LOGINISABELThe Queens family estate looks exactly as I remember it, imposing, elegant, and cold as fuck.I sit in my car at the end of the long driveway, staring at the grand mansion that was my childhood home. Three years ago, I drove away from this place swearing I'd never come back. I'd chosen Leo over my family, burned every bridge, said things I can never take back, and now here I am, crawling back with my tail between my legs.Three days after the night that destroyed my marriage. Three days of staying at the penthouse while my lawyers handled the divorce paperwork but I can't hide in that penthouse forever. It's time to face my family.I take a deep breath and drive up to the house.The front door opens before I even reach it, and our longtime housekeeper Mrs. Clark appears, her face lighting up when she sees me."Mrs Isabel!" She pulls me into a hug that nearly makes me cry. "Oh, it's so good to see you, dear.""It's good to see you too, Mrs. Clark." I hug her back tightly, gratef
ISABELHe's gone.My husband of three years is actually gone. I sit there on the bed, processing, and then suddenly I'm shaking. Not from fear or sadness, but from the sheer adrenaline crash."Hey," Ares says gently, his hand on my shoulder. "You're okay. You're safe now.""I know," I manage to say. "I just... I can't believe I actually did that.""You were magnificent," Marco says, and there's genuine admiration in his voice. "I've seen hardened businessmen crumble under less pressure.""He's never going to forgive me for that humiliation," I say, reality setting in. "He's going to try to destroy me.""Let him try," Harvey says darkly. "He'll find out exactly how protected you are now."I look up at this cold, intense man who's appointed himself my protector. "Why? Why are you all doing this? You don't even know me.""Maybe not yet," Ares says softly. "But we'd like to. If you'll let us.""What just happened—" I gesture at the bed, at us, "—that was supposed to be revenge. Just reven
ISABEL"What the FUCK?" The words explode out of him like a detonation, and I turn my head slowly, and deliberately to look at him. Ares doesn't move away, instead, his teeth graze my neck harder, possessively marking me. Harvey's finger slides inside me, just one, stretching me, and I have to bite back a moan."Oh, Leo," I say, my voice remarkably steady despite the finger inside me, despite my racing heart. "You're home early." I pause, letting my lips curve into a smile as Harvey adds a second finger, scissoring them inside me. "Or am I home late? I lose track when we have an open marriage now."His face goes from shocked white to furious red in seconds. "GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY WIFE!"Instead of moving away, Harvey's fingers curl inside me, and find that spot that makes my vision blur. Ares's mouth moves lower, pulling down my bra to expose my breast, his tongue circling my nipple before he sucks it into his mouth. Marco leans forward and presses a kiss to my inner thigh, so close
ISABEL The drive to the penthouse feels like I'm hurtling towards my own destruction or my rebirth. I can't decide which.My hands are steady on the wheel now, the whiskey from the bar creating a pleasant buzz that dulls the edges of my pain without clouding my judgment. Behind me, the black Range Rover follows at a respectful distance, three strangers who've agreed to help me plan the most spectacular revenge of my life.Three strangers who are about to see me at my most vulnerable and most powerful simultaneously.I pull into the underground garage, my designated spot feeling like a throne tonight instead of a prison. The Range Rover glides into the guest parking lot, and for a heartbeat, we all just sit there in our respective vehicles, the weight of what we're about to do settling over us like a blanket.My phone shows Leo's location, he's fifteen minutes out, probably driving back from that hotel room smelling like cheap perfume and cheaper lies.Perfect timing.I step out of my
ISABELOnce inside the elevator, the shaking starts. By the time I got to the lobby, I could barely breathe. In my car, I grip the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turn white, mascara running down my face in black rivers.Three years. Three fucking years of my life wasted on a man who hurt me, cheated on me, and made me doubt my own sanity.I gave up everything for him. My family fortune, my position, my self-respect, and for what? So he could fuck other women while I covered bruises and pretended to be happy?The rage that sustained me upstairs is morphing into something else now. Grief, shame, and overwhelming loss. I sacrificed my entire future for a man who never loved me. Who probably never even liked me.I don't know where I'm going, I just drive, tears blurring the city lights into watercolor streaks.Twenty minutes later, I'm standing outside The Velvet Room, an exclusive lounge I've passed a thousand times but never entered. It's the kind of place Leo takes his "business a
ISABEL The concealer isn't covering it as I stare at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, dabbing more product onto the bruise on my upper arm where Leo grabbed me last week. Five days, and the purple-blue mark is still visible beneath my olive skin, a fingerprint constellation of his anger. "You made me do this," he'd said afterwards, his voice flat and cold. "If you weren't so fucking needy all the time..." I'd apologised. Actually apologized for making him hurt me again. My hands shake as I set down the concealer stick. Three years of marriage, and I've become an expert at hiding marks . The woman in the mirror is a stranger, chestnut brown eyes that used to sparkle with ambition now dull with carefully suppressed pain. Cheekbones are more prominent than they should be because Leo comments when I eat "too much." Hair perfectly styled because anything less results in a lecture about "letting myself go." When did I become this person? This hollow version of Isabel Queens who







