Chapter 2

And yet, just that morning, I had felt his gentle kicks in my womb.

As my body grew colder with each passing second, consciousness began to slip away.

Without my child, I had no will to live.

Just as I was fading into darkness, Petra and her men smashed through the ambush.

She took one look at my blood-soaked form and the still-active satellite phone in my hand. Rage contorted her features as she screamed, "Why didn't you call me? What would have happened if I hadn't tracked your location on the family channel?"

She carefully helped me up, frantically calling for Felix on the radio.

"I'm looking for Cassandra. Don't bother me." Those seven words froze her in place.

She tried to call for family backup, but we were too far from the estate, the signal jammed and useless.

With no other choice, she half-carried, half-dragged me through dark streets and alleys as the enemy pursued us.

They caught up quickly. One of the thugs plunged a poisoned dagger deep into Petra's thigh while the others swarmed her.

Despite the agony, she kept fighting, a shield between me and them even as the neurotoxin began to paralyze her.

As if by a miracle, we stumbled into one of the family's night patrols.

The thugs scattered into the night, but the damage was done.

As I drifted in a daze on the cold clinic bed, a bleak thought settled in my mind. Perhaps this was the end fate had in store for us.

The family doctor confirmed what I already knew. My child was gone, violently torn from me in an act of vengeance.

What I hadn't expected was the news about Petra. The neurotoxin had caused extensive damage. She had permanent nerve damage in her leg. She would never run or fight the same way again.

Her career as one of the most feared women in the Chicago Outfit was over.

Petra and I lay side by side in the ward of the secret clinic.

A heavy silence hung between us.

She must have heard Lucian's furious tirade.

Petra struggled to sit up, reaching over to grab my hand.

Her once-vibrant face was now as pale as paper, all color drained by the poison. The memory of Lucian’s cruel words brought a fresh wave of tears to her eyes.

They dripped onto the back of my hand as she whispered:

"I wish we had never married the Grimaldi brothers."

She was worried about me, but I was more worried about her.

She had been the Russo family's finest fighter, a legend in the making.

Now, with her leg permanently damaged, her career was finished.

I was about to comfort her when her husband's call came through.

"Lucian said Genevieve got an abortion? Did you put her up to this? Can't the two of you go one day without pulling some stunt?" Felix's voice crackled from the receiver.

"And I told you yesterday, I'm tracking the bastards who kidnapped Cassandra. This is important. I told you not to bother me. Are you deaf?"

"I really don't know why we married you two in the first place. Always plotting, threatening divorce, threatening to get rid of the baby! Who do you think you're scaring? If you want to leave, then leave! No one's begging you to stay!"

The call ended.

Petra just shook her phone, shrugged at me, and tried to pretend it didn't sting.

But her eyes filled with tears again.