Chapter 1

I never thought this would happen. I am the princess of the Volkov family. Yet my own driver left me on the street. His clueless girlfriend called me a "bitch" and a "parasite."

I lit a cigarette after calling Cassian. I watched the traffic.

I leaned against a streetlamp, swallowing my anger. I waited for Cassian to clean up this mess.

He is the sharpest blade in the Volkov family.

Men piss themselves at his name. He never fails. Traitors beg for death when he catches them.

Twenty minutes later.

The roar of three black SUVs approached. Their headlights cut through the night. They were like hungry hounds tracking blood.

I smirked.

Crystal, you really messed with the wrong people today.

But right before the convoy arrived, tires screeched.

My Cadillac pulled up.

Marco tumbled out of the driver's seat. The passenger seat was empty. Crystal wasn't there.

He was pale and shaking.

"Miss Aurora! You called Cassian?! You called the family hit squad to kill me?!"

"Are you giving me orders?" I stared him down. I flicked my ash.

"I was wrong! I was so wrong!" Marco's legs gave out. He fell to his knees.

He grabbed the hem of my expensive coat. His eyes were full of desperate fear. "My family has no money! Crystal wouldn't even look at me if I didn't play rich! I just borrowed your things to feed her ego. I didn't want to hurt you!"

I kicked his hands away and sneered. "So, you use my money and my car to keep a woman who tells me to get lost?"

"For my father's sake!" he screamed hysterically. Tears and snot ran down his face. He looked pathetic. "Please! My dad's dying wish was for me to be happy! If he were alive, he wouldn't want me to lose the woman I love!"

"Shut up! You don't get to say his name!" I snapped. I fought the urge to have him shot.

The SUVs pulled up.

A memory flashed in my mind. Luther.

The quiet man in the driver's seat. Ten years, never saying a word out of line.

The ambush three months ago still haunted me. Gunfire, flames, and blood everywhere.

Luther wasn't just a driver. He drove my brother and me for ten years. He watched us grow up.

Hitmen ambushed our convoy during a mob war three months ago.

Luther didn't hesitate. He threw his old body in front of my brother and me.

Three bullets tore through his chest. His blood soaked my white dress.

Before he died, he gripped my brother's hand tight. His eyes were full of worry. "Don... take care of my useless boy... let him live a good life..."

That loyalty was a blood debt to the Volkov family.

"Get up." My voice was ice. "This is for your father, not for you."

I only tolerated Marco because of his father's blood.

He was reckless and flaky. But I still said yes when he asked to take his dad's place as my driver.

I looked at his face. He looked a bit like his father. I gave him one last chance for Luther's sake.

To be fair, he did a great job his first two months.

He waited downstairs right on time every day. The car windows were always spotless.

He did everything right. He tried hard to prove he deserved the job.

But everything changed last month.

I opened the car door one day. The smell of cheap perfume hit me.

Crystal sat in my passenger seat, all dressed up. She was putting on lipstick in the mirror.

I frowned. I was about to ask questions. Marco pulled me to the back of the car, sweating hard.

"Aurora, please. Just this once." He begged in a low voice. "This is my girlfriend. She wants to shop on Fifth Avenue. Can we drop her off? She only wants a rich husband. I had to lie to her... please don't blow my cover."

I looked at his pathetic face. I thought of his father's grave.

I stayed quiet.

Once in a while was fine. After all, his father gave too much for this family.

But then, things started feeling wrong.