Chapter 3

The lead doors clicked shut, locking the trauma room away from the hallway.

Waves of dizziness washed over me from the massive blood loss. My entire body shook.

The year my father died, Alessia took the family over the bodies of her rivals. She sat at the head of the long table and looked down at me. She told me to survive in this family, I had to swallow all my blood and tears.

She said I would take over the family one day. "As the future Boss, you leave your emotions behind. From today on, I am not your mother. I am your superior."

To prove I was as good as any heir, I fought on the front lines again and again.

Back then, Dominic was just a street enforcer. To stop a hit on me, he cut down seven gunmen alone on a rainy night. Covered in blood, he knelt before me, held my fingertips, and swore: "In this life, I am your blade. Anyone who touches you dies by my hand first."

I fell for him.

But Alessia saw his ruthlessness too. Step by step, she pulled him up to the second-in-command position just to pit him against me.

I cried and begged Alessia not to be so cruel. I told her I couldn't watch the people I love leave me one by one.

That was the last time she ever touched my head with any tenderness. "I must teach you the ruthlessness of a Boss."

The very next day, Alessia brought Camilla back from the slums. Everything changed.

A few fake tears from Camilla, and Alessia blamed me for bullying her. I never knew what Alessia said to Dominic behind closed doors. But after one private talk, Camilla called him "Brother Dominic," and the man sworn to be my blade aimed his gun at me over and over.

Just an hour ago, on the way to the cathedral for our wedding, Camilla begged for custom cherry mousse from an Upper East Side shop. Dominic ignored my warnings. He drove straight off course into an active gang war zone.

A split second before the heavy truck hit us, Dominic yanked the wheel to shield Camilla. He left me in the back seat, completely exposed.

The car smashed apart. The broken steel beam punched through my back and tore through my chest.

Memories rushed in. Hot blood surged up my throat, and my vision blurred into darkness.

I cannot die here.

I bit my tongue hard, using the sharp pain to stay awake. I dragged my lifeless body toward the dispatch desk.

My cracked nails scraped bloody trails across the tiles.

"Get a car... call a driver..." I lifted my bloody face, clawing at the edge of the desk. "Take me to the West Side underground clinic... to the old doctor..."

Those were my father's men. Get there, and I had a chance to live.

The dispatcher looked down at me. He didn't even bother to lean over. He just smirked down at me.

"Save it, Gianna. The Boss just gave a strict order. Anyone moving a car without her signature dies for treason on the spot."

He tossed the dispatch sheet onto the desk and looked down at me. "No signature, no car. Lie there and wait like a good girl."

A shadow rushed in from the side.

Mia lunged past the desk, pulled her pistol, and racked the slide. The cold black muzzle pressed right between the dispatcher's eyes.

"Hand over the keys!" Mia's eyes burned red as she screamed. "Get a driver right now!"

The cold barrel froze the dispatcher in place. His face went white. "Mia, are you crazy? Pulling a gun in the clinic is a death sentence!"

"Call the car!" Mia's knuckles turned white on the trigger, her voice a raw roar. "Call it, or I blow your head off!"

Before the dispatcher could move, the lead doors flew open.

Alessia strode out, her face like thunder.

She did not even look at the gun at the dispatcher's head. Her icy gaze dropped straight onto me.

"Carry her inside and draw her blood." Alessia's voice was completely flat. Only I knew her well enough. She did this on purpose. She was punishing me for "lying."

Mia froze, horror in her voice. "Boss! Gianna is bleeding out from her back! She barely has a pulse! You want to take her blood?"

"Camilla lost too much blood and went into shock," Alessia cut her off.

"Her rare blood type has antibodies. Bank blood will cause hemolysis. Only your blood can save her."

She glanced at me and let out a sigh.

"Stop acting like a spoiled child. The heir to the family must look at the big picture. Just give eight hundred cc's of whole blood to Camilla. Then we are done with this. No more throwing tantrums."

It was rare tenderness. Normally, I would have cried.

But I lay on the floor without the strength to answer.

"The bone marrow failure report on your desk seven days ago..." I choked out, fighting for air. "Did you even read a single page?"