gasped, stumbling backward. "Father..."

It was Don Vito Rossi, the ruthless patriarch of the mafia, who had supposedly been in a coma for a year.

"I didn't go to Blackgate for you, Isabella," Ren spoke, his mechanical, icy voice echoing in the massive room. "I needed a high-security blind spot for my network's dormancy cycle. Your father offered me a convenient cover, and in exchange, I agreed to play the scapegoat to keep your pathetic brother out of federal prison. A simple transaction. That debt was paid in full the moment I signed your divorce papers."

Ren tapped the holographic console. Above Don Rossi's comatose body, a blood-red countdown timer materialized.

[Time of Death: 48:00:00]

"Your father’s artificial heart is failing. He has exactly forty-eight hours left to live," Ren stated flawlessly. "And your family is completely bankrupt. You cannot afford the replacement parts on the black market, because I bought the supply chain this morning. You cannot defend your territory, because I destroyed the Aegis Matrix. You have nothing to offer me but the clothes on your back, and even those were bought with laundered money I am currently seizing."

Isabella collapsed to her knees, the sheer, crushing weight of reality finally breaking her mind. The illusion of her power was gone. She was begging a cybernetic god for mercy.

"Please!" she shrieked, crawling forward, trying to grab his polished shoes. "Don't do this! I'll do anything! I'll be your slave! Just let my family live!"

Dante stepped forward instantly, his combat boot slamming down heavily on the marble floor, stopping her inches from his Lord.

"Dispose of the trash," Ren commanded, turning his back to the weeping woman. "If she steps onto Vanguard property again, sever her legs."

As Isabella was violently dragged screaming into the elevator by Dante, Ren’s encrypted terminal flashed red.

Deep beneath the Rossi Estate, the alarms in the medical bunker blared. The holographic feed showed Don Vito Rossi’s eyes snapping open. The dying Godfather had awakened, his monitors spiking with a lethal mixture of adrenaline and rage.

The old man weakly pressed a biometric button on his bedside table, transmitting a single, ancient code to the darkest corner of the dark web.

Code Black: The Cerberus Protocol.

Ren watched the feed, a cold, dangerous smile finally appearing on his lips. The Godfather had just unleashed the family's ultimate, forbidden weapon—a trio of heavily augmented, cyber-psychotic assassins that hadn't seen the light of day in a decade.

"Finally," Ren whispered. "A challenge."