Chapter 1

Kiva’s POV

I met my boyfriend, Caelen, after an accident left me disabled. He treated me like I was everything, and in return, I quietly helped him build his casino business from the ground up.

For our fifth anniversary, he flew me to Miami. I thought he was going to propose. Instead, I found out the trip wasn’t for me at all. It was for his mistress, Samantha.

He never planned to marry me. In his words, I was just a crippled, useless woman.

So I made one call—to my father, the most powerful mafia boss in Spain—and had him cut off every connection, every resource I’d ever handed to Caelen.

I was never the simple, fragile girl Caelen thought he could use. And I’m done making myself small so a man like him could feel big.

I was still shaking. I’d just watched my boyfriend drop to one knee—and propose to another woman.

My fingers clenched the wheels of my chair as I rolled through the stunned crowd on the deck, “What the hell are you doing, Caelen?”

For a moment, I saw it—panic in his eyes, just a flicker. Then it vanished, iced over by something worse, disgust.

“What are you doing here?” he hissed.

Gasps fluttered around me like flies.

“Who let a disabled person near the pool?”

“Someone call the staff.”

“Poor thing. Must’ve gotten confused.”

I ignored all of them. My focus was solely on Caelen, the man I thought I knew. I wheeled closer. “You owe me an explanation.”

The woman standing beside him—gorgeous, tall, polished—turned to me, her eyes narrowing, “Who is she?”

Caelen didn’t flinch. “She’s just my cousin,” he said smoothly. “The family’s been taking care of her.”

Then he stepped behind me and gripped the handles of my chair. “Wait for me, babe,” he called out to that woman as he pushed me away.

“I am not—” I tried, but Caelen’s hand already slapped over my mouth, silencing me.

He didn’t let go until we were back in my hotel room.

I shouted as I gasped for more air. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

His eyes flashed. “God, Kiva—can you not embarrass me for once? I was in the middle of something important.”

“Yeah. I saw.” My voice trembled, but I kept going. “You proposed to someone else. Did you think I wouldn’t notice?

“I was going to tell you nicely,” he said. “But since you had to make a scene—fine. Yes. I proposed to Samantha Holt. And if you don’t know who that is, her dad basically owns half of Manhattan.”

“Proposed…” The word tasted like blood.

So I hadn’t imagined it. Caelen really did it.

He looked at my face—and laughed. “Come on, Kiva. You didn’t actually think I’d marry you, did you?”

He stepped closer, voice low and cutting. “You’ve got the face, sure. But what else do you bring to the table? You’re broke. No connections. No power. Samantha’s family can actually help me.”

Caelen’s gaze dropped to my legs. “And your legs…” He let out a soft laugh. “Let’s just say, it was fun for a while. But this?”

He waved a hand in the air like I was an inconvenience. “It got old. I’m not spending the rest of my life pushing you around like a nursemaid.”

Heat surged under my skin, blood roaring in my ears.

The Caelen I knew—the man who once kissed every scar on my legs and said I was beautiful just like this—was gone. In his place stood a stranger—one who looked at me with nothing but disgust.

“Then why?” I asked quietly. “Why be with me at all? All those confessions, all those promises—were they nothing?”

His face flushed with irritation. “I pitied you, Kiva. That’s all. I thought it was love. I liked feeling like a good man, taking care of you.”

He scoffed. “But that doesn’t mean I want to marry you. Look at you—you can’t even walk down the aisle. Do you know what people would say about me? A crippled wife would ruin everything I’ve built.”

I couldn’t speak. It felt like my heart had been stripped bare, then cut apart piece by piece.

The room fell silent.

After a moment, Caelen knelt in front of me—the same way he had for Samantha. But instead of a ring, he offered me this, “If you still want me, we can keep things the way they are. You just won’t be my wife. Stay here, enjoy the villa, and don’t get in the way of me and Samantha. Fair enough?”

I didn’t answer.

“Kiva,” he continued, as if he were being generous, “everything I do is to make more money. And that money is for you. Don’t see Samantha as competition—see her as part of the solution. Together, we can take better care of you.”

Then he left.

My thoughts drifted back to a conversation I’d had with my father years ago.

“Kiva,” Papa had said gently, “are you sure Caelen is the right man? You are my most precious. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

“Papa, he’s different,” I’d said, smiling into the phone. “After the accident, I felt like I’d lost myself. But with Caelen, I found myself again. He never treated me like a woman in a wheelchair. So I wanted to do the same for him. I wanted to help him—with everything I had.”

And I did. For years, I’d posed as an anonymous investor. It was my money that built Caelen’s casino.

If I had known this was who Caelen truly was, I would’ve never offered to use my father’s name—his power, his money—to help him build his precious casino empire.

Samantha Holt might be from a powerful family. But my father’s influence dwarfed theirs—three times over.

I never told Caelen. Partly because I didn’t want him to feel small beside me. Mostly because I wanted to be loved for myself—not my name, not my family.

And yet, when he spoke to me just now, it felt like he’d never cared about me at all.

How could someone betray me—and frame it as kindness? As if being “taken care of” by him and his mistress were some sort of favor.

Shameless.

I took a slow breath, then reached for my phone.

“Papa,” I said calmly, “about that contract I asked you to give Caelen? Don’t bother. I’m done with him.”

He didn’t ask for details, only if I wanted to come home. He could send a helicopter immediately.

I smiled to myself. “What would be the fun in that?” I said. “I’ll stay until the weekend. I have a little surprise for Caelen before I leave.”