Chapter 1
The ultrasound photo crinkled in my sweaty hand.
Seven months pregnant. Our first son.
I’d left the doctor’s office an hour early, giddy to show Daniel the tiny profile, the strong heartbeat the tech had pointed out.
Our Dallas estate loomed ahead, the marble columns cold even in the July sun.
I waddled up the stairs, one hand pressed to my swollen belly, humming the lullaby my mom used to sing.
Then I heard it.
Laughter.
High, girlish, coming from our master bedroom.
My steps slowed.
The door was cracked open.
I pushed it all the way.
My blood turned to slush in my veins.
Sophia, Daniel’s 24-year-old assistant, was curled up on our silk sheets.
Wearing my ivory robe.
The one Daniel had brought me from Paris for our first anniversary.
Daniel sat on the edge of the bed, his fingers laced through hers.
He looked up when I stepped inside.
No flinch.
No guilt.
Just a cold, bored flick of his eyes.
“Get out,” I said.
My voice cracked.
Sophia laughed, swinging her bare legs over the mattress.
“Or what?” she said. “You’re just the placeholder he keeps for the country club photos.”
She stood, sauntering toward me.
Her perfume was cheap, cloying, nothing like the jasmine I wore.
She leaned in, her breath hot on my ear, so quiet Daniel couldn’t hear.
“This baby is just a chain around his neck. We don’t need it.”
I didn’t have time to gasp.
She shoved me hard in the chest.
I stumbled backward, my hands flying to my stomach as my heels slipped on the hardwood.
I hit the floor with a thud that rattled my teeth.
Then she kicked me.
Right in the side of my belly.
I screamed, curling into a ball, the pain white-hot, blinding.
I looked up at Daniel.
Begging him with my eyes.
He crossed his arms over his custom suit.
“Stop being so dramatic,” he said. “You’re fine.”
Sophia kicked me again.
Harder.
This time I felt it—a sharp, tearing low in my abdomen, like something was ripping inside me.
I sobbed, scrambling on my elbows toward the nightstand.
My phone was there.
I grabbed it, my fingers shaking so bad I almost dropped it.
I dialed the number I hadn’t called in four years.
The one I’d promised myself I’d never need.
Ethan answered on the first ring.
“Liv?”
I couldn’t breathe.
I could only get three words out.
“She kicked the baby.”
Dead silence on the other end.
Then Ethan spoke.
His voice was so cold it made my teeth ache, so sharp I could feel it through the phone.
“We’re wheels up in five. Landing in Dallas in ninety minutes. Don’t you dare move an inch.”
I hung up, pressing my forehead to the cold floor.
Daniel laughed.
“Who was that? Your deadbeat brothers you ran away from?” he said. “My security will shoot anyone who steps foot on this property.”
He called his head of security, barking orders to drag me out the second the doctors cleared me.
I didn’t say a word.
I just sat there, hand pressed to my belly, counting the minutes.
Eighty-seven minutes later.
The front door exploded off its hinges.
Shouts.
The sharp, heavy sound of weapons being cocked.
Daniel’s security team ran toward the foyer.
Then went completely silent.
Three men walked into the living room.
All in black tactical gear.
All carrying weapons I’d only ever seen in war movies.
My three brothers.
Ethan saw me on the floor.
His face shattered.
He dropped to his knees beside me, his hands hovering like I was made of glass, like one wrong touch would break me.
“I got you,” he said, his voice breaking. “We’re here now.”
Daniel stared at them, all the color draining from his face.
“Who the hell are you?” he stammered.
Ryan, my second oldest, pulled a thick black file from his bag and tossed it at Daniel’s feet.
Papers spilled everywhere.
Bank records.
Offshore accounts.
Every illegal deal Daniel had ever hidden.
“Blackout Group,” Ryan said, his voice flat as stone. “Governments pay us to make problems disappear.”
Alexander, the youngest, was already on his phone, his eyes never leaving Daniel.
“Perimeter secure,” he said. “No one leaves this property alive until we say so.”
Daniel looked at me, his eyes wide with terror.
“You didn’t tell me your brothers were—”
I cut him off.
Ethan helped me sit up, his arm firm around my back.
May you like
My voice was steady for the first time all night.
“You never asked,” I said. “And now? You’re going to pay for every single thing you did to me and my son.”
