I managed to steady myself, trying to regain some composure, when one of the bodyguards entered, holding a small box decorated with a ribbon.

He handed it to me, saying it had been addressed specifically for me.

I took the box, feeling a strange chill run down my spine. With trembling fingers, I opened it, and the sight inside made my blood run cold. Lying in the box was a dead cat, brutally mutilated, with blood seeping through the cardboard and dripping onto the floor.

I dropped the box in horror, nausea rising within me.

As the maids hurried to clean up, my phone lit up again. With shaking hands, I checked the screen, only to see another email from the same sender.

“Do you like my gift?”

The words mocked me, taunting me with a cruel playfulness. My hands trembled as I clutched the phone, my heart racing. The fear I felt was unlike anything I’d ever known, yet it was quickly overtaken by a surge of anger.

Who dares mess with me?

I called the bodyguards, my voice steadier than I felt. “Find out who delivered this box,” I ordered. "Search every corner and don’t come back until you find them!"

My men came a while later, leading a struggling man into the house. I was sitting on the couch, scrolling through my phone when they dragged the culprit of the mystery box to me. They made him kneel as I watch his futile attempts to escape.

"Who sent you?" I asked, glaring coldly.

"No one."

I asked once again. "Who sent you?"

"..."

So is this how they play?

With a snap of my finger, a bodyguard punched him on the stomach, earning a groan of pain from the man.

"Believe me. I can do more than that. Don't forget that I am the wife of the Ashcroft Mafia Lord as well as a successor of the Leone Family and I assure you, I'll try every means to make you talk."

The man laughed maniacally. "You're all bastards. All of you. One day, you will grovel to the ground, defeated--"

I did not let him finish a word but instead told my men to take him to the basement to be tortured. The man just laughed maniacally and pullled out a hidden gun. My bodyguards immediately shielded me and aimed their guns towards him.

"With this, I have done my work-- BANG!"

A defeaning sound rang. I watch the man fall on the floor, blood spilling from a hole in his head. Anger and disgust settled in my heart.

Just who would do this?