Chapter 1

“You said you only wanted to scare her?”

I looked directly at Matteo.

He frowned as if I were the one being unreasonable.

“Mom, Elena has been protected her entire life. A little hardship will be good for her.” He glanced toward the bathroom. “We were right outside. We never would have let anything serious happen.”

I followed his gaze.

Elena was curled against the cold tiled wall, trembling so violently that her teeth were chattering. One side of her school blouse had been torn open, and dark bruises were already forming across her shoulders.

She clutched what remained of her collar with both hands, desperately trying to cover herself.

This was what they considered nothing serious.

I had once lived in a world where men carried guns beneath their tailored jackets, and a single insult could cost someone far more than money.

Yet even in that world, no one had ever dared to touch my daughter.

I stepped toward Matteo.

“When would it have become serious? After they tore off the rest of her clothes, or after someone posted the video online?”

Matteo’s expression shifted.

Before he could answer, Dante stepped between us.

He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and spoke in the same calm, measured voice he used in board meetings, the one that always made people believe he was the only reasonable person in the room.

“Mom, you don’t know the whole story.”

“I know what I’m looking at.”

“But you don’t know what caused it.”

Dante glanced at the girl hiding behind him.

“Sabrina accidentally spilled coffee on Elena’s shoes. Elena humiliated her in front of everyone and told her she could never afford to replace them.”

Sabrina clutched the back of Dante’s jacket.

Her eyes were wet, and her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Mrs. Leeds, I offered to have the shoes cleaned, but Elena said someone like me didn’t even deserve to touch them.”

Elena’s head snapped up.

“I never said that.”

Sabrina bit her lip.

“I know Elena doesn’t like me. I shouldn’t have asked to borrow the dress she planned to wear to the charity gala. I just thought—”

“You didn’t ask me.”

Elena’s voice was hoarse, but she forced out every word.

“You told everyone Dante had already promised to give you my dress. When I said that wasn’t true, you poured coffee over my shoes on purpose.”

Sabrina’s expression froze for a moment.

“I didn’t—”

“That’s enough.”

Luca immediately moved in front of her.

He removed his jacket and carefully draped it over Sabrina’s shoulders, even though she was fully dressed while my daughter sat half-exposed on the floor.

“That isn’t what Sabrina told us when she came to us crying.”

Luca turned to me, accusation in his eyes.

“Mom, Elena made her feel worthless over one stupid dress. She thinks that because she was born into this family, everyone else should bow to her.”

“So you let those girls drag her into the bathroom?”

“We only asked them to talk to Elena,” Matteo said. “Things got a little out of control.”

“You heard her begging for help.”

The bathroom fell silent.

They had heard her.

While Elena cried and begged those girls to stop, all four of her brothers had been standing outside the door.

Any one of them could have stepped inside and ended it.

None of them had.

Nico was leaning against the sinks, turning a silver lighter between his fingers. He looked completely unconcerned.

“Elena needed to learn a lesson.”

He snapped the lighter shut.

“She can’t assume everything belongs to her just because she was born into this family.”

I stared at him.

Nico had been nine when I found him. His wrist was broken, and he had two dollars in his pocket. For months after I brought him home, he woke in the middle of the night screaming from nightmares.

Back then, little Elena would carry her pillow into his room and sit beside his bed until morning.

Now he spoke about her as if she were a stranger.

“What exactly were you trying to teach her?” I asked.

Dante answered.

“To share.”

His eyes settled on Elena without a trace of sympathy.

“She already has more than she could ever need. Sabrina only wanted to borrow a dress. What possible reason did Elena have to refuse?”

“It’s my dress,” Elena said quietly.

Dante ignored her.

“Sabrina has had to work for everything she has. Elena was born with every advantage. If we don’t correct her now, she’ll become exactly what everyone expects—a selfish, arrogant heiress who thinks the world owes her everything.”

For seventeen years, I had given those four boys everything I could.

I had taken them out of foster homes, shelters, and juvenile courtrooms. I had paid for the best education available and made sure they received years of therapy.

When they grew older, I brought them into Leeds Group.

Dante ran corporate operations. Luca oversaw public relations and outside partnerships. Matteo controlled finance, while Nico managed real estate development and security.

The business press called them the Leeds brothers.

People spoke of them as if they had been born into power.

Perhaps that had been my greatest mistake.

I had given them so much that they had forgotten none of it had originally belonged to them.

I walked past Dante and crouched beside Elena.

I removed my coat and wrapped it securely around her torn uniform and bruised body. Then I gathered her into my arms.

“It’s over now. I’m taking you home.”

Elena buried her face against my shoulder and clutched my dress with both hands.

“I didn’t do what they said.”

“I know.”

Dante let out an impatient breath behind me.

“Mom, blindly defending her will only make this worse.”

I did not turn around.

“Dante, stop talking.”

He continued anyway.

“If you make excuses for her again, she’ll never learn to take responsibility. Elena needs to stand up and apologize to Sabrina.”

Elena went rigid in my arms.

Dante came closer and reached for her arm.

“Get up, Elena. Apologize, and we can put this behind us.”

I rose and slapped him across the face.

The sound cracked through the bathroom.

Dante’s head snapped to the side. His gold-rimmed glasses fell to the floor and skidded beneath the sinks.

All four men went silent.

Luca reacted first.

“What are you doing?”

He stepped toward me, but Matteo caught his arm.

Dante slowly turned back.

A red handprint was spreading across his cheek. The calm, controlled mask he always wore had finally cracked, revealing the anger underneath.

“If hitting me makes you feel better, fine.”

He looked at me again.

“But it doesn’t change the fact that Elena was wrong.”

“You still think this is about a pair of shoes?”

“It’s about the kind of person she’s becoming.”

“No.”

I held his gaze.

“It’s about the kind of men you have become.”

Sabrina moved behind Luca.

“Luca, she’s frightening me.”

He immediately shifted to shield her with his body.

I looked at the way he protected Sabrina, then at my daughter, whom her four brothers had abandoned inside that bathroom while strangers tore at her clothes.

The contrast was sickening.

Nico gave a cold laugh.

“You’ve really disappointed us today, Mom.”

“We’re trying to stop Elena from becoming a spoiled bully. Apparently, the four of us are the only people in this family willing to tell her no.”

“Elena has said no several times today.”

I helped my daughter stand, keeping one arm securely around her waist.

“She said no when Sabrina demanded her dress. She said no when those girls dragged her into this bathroom.”

I looked at each of them in turn.

“The people who refused to respect that word were you.”

None of them answered.

“If you believe Leeds money has made Elena arrogant, then none of you will be spending another dollar of it.”

Matteo folded his arms, contempt lifting one corner of his mouth.

“You’re threatening to cancel our credit cards?”

“I’m informing you.”

“We manage the four most important divisions of Leeds Group. Do you really think canceling a few cards will frighten us?”

Luca laughed as well.

“If we all walk away, who will run the Brooklyn development? Who will keep the board under control? You?”

I studied him in silence.

He genuinely believed I had spent the past seventeen years relaxing at my Westchester estate while the four of them built Leeds Group around me.

He had no idea how many people were still waiting for a single order from Catherine Moretti, or that Leeds Group was only the part of my empire I had allowed the public to see.

Dante bent down and retrieved his glasses.

One lens was cracked, but he put them back on.

“We’ve worked for this family for years, and we’re the reason Leeds Group is where it is today.”

His voice had regained its composure.

“Are you really going to tear this family apart because Elena refused to share one dress?”

“You stopped protecting this family the moment you stood outside that door and listened to her beg for help.”

I guided Elena toward the exit.

As we passed Sabrina, I paused.

She immediately lowered her eyes, but not before I caught the satisfaction she had failed to hide.

She thought she had won.

That was fine.

I would deal with her later.

Right now, my daughter needed me.

I stopped beside Dante.

“By tomorrow morning, your personal credit cards, vehicles, and access to every property held under the Leeds name will be suspended.”

Nico scoffed.

“You’ll reverse it within three days.”

“Will I?”

“The company can’t survive without us.”

All four of them believed it.

They had mistaken the authority I had loaned them for power they had earned.

I looked at Dante one last time.

“You wanted Elena to understand that being raised under the Leeds name doesn’t mean everything belongs to her.”

He said nothing.

“Starting tomorrow, all four of you are going to learn the same lesson.”

Then I took my daughter home.