TILL D£ATH DO US APART
(The•Devil•I•Loved)
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Copyright © 2025
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★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Laugher.
It echoed from the mobsters, ringing throughout the quarters like a cruel, mocking symphony immediately Ginny's body hit the ground.
Her calamity is exciting, it's obvious in the way their laughter got louder when blood pooled around her body.
• That's so f+ked up.
• She died too young.
• Blame it on her seniors for thinking this place is a joke.
The remaining two siblings stood to their feet, and it was at this time Ivanna's wig uncurled and fell from her head, letting out her real hair.
The tight spectacles fell off her eyes too, crashing on the ground as she went cold on her spot.
"Ginny!!!!!" Robert ran to the body, but Ivanna remained there, as if all of this is a fever dream she needs to wake up from very fast.
But as the mobsters laughter played darkly in her ears, she was reminded of the factuality of this scene.
Her heart shattered, again.
"Ginny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Her insane scream made the laughter seize as she ran just few steps to where Ginny's body lay.
Robert is already there, crying profusely, so she joined him on her knees. Ginny's blood stained those knees so much, redness everywhere.
Ginny's face was already so cold.
No breaths. No pulse.
Robert lifted her face with his palms.
"Ginny! Ginny!!!"
Ivanna snatched her from him, the two bullets hole on her chest so f+kin dark and deep.
"Ginny...you...you...wanted to be a cyber freak remember? You said you wanted to own the largest computer company in this city in the future and I already promised to make it possible even if it means selling my organs... please.... please don't leave me! Please don't leave us!!"
"She's not breathing anymore..." Robert hiccupped. "She's not breathing, Ginny!!!!!!"
The mob is still calm, watching the pitiful scene with pitiless eyes.
If anything, they look entertained, and every face has a thrilled smile especially Lissa who's still standing between the brothers.
"Seeing her tears makes me happy, what's her name again? Trashvanna?" She mocked.
The brothers has lowered their guns, both looking satisfied with the chaos that just broke lose.
"Beautiful chaos," Bobby moaned shortly, disdainfully.
Leonardo signalled at some of the mob guards by his left, and they began rushing to the center to take Ginny's body.
Don Anthony and Donna are both blank, no registered expressions.
Sandra and Bacardi suddenly started clapping, showing that they're enjoying this too.
"Hold my f+kin beer!" Bacardi grinned, pounding the table with her two palms unprovoked.
When the mob guards arrived at the center, they wanted to take Ginny's body away, but Robert and Ivanna wouldn't allow it.
They stood and faced off to the guards, their teary eyes so grievously red as they attacked first.
The guards are two, so they took them one per one.
The sound of blow exchange filled the quarters, shaking the walls.
Once again, the mob went calm, everyone focused on the fight.
Maybe the death of their sister made their power points swell, they fought too viciously.
Ducking, dodging, slapping, hooking, flattening, and hitting.
Especially Ivanna.
She went berserk, using her forehead when punches felt insufficient. Her blow entered the guard's eye, but that guard payed her back by using brass knuckles on her tummy.
She flew.
By the time she landed, she couldn't stand, like her stomach broke.
Robert was holding the neck of the guard he's fighting, about to choke life out of him, but the guard suddenly pulled an uppercut.
Robert's body staggered to a pillar, and that was when he came to realization... Ginny body's gone.
It must have been taken away during the hot fight.
He looked at Ivanna, and the shocked look in her eyes just shows she didn't know when the body was taken too.
"Where's Ginny!" She stood.
"Where did y'all take her body to!!" Robert yelled.
Heftier guards jumped down to the judgement row. These ones have thick, excessively built muscles which is glistening from sweat cos they're not wearing shirts.
They grabbed Ivanna and Robert.
They couldn't fight back even if they wanted to—they're not a match at all.
They began dragging them out of the quarters, and they kept shouting, demanding for Ginny's body.
On their way out, Ivanna's eyes met Leonardo's, her tears so bitter in her mouth as their eyes hooked.
She wants to take his soul to hell, she wants to bloody his body.
She wants to.....
Her thoughts were cut when she was pushed out of the assembly with brute force which made her stumble.
"Does this bring us to the part two? I can't believe I'm being this patient," Bobby spoke up.
"Leo, it's your turn," Lissa reminded.
"No shit, Sherlock." Leonardo replied, leaving the quarters.
"Your mother didn't later come, unexpectedly," Bobby faced Lissa.
"She must be busy, I'll meticulously fill her in on the chaos that went down," Lissa shrugged.
"And why the hell are you even wearing my Leo's shirt?" Bobby finally noticed.
"Your Leo? He's mine too, dude. We grew up together, trained together from basics to top, isn't that why we have the same skills? Leo would prefer to go on a mission with me instead of you, why? Cos I'm damn preferable. I and Leo were already ten year olds before you joined our friendship," Lissa glared.
"I called Leo mine, and you went ahead reading out your friendship goals which I didn't listen to by the way cos I'm his immediate junior brother, and that tops everything. You're sick." Bobby glared back.
"You refused to bury your dead wife's body, took her to the clan road last night to beat in the rain, and right now you're keeping her in somewhere in this clan, still wanting to punish her more, and you're calling me sick? You bloody sick hysteria sociopath" Lissa spat.
"That's a very sweet compliment, Lalissa," Bobby grinned.
Lissa coldly left the assembly without replying him.
"Bob, check the roster, we're next to go for the exchange," Bacardi came to Bobby, and he frowned.
"Already? We still went last week, and why am I paired with you again?" Bobby rolled eyes.
"I have no time to battle words with you, brother," Bacardi checked the large bone-made wall clock.
"Next train leaves at 12, so we have to move now, but first, we meet father at his office," she said and led the way
"Cazzo! I hate you, Cardi!" Bobby cussed, going after her.
--
[Painhood]
Painhood is just beside the Gravehood.
While the latter is for killing, the former is for torturing.
Inside the Painhood, Ivanna is tied tightly to a metal pole with metal chains which reached her ankles, extending to her wrists on top and her tummy in the middle.
Her rough hair fell over her face as her head is hanging very low, and the chains kept rattling the metal pole as she occasionally tried to move her arms. She's mentally, emotionally and and physically drained.
Beside her, there's Robert who's tied with the same style. He has been ripped off his shirt, so it's just his jean pants saving him from nakedness.
Leonardo sat on a oakwood bench in front of the two sinners, a stainless flagon of bourbon to his lips.
Beside him on the left, there's a array of good horsewhips on a table, all arranged by size.
They look painful already.
By the time Leonardo lowered his flagon from his lips, he was already on his feet. He walked to the table and picked the largest whip, examining it carefully with interested eyes, the type that evil scientists have before an illegal experiment.
"Never knew spilling the truth to save your life was a problem till I met the Cooper siblings," he started, swaying the whip in the air.
It made a straight whistling noise, promising pain.
"Saying the truth to save our lives?" Robert's dragging voice came from the second metal. "We talk, you kill us, we don't talk, you still kill us, so why should we waste our energy saying the damn truth?"
"Your sister is dead, probably begging at the feet of Satan in hell as we speak," Leonardo replied, his mean eyes still on the horsewhip.
"Ginny isn't dead! My baby Ginny isn't dead! She's not dead!" Ivanna yelled, her head going up quickly.
"Finally the wonder woman talked," Leo smiled eerily, looking up so their eyes clashed again.
He likes that hatred in her eyes.
He likes the defiance, but the thing is...does she even have the right to look like that when she was the one who entered this clan herself?
Her bi+chiness is scratching the merciless part of him, and now it's out to play hard, with her.
"We can find out the secret you're trying so hard to hide within one hour if we grease the right hands in your street, but I want you both to say it with your mouth, it's much more interesting that way," he said, swinging the whip again.
"Then start the torture," Robert said.
"Cos we'll never talk!" Ivanna added.
That was the start of the inhumanity.
Leonardo covered the space between them, focusing on her alone.
"Then..." He raised the whip, his muscles flexing under his shirt.
She's still looking at him defiantly.
"Take it!" He brought the whip down to her body with on loud crash, and Ivanna's cries tickled the walls cos the moment he started, he didn't stop.
Thrash! Thrash! Scream! Yell!
He used the whip on her in every angle. Everyplace. Every nook of her body. Every cranny. Every slope.
The sounds would be traumatizing to any fainthearted person passing as the whips hit her unforgivably.
It tore her vest in several places, blood reddened the blue vest, and her flesh could be seen tearing off from her skin, blood dripping to the ground and pooling in puddles.
She said no word, she took it all till the eighty-eighth stroke landed on her body, tearing her apart again.
Robert cried slowly on his own pole, eyes closed and unable to watch.
He's only hearing the thrash-thrash sounds, and he regrets that their parents ever worked at Armando Constructions. He regrets that after he and Ivanna was done with college, they didn't get a good job.
He regrets entering the clan, regrets having sick parents.
He regrets his life.
The 99th whip landed on Ivanna's body when his eyes opened.
"Stop!" He snapped.
Leonardo raised the whip, ready to give her the hundredth.
"Stop!!!" Robert yelled.
Leonardo's dark eyes went to him.
By now, Ivanna is at the brink of coma, but despite her drowsiness, she shook her head...
"No," she muttered.
Robert didn't even look at her before talking to Leonardo.
"Last week after the construction site accident happened, and our parents became patients in the Trauma ICU with no hope of treatment, we received a parcel at our doorstep," Robert explained, sniffling hard.
At this point, Ivanna passed out on her pole, knowing the cat's out of the damn bag.
"A parcel?" Leonardo sat back, drinking from his flagon again.
"There was no name on it, but the letter inside told us that if we wanted to get money to save our dying parents, we could enter the clan to get the slush fund. The parcel included the blueprint map and info about how yesterday was the perfect day to enter. We were suspicious that it was a trap at first, but then our parents condition grew so worse that we became desperate and had to use the parcel intel." Robert continued.
Dropping his flagon, Leonardo got a cigar out with his lighter. He put fire on the cig and dragged so hard.
"And?" He gave Robert his full attention.
"The parcel letter warned us to never tell anyone we received a parcel as it could implicate the sender, but I'm saying this cos I don't want you to kill Ivanna too. Go to our apartment at street 130, the parcel is inside a couch in the living room, you might find a lead to the sender who sent it cos we don't know who either," Robert said.
"Puttana, all it took was kill your sister and whip the other sister till near-death, and you spoke up. The whippings was the first part of my torture, if you didn't speak up, second part is sprinkling lemon and salt water on her wounded body, and you know what that means, eternal pain." Leonardo blew smokes as he stood.
"Anyone out there? Get these idiots away!" He ordered.
Two guards entered to do that, and Leonardo started leaving.
"Will you let us go now?" Robert shouted after him.
"Sir? Sir!!!"
--
[Don Anthony's Office]
In front of another mahogany desk piled with illegal racketeering documents, Bacardi and Bobby stood.
Don Anthony loves mahogany for an unknown reason, and he sat powerfully at the other end, his tattooed elbows leaning on the table.
"Mayor Cliff finally decided to pay back his dues? And he chose the train station? Did anyone not tell him that we only receive cargos and consignments on trains and not cash?" Bobby said suspiciously.
"Definitely up to something, and I can't wait to witness it," Bacardi smiled slowly.
"Caution, that's important, and the amount is—" Don Anthony said.
"A billion dollars in one cash, and a single interest cheque, my memory still works...dad." Bobby cut him off.
"Good," Don Anthony finalized.
The two left the office, and Anthony received a mail from Leonardo immediately.
It's about the Cooper siblings confession.
"They finally spilled it?" Anthony smiled, his love for Leonardo increasing by far.
--
[Roses Sanctuary]
This part of the clan belongs to Donna Felicia.
She's obsessed with roses, with the taboo rose as her favorite one.
She stays at the clan penthouse with Anthony, but she spends most of her time in this big sanctuary, pruning and gathering roses.
Like right now, she's with her maids who're carrying trays of roses species around at her orders.
She hasn't had time to plant the roses that were delivered yesterday, so she's doing it currently.
With her gloves and planting knife, she moved precisely.
Her favorite maid—Island, handed her a taboo rose.
"That's the last taboo rose on the tray, Donna," Island said respectfully.
"I know, I was counting in my mind," Felicia said stonily, focusing on planting that one.
"Mother!" Sandra entered the sanctuary
Felicia turned with a large smile.
"You could have called me, and we could have done the planting together" Sandra smiled back.
"You're a clean freak, being in a bloody clan is already hard for you to endure, so why would I make you soil your hands? Besides, I love planting my roses myself," Felicia replied.
"Such strict rules," Sandra smirked, and Felicia smiled again.
"Take the other maids out and come back in ten minutes. I'm gonna talk to my daughter for now," she told Island
"Yes, Donna." Island stepped back, snapping her fingers.
The other maids followed her out.
"Are the others on a mission?" Felicia asked, sitting with Sandra.
"Yup, only Cardi and Bob are on a mission though, yunno Leo only gets special missions on Sundays, that genius Ghost." Sandra replied.
"He's only close to Anthony, not me. Even Cardi and Bobby are the same, but Leo is worse at distancing himself, and I don't blame him," Felicia said, removing her gloves with overly careful moves.
"They all still don't trust me" she continued.
Before Sandra could reply to that, Don Anthony came in.
"Urg, Thony, you love spoiling our moments," Felicia complained.
"Wouldn't leave the clan business unattended to just because you're bonding with her," Anthony replied flatly, and Sandra stood.
"Sandra, the thieves confessed already, now gather enough mobsters with yourself and take my driver, go find a parcel in a couch at their apartment." Anthony ordered.
"They finally confessed?" Sandra scoffed. "Of course they did, no one can withstand Leo's tortures"
She left the sanctuary.
--
[Train Station, 12pm]
Bacardi and Bobby stood in the platform like they belonged there, their gazes unfriendly.
The station smelled of diesel and old paper; announcements hummed distantly at the back.
It's one minute past twelve now—one minute late.
They exchanged glances, and when they saw the same mad stares in each other's eyes, they returned to pretending everything was fine till two more minutes went by, then the message lit up Bacardi's screen.
It was straight to the point.
★ Boxcar. Now.
They both moved without hurry, the railyard guided them till they arrived at the boxcar.
The door was already open.
Easily, they slipped inside the boxcar which smelled like wood and oil.
The Mayor wouldn't come by himself, they weren't expecting him in person.
He sent his henchman, and the henchman stood in a shallow gap between crates, a black American.
He gave them a nod which said business, not pleasantries, but Bacardi wasn't planning to let go of the three minutes latenesses.
She didn't waste words, she closed the distance between them and swung a controlled punch to the henchman's jaw.
He lurched back.
His hands quickly found the edge of a crate for balance.
The skin on his lips split, a dark ribbon across his mouth, then the whole of the boxcar tilted.
A strap snapped.
A crate fell and spilled it's content on the planked floor—a billion dollar in one single neat cash.
It's definitely the payment brought by the henchman.
Bacardi picked up the cash, flipping it over to check for originality.
"The punch I gave you was for your latenesses, you should know no one keeps us waiting even for a millisecond. Mayor Cliff sent you to deliver this? He couldn't come to the clan?" She raised the cash.
"He was being cautious. Now that he's the Mayor, he couldn't risk being seen having anything to do with the Outfit," the henchman said, blood staining his chin from his lips.
"When he was contesting for Mayor in June, he met the clan for help with his campaign funds, and we funded the campaign, now he doesn't wanna have anything to do with the clan anymore?" Bacardi sighed.
All these while, Bobby stayed silent. He sat on a crate, studying a strand of his hair that's on his palm like it's a exquisite work of art.
"Yes, the clan funded his campaign, and now that he has payed back, the bond is broken," the henchman said, making his way to the boxcar door.
Bobby finally stood, blocking him.
"You payed back the actual money, where's the interest in cheque!" He demanded glaringly.
"The Mayor didn't mention interest!" The man gasped.
"Ohhhh..." Bobby threw his head back, his fury replicating.
By the time he brought his head back, he gripped the henchman by the ear and plunged him down.
Bacardi took a iron rod laying on one of the crates.
She threw it at Bobby who caught it and brought it down without mercy to the henchman's knees.
The metal condemned the knees completely, and as the henchman's cries took over the box like a widow's wail, Bacardi laughed at the back.
Bobby squatted in front of the crying man, pitiless and bouncing.
"Your broken knees is to send a message to Mayor Cliff. The clan made him Mayor, and we can as well drag him down within an hour, so tell him to be careful, he has 24hrs to send the money and interest to the clan, or else...tommorow is Sunday, Leo will visit him, and yunno what that means... Special menu." He said, still flat-faced as he took the one billion single cash from Bacardi.
He placed it on the man's crushed knee, wetting it with his blood before shoving it in his mouth, forcing him to swallow the blood money.
"Good boy," Bacardi stroked his hair, exchanging eye signals with Bobby.
They stepped away together.
--
[Street 130, Cooper's Apartment]
Hayden is currently hiding on top of a fruitless tree in front of the apartment, and he looks whiter with fear, he's shaking too.
He just sat there, trying his best to stay unseen.
He was about to enter the apartment ten minutes ago when he saw strange cars coming, so he hid beside the apartment to see who.
When the people came out of the car, he didn't recognize any, but by their dragon tattoos, he knew their origin.
Only a particular set of people owns that dragon tattoo.
The Outfit, from House Of Esposito.
The notorious mafias.
After they went into the house, he had to come climb the tree to hide well so he'd see what's going on at the same time, and he has been on the tree since then.
Are these people involved with Mr. And Mrs. Cooper's disappearance?
Are they involved in Ivanna and her siblings disappearance?
It's not normal for them to disappear too and their lines aren't even going through, so he had reported to the cops this morning, but the cops aren't doing anything about it. The law only works for the rich here.
But now, how is the Outfit connected to the Cooper family?
He has been running from pillar to post trying to get to Lissa since yesterday since she's the only suspect in the family disappearance, but Lissa isn't just someone you see just because you wanna see her.
He craned his neck on the tree when the mobsters came out of apartment, led by Sandra.
She came with Nino—Anthony's driver, and five mobsters.
She was holding the parcel in hand as they walked towards the car.
They didn't search too much before finding it in the couch.
They loaded themselves back in the cars, and after they drove off, Hayden jumped down from the tree.
"Wait...the Outfit is rumored to have a tight relationship with the Armando billionaire family, and Lissa is an Armando...does this mean... Lissa really took Ivanna's parents and also took Ivanna and Robert and Ginny?" He muttered to himself.
That thought made his mind lock as he ran down the street desperately.
--
[House Of Esposito, Holding Room]
There's a dusty camp bed inside already, and on the small bed, Ivanna lay on her chest.
She's unconscious, and Robert is crying behind her as he applied a balm on her naked, brutally wounded back.
Her whole body is wounded with the whiplashes, but her back is worse.
No idea why they were given a bed or why they were given a balm for Ivanna's body, but everything has a reason here.
Obviously, this clan isn't letting them go, so maybe the balm is to make Ivanna's body heal before they'd start another round of torture.
Ivanna stirred, and Robert's hand halted slowly.
"Ivanna?"
Her eyes opened painfully, and she tried sitting up, but pains shackled her down to that bed.
"Lay low, you're too weak... That guy was merciless with the whippings," Robert said worriedly, but Ivanna was never one to back down.
She forcefully pushed herself to sit. Thanks to her bra and jean trousers, she's not totally naked.
"Here, your vest. I took it off to apply the balm when you weren't waking up earlier," Robert handed her the tattered blood-soaked vest.
She put it on, whimpering in pains till she was done. Every raise of her hands bursts a painful part of her.
The vest smells metallic, but it's better than wearing no shirt.
She stood, and Robert stood with her.
"Where to?"
"To confront them, you told them all we knew already, so it's hightime they let us go," she said, cringing.
"Are you for real? These people will kill you and I can't risk it! I can't lose you too!" Robert pulled her back.
She broke free.
"So you really believe Ginny is gone? Just like that?"
Her voice dropped low.
"Ivan—"
She was already staggering to the door, but before she could even get there, the door chains dragged, and the door opened roughly.
A livid Leonardo entered, holding up the parcel Sandra got from their apartment. He looks raving mad, his composed font couldn't even hide it.
"Here's the parcel from the couch in your apartment, it contains empty papers. Should I take it that you just played with me? With death? No one told you both to run if you hear my fuckin name?" His eyes stilled.
Ivanna chuckled shortly, leaning wholly on the wall.
"After we got what we wanted from the real parcel last week, I hid it without the knowledge of my siblings, and I placed a fake parcel in the couch in case of necessity. You thought I was gonna let you hurt our helper? I'm the only one who knows the location of the real parcel."
"Ivanna..." Robert's eyes widened.
"Killing your sister clearly did nothing to you," Leonardo nodded, smoothly rolling up his black shirt sleeves. He undid the first two buttons on his chest too, and the lights hit his beautiful tattoos.
Moving, Ivanna was with him in the next minute.
Furiously, she threw a punch at his tummy area.
He stood there unshaken, but the punch met his lighter in his jacket pocket, and the lighter cover broke.
"Ginny isn't dead, so stop saying you killed her!" Ivanna yelled at his face.
He brought the lighter out of his pocket, and the lividity in his eyes went raised to hundred.
His brain ticked, and the blood drop he received over there made his fists clench tight, turning white.
This lighter is his most treasured possession, how dare she...
Before that thought could finish, he raised his punch too—to her face.
Ivanna received the blow so violently, blood blurted out of her nose, but that was only just the start.
The second and third and fourth blow met her face from Leonardo again, again, and again.
Those three sent her to the floor like a nameless orphan.
"Please!! Sir, It's enough!!! She's asthmatic please!!!" Robert cried out, but that was just useless.
The moment she landed on the ground, Leonardo kicked her in the tummy, and her body rolled back, hitting the metal chair in the room.
The metal chair fell on her.
Leonardo turned around sharply, going for the door. He needs cigarettes to calm, and there's none in his pocket anymore.
He has only taken two steps when he heard Ivanna chuckling dryly.
He stopped, but didn't turn.
On the floor, Ivanna is smiling with her nearly unconscious face, her teeth so bloody between her lips.
"Brainless bî+ch" she cursed in a whisper, loud enough for him to hear
Instantly, Robert sat on the ground, completely surrendering his life to death as Leonardo turned....
TBC.
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