The Mafia King's Unknown Doctor Wife novel Chapter 323

But while there had been a few close calls, the zones were—reportedly—staying separate and safe. Granted, there was one less zone to deal with today—what with the white zone not being in use—so maybe that was why everything was running smoothly. That would mean, hypothetically, that the zones would only get more tightly monitored as the competition went on and the lower zones slowly were eliminated from the area of play.

But just because things should get easier didn't mean that they would. Massimo knew that better than anyone.

He glanced up at the large digital scoreboard. The top thirty family's placements had hardly changed—in fact, the top ten hadn't shifted at all. The Morellos were now twenty-third, but they could easily shift back to twenty-fifth in a few hours with how tight all the surrounding scores were.

Massimo felt incredibly uneasy.

"Sir," Luca called. "Are you ready to go deeper in the woods? Or is there a problem we need to take care of?"

Massimo adjusted his grip on his gun. "There's no problems—yet. So let's go."

Nothing notable ended up happening. Massimo finished up the day's competition and headed to the dining area. It wouldn't do if the Mafia King missed two dinners in a row.

Luckily, Elena was already sitting to the left of Massimo's open chair. He took his seat and gestured for the servants to start bringing out the prepared dishes.

All around him, people were chatting happily. Families were either bragging about the scores in the hunting competition or complimenting the food. Massimo himself would've preferred more serious conversations than whether the Sobanos' chefs were as talented with fish as they were with steaks, but he was content that the winter party was doing exactly what he and Elena planned it would—bring the mafia families together.

Or he would be, if it wasn't so obvious that something was wrong with Elena.

She barely ate her food. And while she engaged in polite conversation with those nearby her, she kept her responses to five words or less. She wasn't rude by any stretch of the word, but she wasn't the overly polite, kind, and caring person she usually was.

Massimo quickly realized that she wouldn't say what was troubling her in front of so many guests, so he made up an excuse to fetch some wine with her.

"What's going on?" Massimo asked.

"Nothing," Elena dismissed. "Which wine did you want?"

"You keep feeding your food to that beast—"

"It deserves to eat, too," Elena replied hastily, grabbing a random bottle.

"Elena—"

It all felt like a cruel joke. And worst of all, Massimo just ignored it and started talking to a different mafia family—like it wasn't a big deal. Like the Contis weren't acting weird.

Elena fed another piece of meat to Ruby. Just a little while longer and she could retreat to her bedroom.

"Are you alright?" Massimo whispered discretely.

Elena merely smiled. "Yes, this meal is lovely, isn't it, dear?" she said.

Immediately, one of the nearby ladies agreed. "Yes, I was just saying..."

Hours later, there was a knock on Massimo's bedroom door. Massimo groaned, but slowly got up as the knocking persisted.

Massimo took his gun, just in case, as he went to answer the door—after all, he didn't know what kind of late night visitor was outside.

Slowly, Massimo opened the door.