Chapter 9 Toothbreaker

• The suffocating, deadly silence in the hall was broken by my father's agonizing, trembling groan. The exploitative baron-head, kneeling on the marble floor, his arms outstretched, his pride completely gone, pleaded:
• "What money are you still talking about, Xandros…" my father groaned, his voice echoing in the dust cloud. "Myrande was the price for those port shares, those debts… everything! You got her, what more do you want from us? This family is already finished!"
• As my father's helpless cry hung in the air, Ian, the newlywed groom, puffed out his chest as if he had narrowly escaped the giant crystal chandelier and shattered glass falling from the ceiling moments before. In his expensive but now dust-covered tuxedo, he embraced Daphne, who was trembling with fear, with the air of a superhero. His attempt to protect the woman beside him was so comical, so artificial, as if he had forgotten that the man before him was Xandros, the man who had turned the underworld into a bloodbath. Ian, with a false boldness seeping through his teeth, challenged Xandros fiercely: