Burning His Empire For My Sister

My sister died because my husband' s mistress needed the helicopter for her dog. I called him, begging him to send his medevac chopper. He promised it would be there in thirty minutes.

It never came. As my sister' s heart monitor flatlined, I saw the reason on Instagram. His mistress, Brooklyn, was posing with the helicopter, thanking my husband, Jax, for saving her Pomeranian who ate some chocolate.

When I confronted him, he chose her. He pushed me, and after the car crash that followed, he rescued her from the wreckage while leaving me bleeding in the back.

At the hospital, he played the hero for the news, but the final blow came from my lawyer. Our five-year marriage was a fraud; the license was fake.

So I disappeared. Now, two years later, I' m back. He built an empire on my back, and I' m here to burn it all to the ground.

Chapter 1

Josephine Cole POV:

My sister died because my husband' s mistress needed the helicopter for her dog.

That' s the sentence that plays on a loop in my head. It' s the beginning and the end of everything.

The hospital air was thick with the smell of antiseptic and fear. The steady, frantic beep of Kiera' s heart monitor was the only music in my world, a frantic drumbeat counting down the seconds of her life.

"The specialist is in San Francisco, Jo," Dr. Evans had said, his face grim. "We don' t have the equipment here. Her only chance is a medevac. Now."

I' d called Jax immediately, my voice shaking. "Jax, it' s Kiera. Her heart... it' s failing. They need to fly her to SF. You have the helicopter, the medevac one. You have to send it."

"I' m on it, Jo. Don' t worry," he' d promised. His voice, usually so commanding, was the lifeline I clung to. "It' ll be there in thirty minutes."

Thirty minutes passed. Then sixty. Then ninety.

I paced the sterile hallway like a caged animal, my phone pressed to my ear. I called him again. And again. And again. Each call went to voicemail.

"Jax, where is it? Where' s the helicopter? Please, pick up."

"Jax, Kiera' s fading. Please."

"Jax..."

My tenth call finally connected. His voice was rushed, annoyed. "Jo, I' m in the middle of something important."

"More important than my sister' s life?" I shrieked, my control finally snapping. "The helicopter isn' t here, Jax! The doctor said she has minutes!"

There was a pause, a rustle of fabric. I heard a woman' s soft giggle in the background, a sound so out of place it felt like a physical blow. Brooklyn Barry. My high school tormentor. His new obsession.

"Listen, Jo, there was... a complication," Jax said, his tone clipped. "A real emergency came up. I had to divert it. I' ll arrange for something else, a commercial-"

I didn' t hear the rest. The connection was cut. A notification on his end. He had hung up on me. He had blocked my number.

The phone slipped from my numb fingers and clattered to the linoleum floor.

At that exact moment, the frantic beeping from Kiera' s room stopped.

It was replaced by a single, deafening, unbroken tone.

The sound that meant death.

The world went silent. My own heart seemed to stop, frozen in my chest. I couldn' t breathe. I couldn' t move.

A nurse, her face a mask of pity, gently guided me to a chair. Someone handed me my phone. My thumb swiped across the screen out of numb habit.

And there it was.

The reason.

Brooklyn Barry' s latest Instagram story. A video, posted twenty minutes ago.

She was standing on a helipad, her blonde hair whipping in the wind. In her arms, she cradled a fluffy white Pomeranian wearing a tiny, diamond-studded collar. Behind her, gleaming in the sun, was the helicopter. My helicopter. The one with the Richards Aviation logo emblazoned on the side, the one retrofitted with life-support equipment.

The caption read: "Bartholomew ate some dark chocolate, but he' s going to be okay! A huge thank you to my hero, Jax, for sending his private jet-copter to get my baby to the best vet in the state! You' re the best! "

Bartholomew. Her dog.

Her dog ate some chocolate.

My sister' s heart gave out.

A wave of nausea so violent it buckled me over washed through my body. I retched, but nothing came up. There was only a hollow, burning emptiness.

I scrolled through my contacts, my fingers clumsy and shaking. Past Jax - Husband. Past Mom. Past everyone I thought I could count on. My thumb hovered over a name I hadn' t called in years.

Emerson Blake. My old high school friend. The quiet, kind boy who' d always looked at me with more warmth than I thought I deserved. Now a venture capitalist so successful he was practically a legend.

He answered on the first ring.

"Jo? Is everything okay?" His voice was calm, steady. The first steady thing I' d felt all day.

I couldn' t form words. A strangled sob escaped my lips.

"Where are you?" he asked, his tone shifting, becoming urgent. "Tell me where you are, Josephine. I' m coming."

I told him the hospital' s name.

"I' ll be there in fifteen minutes," he said. "Don' t move."

I didn' t know what I wanted. I just knew I couldn' t stay here. I couldn' t stay in this city. I couldn' t stay in this life.

"Emerson," I whispered, my voice raw. "Can you make someone disappear?"

There was a short silence. Not of hesitation, but of consideration.

"Yes," he said, his voice firm. "I can. A new name, new documents, a safe place far away from here. Is that what you want?"

"Yes," I breathed, the word a prayer. "I want to be gone."

"Consider it done," he said. "I' m on my way."

After the call ended, I opened Instagram again, a moth drawn to a flame that had already burned me to ash.

I watched the video on a loop. Brooklyn, smiling triumphantly. The dog, yapping.

Then I saw it. In the reflection of the helicopter' s polished window, a figure standing just behind Brooklyn. It was Jax. He was smiling, his arm wrapped possessively around her waist, his lips brushing against her temple.

He looked happy. Proud.

He was saving a new life while the most important one in mine was being extinguished.

My gaze drifted to the picture frame on the nightstand beside Kiera' s empty bed. It was a photo of us from last summer, our arms slung around each other, laughing into the camera. Kiera, so full of life, her paint-splattered fingers holding a half-finished canvas. She was my family. The only family that mattered.

I met Jax when he was still an underground fighter, all coiled muscle and simmering rage, fighting his way out of the gutter. I was a music student, playing my cello in smoky bars to pay for Kiera' s mounting medical bills. He told me he loved my music, that it soothed the beast inside him.

Together, we' d clawed our way to the top. My inheritance, though modest, had been the seed money for his first real estate venture. I' d managed his books, his schedule, his life, while he conquered the city, block by block.

"One day, Jo," he' d whispered to me, standing on a dirt lot that would become our first mansion, "I' ll build you a castle. A home for you and Kiera. You' ll never have to worry about anything again."

He' d built the castle. But the home was gone. Kiera was gone.

My family was gone.

I sank to the floor, the cold tile a shock against my skin. I pressed my phone to my chest, the image of Jax and Brooklyn burning into my eyelids. My fingers traced Kiera' s smiling face on the screen of my phone. The last message she' d sent me, just yesterday: "Can' t wait to see you, Josie! Love you more than all the stars."

The grief was a physical weight, crushing me, suffocating me. I couldn' t breathe for the pain of it.

Numbly, I handled the arrangements. The funeral home, the death certificate. The world moved in a blurry, soundless haze.

Days later, sitting in the sterile quiet of my lawyer's office, I found myself scrolling through my message history with Jax. His replies had grown shorter over the past year. One-word answers. Unread messages. Calls unanswered.

Then I saw it. The date of our anniversary, six months ago. I had waited for him at our favorite restaurant for three hours. He' d texted me late that night: "Sorry, babe. Got held up in a last-minute meeting overseas. Raincheck soon."

But on Brooklyn Barry' s Instagram archive from that same day, there was a photo of two champagne glasses, clinking together against a backdrop of the Eiffel Tower at night. The man' s hand in the photo wore a watch I recognized. The one I' d given Jax for his 30th birthday.

The lie was so blatant, so careless. It wasn' t just a betrayal. It was an insult.

He hadn' t just cheated. He had erased me.