Lorenzo's POV
St. Mary's Asylum, VIP ward.
A sanctuary for the rich. The place the Vitale family stashed Cassandra. Luxurious rooms, expensive medical equipment—this wasn't an asylum, it was a resort.

But tonight, it was going to be a slaughterhouse.
I kicked open the door to room 318.
Cassandra was lying in bed, scrolling on the latest phone, probably directing her trolls to smear Isabella's name online. A smug smile was on her face.
The moment she saw me, her smile froze. Her expression turned to one of pure terror.
"Lo... Lorenzo? How did you..."
She reached for the call button by her bed. I shot it to pieces.

BANG!
The gunshot was deafening in the closed room. The smell of gunpowder filled the air.
Cassandra screamed and curled into a ball, her phone clattering to the floor. "Don't kill me! Lorenzo, we're allies! I was doing it for you..."
"For me?"

I strode over, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her out of bed. I slammed her onto the floor.
"To help me get my wife killed? To help me drive my Nonna to her death?"
"For the glass?" I kicked her in the stomach. She gagged. "For the ribs?" My boot connected with her side. I heard a sharp crack.
Cassandra writhed on the floor, snot and tears smearing her face. "I was wrong! Lorenzo, I was wrong! Please, let me go! I have money! The Vitale family will give you anything!"
"What the hell would I do with your money?!"
Like a mad lion, I hauled her up from the floor and wrapped my hands around her throat, squeezing until her face turned purple and her eyes bulged.
"I want you to pay back every ounce of Isabella's suffering!"
Just as she was about to pass out, I let go.
Letting her die so easily would be a mercy.
"Get the doctor in here," I ordered Marco at the door.
A few doctors in white coats entered, trembling. They were on the Vitale payroll, the ones who wrote Cassandra's "psychiatric evaluations."
"Mr... Mr. Romano..."
"Prep her for 'treatment'," I said, pointing at Cassandra on the floor, my eyes cold. "The highest setting for ECT. No anesthesia."
The doctors went pale. "But... that could kill her... And we don't have family consent..."
I pressed the muzzle of my gun to the doctor's temple. "You have family consent now," I said, my voice like ice. "Mine."
Ten minutes later, in the treatment room.
Cassandra was strapped to the chair, a rubber block in her mouth to keep her from biting her tongue. Her limbs were held down by leather restraints.
"Mmmmph—!!" She struggled wildly, her eyes pleading with me in absolute terror. She looked at me like I was the devil himself.
I stood at the control panel, my face blank.
"Begin."
I flipped the switch. Cassandra’s body arched off the chair, every muscle seized in a silent, violent contraction.
An inhuman scream tore from her throat, chilling the bone even through the rubber block.
But I felt nothing.
I thought of Isabella, being fed broken glass in prison.
I thought of her, helpless, as her ribs were broken.
This pain was nothing.
The current stopped. Cassandra went limp in the chair, convulsing, foam at her mouth, her eyes vacant.
I walked over, pulled the rubber block from her mouth, and pointed my phone's camera at her twisted face.
"Confess."
My voice was flat.
"Tell the camera everything you did. And don't leave out a single, filthy detail."
Cassandra's eyes were unfocused, but when she saw the dark barrel of my gun, the will to live forced her to speak.
"I... I am Cassandra Vitale... I killed Robert Rossi... and framed Isabella..."
"I paid the guards to torture her... I deliberately provoked the old woman until her heart gave out..."
"Isabella is innocent... I'm a monster..."
She sobbed as she confessed, spitting out every one of her crimes.
When she was done, I stopped recording.
This bloody confession was the only gift I could give Isabella.
"Keep her here."
I turned to leave. Behind me, Cassandra's desperate screams echoed. "Lorenzo! Kill me! Please, just kill me!"
I turned my back on her screams.
Death would be a mercy.
I was fresh out of mercy.
After it was all done, a sharp pain shot through my chest. I tasted blood again.
But I didn't have time for that.
I had to get to Maine.
I had to see her.