Chapter 3

It was already late when we got home from the party.

The second we walked in, his personal secretary handed him a medical report from the hospital.

Jonathan's and my checkup results had been filed together. He flipped through casually, then his face changed.

He'd seen the result. Oligospermia. Of course, I'd faked it.

I asked innocently,

"What's wrong, sweetheart?"

His eyes flickered. He smiled, leaned down, and kissed my cheek.

"Nothing, darling. Just some casino paperwork. I'll go handle it. You get some sleep."

Then he took the report and walked straight into the study. I didn't go back to the bedroom. I walked to the study door and pressed my ear against the cold, hard wood.

Inside, his voice came through—half hysterical, but pressed low:

"—Are you sure this report is right? Oligospermia? Sperm motility under five percent? You're telling me I can barely get a woman pregnant for the rest of my life?"

A beat of dead silence. Then the secretary seemed to make a call.

And then Jonathan let out a low, almost sick laugh.

There was no despair in it. It was relief. Pure, desperate relief.

"Thank God. I still have Sienna."

He was breathing fast, his voice shaking with excitement.

"Listen. No one else hears about this. Get my most trusted men and move Sienna to the Malibu safe house right now—"

Then Sienna's call came through. Jonathan picked up:

"Baby, I was just about to tell you the good news. Let's go on vacation. No, don't worry about Victoria. You're nothing like that barren waste of a woman—"

I let out a cold laugh, shut off the recorder, and walked back to the bedroom.

My phone buzzed on the table. An encrypted video call from Uncle Luca.

"Miss. I've got some bad news."

Uncle Luca's voice was as cold as ever.

"Jonathan's not just keeping a woman on the side. Since he married you three years ago, he's been quietly moving assets through the companies under your name. The bastard was only ever using you from day one."

I sat down at the vanity and looked at my face in the mirror. I thought I'd feel something. Sadness, maybe.

I didn't.

I'm a mafia daughter. I will never cry over a traitor.

"How's the contract coming?"

"It's ready."

Uncle Luca tapped the table.

"The second he signs it and swears loyalty to the Carpentier family, we can wipe the traitor clean. But if you think it's too dangerous, I can put a bullet in him right now."

Traitor's reckoning. Anyone who joins the Carpentier family and betrays them in business gets erased from this world. No trace left behind.

"No, Uncle Luca. This is my game."

I touched my face in the mirror. All I felt was cold.

"I'll wait. He hasn't hit his peak yet. If he falls now, it won't hurt enough. It won't be brutal enough."

Uncle Luca laughed.

"Whatever you say, Miss. You're just like your father."

I hung up. Before I could put the phone down, an unknown number with no caller ID rang through.

But a woman's instinct told me exactly who it was.

I answered. Hit speaker. Said nothing.

A familiar, delicate voice came through the line.

"Mrs. Thorne? This is Sienna Vance."

She paused. There was something she couldn't hide in her voice. Excitement.

"I think there's something about your husband Jonathan I should tell you."

Listening to her voice, I looked at myself in the mirror and slowly smiled.

"Sure," I said softly, a laugh in my voice. "Let's meet tomorrow."

Jonathan. Your hunting game has begun.