Chapter 1 Five Years in Captivity

(Esme's POV)

Ignoring the searing pain radiating through my body, I stood on the familiar doorstep and tugged nervously at the cheap T-shirt that hid the jagged scars crisscrossing my legs.

My husband, Sebastian, and I had both been DIA agents. Five years earlier, our operation had been compromised, and I had stayed behind to protect him.

For five years, I had been imprisoned and tortured in a mafia basement. The thought of my two children, my parents, and Sebastian was the only thing that had kept me alive.

Thinking of my young children and aging parents sent a wave of guilt and grief through me. At least Sebastian had escaped. At least someone had been there to care for them.

I trembled as I pushed the door open, only to freeze.

The living room was dark. Two people were tangled together on the sofa. I flipped the switch, flooding the room with harsh light, and Sebastian scrambled to pull up his pants.

The woman sitting on his lap, straightening her disheveled skirt, was none other than my former best friend, Jessica.

"Esme?" Sebastian showed no relief, only irritation at being interrupted. He snatched up a shirt and shrugged it on. "You really are alive."

I stood frozen, my stomach twisting with shock and revulsion. "Where are my parents? Where are my children? Why are you with her?"

Sebastian sneered and crossed to the bar to pour himself a whiskey. "They're dead. Both your parents. Your stupidity exposed our entire DIA undercover network. The Lucchese Family stormed the safe house and killed them. I barely survived. Jessica risked her life to save me."

"You're full of shit!" I lunged forward and seized his collar, the old wounds in my palms flaring with pain. "At the casino, I put down my gun and let the mafia take me hostage so you would have time to evacuate my parents and our children! You promised you would protect them!"

"Don't make yourself out to be a hero, Esme." Jessica crossed the room in her high heels, openly staring at my filthy, scarred body. "Look at you. God knows how many men you've slept with. You got your whole family killed, and now you come back demanding answers? If I were you, I'd have crawled into a gutter and stayed there."

Rage shook me as I stared at the two people who had betrayed me.

But I didn't cry. Five years of torture had stripped me of the ability to weep.

I stared Jessica down. "I couldn't care less about your sordid little affair. I'll ask one last time. Where are my son and daughter?"

"Mom, why are you so loud?"

Footsteps sounded upstairs. I jerked my head up and saw my son, Leo. He was ten now, so much taller than the child I remembered.

Grief and longing tore through me. I opened my arms and stepped toward him. "Leo. My baby..."

Leo stepped back sharply, his eyes cold with disgust. "Don't touch me. You're filthy."

I froze, my hand suspended in the air, trembling uncontrollably. "Leo, I'm your mother."

"You're not my mother. Jessica is." Leo stared at me without a flicker of emotion. "Dad told me you survived by whoring yourself out to the mafia. If I were you, after letting them use me like that, I'd have put a bullet in my head instead of coming home to disgrace the whole family."

I stood rooted to the spot, unable to believe this was the child I had fought and died for.

I looked at Leo's cold face, then turned to see Sebastian and Jessica's smug, satisfied smiles.

I understood.

In those five years, the two of them had taken over my home, poisoned my family against me, and thoroughly brainwashed my son.

"Where is Lily?" I took a deep breath, forcing down the pain in my chest, my eyes now sharp and clear. "Where is my daughter?"

Sebastian lit a cigarette and blew out a ring of smoke. "She's in the hospital. If you want to see her, and if you want her to keep receiving the best care, you'll sign this divorce agreement, give up custody of Leo and Lily, and acknowledge Jessica as the woman of this house in front of the children."

"You're dreaming," I growled.

"Suit yourself." Jessica rolled her eyes. "That sickly little brat burns through our money every day. She won't last much longer anyway. The sooner she dies, the sooner she stops dragging us down."

Those words ignited a murderous rage within me.

I snatched the fruit knife from the side table and charged. Before Jessica could react, I grabbed her hair, slammed her against the wall, and pressed the blade to her throat.

Blood immediately seeped from her neck.

"Aaaah! Sebastian! Save me!" Jessica shrieked.

"Let her go, Esme!" Sebastian shouted, reaching for his gun at his waist.

I pressed the blade down harder. "Take me to the hospital. Now. Otherwise I'll cut her throat right now. No one is getting out of this alive."

Sebastian saw the killing fury in my eyes. He knew I had survived five years inside the mafia, and that taking one more life would mean nothing to me. He raised his hands in surrender. "Fine. We'll go to the hospital."

Half an hour later, we arrived at the downtown general hospital.

I shoved open the hospital-room door and saw Lily in the bed. She was only six. Her once-rosy face was white as paper, IV lines ran from her arms, chemotherapy had taken her hair, and her body had wasted almost to the bone.

I rushed to the bedside, gripping her cold little hand. Tears finally spilled over.

The doctor came in and sighed. "She has chronic myeloid leukemia, CML. Her case is extremely complicated. Without immediate targeted therapy and a bone-marrow transplant, she may not survive three months."