Chapter 2

The screen glowed a dim, suggestive red.

Along the wall, racks held tools used for "punishment": whips, handcuffs, low-melt candles, and an assortment of phallic toys.

I recognized it. It was that club. Of all the things to remember, why this.

I saw myself bound to the bed, battered and exposed.

And the fake heiress lay beside me, heavily pregnant and unconscious.

There was no one else in the room but the two of us.

So this was the moment we were rescued.

The next second, the door crashed open and a squad of bodyguards stormed in, guns raised.

Once the room was clear, my parents and my husband rushed inside.

I stared at them, overwhelmed, twisting against the tape with everything I had, waiting to be saved.

And in the middle of all that hope, the parents I revered and the husband I loved went right past me, straight to my sister. To Emma.

"God, Emma's barely breathing!" my mother screamed.

Leo found a clean blanket and covered Emma with it, then scooped her up in his arms and ran out.

I was tied to the bed with wounds all over me, and I could only watch my husband carry another woman out the door.

Then my parents hurried out after him.

"Leo, slow down! Emma's pregnant!" my mother called after her son-in-law, and the daughter in his arms was not the one she had given birth to.

They passed me as if I were air. The remaining bodyguards exchanged uneasy looks at the naked Mafia heiress on the bed. The shame of it.

In the end, Leo's assistant cut the tape off me and shoved a scrap of lingerie at me to put on.

I swallowed the pain, dressed myself, and walked out of that room.

The playback stopped. In the seats below, people began talking over one another.

"Eva is despicable for holding back what she knows, sure, but isn't this family a little too obsessed with the adopted daughter? Who treats their own child that way?"

Someone spoke up for me, and was immediately drowned out.

"You're only looking at the surface. Didn't you see the marks on Eva's body? Maybe she couldn't get enough and asked for it herself!"

"Exactly! Look at Emma, not a mark on her, not a scratch!"

"Don't let that bitch's wounds fool you. Maybe she loved every second of it. Pain and pleasure at the same time. The pleasure of being used."

I listened to the poison coming from below and the world in front of me seemed to bend out of shape.

Why did the pain of my wounds, and the pain of having no family and no husband who cared, mean nothing to them?

Just because they had decided I was filthy and deserved it?

Leo gave me a humorless smile. "So that setting wasn't high enough, was it? You're a scheming little thing. You skipped the part that mattered and jumped straight to the end, didn't you!

"Let's see if you can still keep your mouth shut this time!"

Leo turned up the setting on the memory extractor, and my whole body started convulsing.

The screen came back on.

Leo's face appeared first, vicious and full of disgust.

It was three months after our rescue, the day doctors confirmed that Emma's baby had died.

"Emma's baby is dead. What gives you the right to stand here in one piece!

"It's because of you! All of this is because of you!"

My mother stood beside Emma's bed, weeping. My father held the tiny, fully formed body of the stillborn baby and glared at me.

"Are you satisfied now! You bitch! Will you finally tell us the truth!" my father demanded.

And I still said nothing.

My silence sent Leo over the edge. He kicked me so hard that I hit the floor before I could react.

"Leo! Have you lost your mind? You know I'm carrying your child. You may not care about me, but don't you care about the baby?"

My words cracked through the room like thunder. Shock rippled across the crowd.

But no one had any idea that the part that would truly turn their stomachs was only just beginning.