From Mafia Doll To Montana Queen

I was the invisible daughter of the Hayes crime family, secretly painting portraits of Marcus, the Underboss. He was the man who had once protected me from the world, the man I loved from the shadows.

But he chose power over affection. To secure an alliance, he engaged Isabella.

Threatened by my existence, Isabella staged a fake miscarriage and framed me for destroying her heirloom wedding dress.

Marcus didn't ask for my side of the story. Blinded by rage over his "lost heir," he ordered his guards to drag me to the Ice Cellar-a freezing underground torture chamber used for traitors.

For days, I shivered in the absolute darkness, listening to the water drip, realizing the man I worshiped was actually my jailer. My father, protecting his own millions, let it happen.

In that cold, the girl who loved Marcus died.

When he finally released me, he expected me to be broken, obedient, and grateful for his mercy.

Instead, I burned every painting I had ever made of him. I packed a single bag and vanished into the night, escaping to a rugged ranch in Montana where no one knew my name.

Three years later, the truth about Isabella's lies finally surfaced.

Marcus tracked me down. The King of New York fell to his knees in the dirt and cow manure of my new home, weeping, begging, and offering me the entire world to come back.

I looked down at the man who once owned my heart.

"You can't un-shatter a glass, Marcus," I said coldly. "I'm not coming home."

Chapter 1

Olivia POV

I dipped my brush in alizarin crimson, outlining the jaw of the man who would likely put a bullet in my head if he knew what I was thinking. But tonight, I was done hiding in the shadows of his sins.

My heart hammered against my ribs, frantic and rhythmic, like a trapped bird as I added the final stroke to the canvas.

In the painting, Marcus wasn't the Underboss of the New York family. He wasn't the man whose hands were stained with the blood of our enemies. He was simply Marcus. The man who had once shielded me from a storm.

But that man didn't exist anymore.

I sat back on the stool in my hidden studio, the sharp scent of turpentine and linseed oil filling my lungs. This room, tucked away in the dusty attic of the Hayes estate, was the only place I could breathe.

I opened my diary. The leather was worn soft from years of secrets.

*This is the only way I can talk to him,* I wrote, the ink bleeding slightly into the heavy paper. *On canvas, he looks at me. In real life, I am part of the furniture.*

I closed the book with a soft thud. Tonight was the charity gala. Tonight, I would try to be more than just David Hayes's innocent, invisible daughter.

*

Dinner was a suffocating affair. My father, David, sat at the head of the table, his face lined with the stress of laundering the family's millions.

"I'm happy here, Dad," I lied, pushing a wilted pea around my porcelain plate. "Really."

"Good, Liv," he muttered, checking his Patek Philippe. "Safety is a luxury. Don't take it for granted."

*Safety.*

I didn't want safety. I wanted to fly.

The gala was a sea of black tuxedos and designer gowns. The air smelled of expensive perfume, stale champagne, and fear.

I saw him immediately.

Marcus stood near the mahogany bar, his presence sucking the oxygen out of the room. He was talking to the Don, his face hard, his eyes sweeping the crowd for threats.

He never scanned for me.

I took a breath, smoothing the silk of my dress. I snagged a glass of whiskey-his brand, neat-from a passing tray.

*Just walk up to him. Just say hello.*

I took a step. Then another. My pulse roared in my ears like the ocean.

I was three feet away when his phone rang.

The sharp, shrill sound cut through the ambient jazz. Marcus's hand shot to his pocket. He answered, his expression shifting from bored to lethal in a split second.

He turned his back to me without even seeing the glass in my hand. He walked away, barking orders into the phone, his voice low and dangerous.

I stood there, holding the whiskey like a fool.

Then I saw her.

Isabella. Izzy.

She was the widow of a rival Capo, brought in to solidify an alliance. She was beautiful in a way that screamed danger-blood-red lips, a dress that fit like a second skin, and eyes that held too many secrets.

Marcus returned, but he didn't come back to the bar. He went straight to her.

I watched from the shadows as he leaned in, whispering something in her ear. She laughed, placing a manicured hand on his forearm. His gaze followed her as she moved to greet a senator.

He looked at her with focus. He looked at her like she mattered.

Bitter bile rose in my throat.

I remembered being ten years old. A drunk soldier had yelled at me, making me cry. Marcus had appeared out of nowhere, dragging the man away by his collar. He had come back five minutes later, his knuckles bruised, and handed me a peppermint candy.

*Don't cry, Liv,* he had said. *I got him.*

That was the moment I fell. That was the moment I invented a soul for him.

I retreated to my room, the bass of the gala still thumping through the floorboards.

I opened my diary again.

*He protected me once. I thought it meant he cared. I thought underneath the ice, there was a fire for me.*

*

Days later, I tried again.

I caught him in the hallway of the main house. He was adjusting his cufflinks, looking impatient.

"Marcus," I said, my voice trembling. "I just wanted to say... the way you handled the expansion deal... I admire it."

He stopped. He looked down at me, his eyes void of warmth.

"Do your job, Olivia," he said, his voice flat. "Stay out of the way."

He walked past me. The breeze from his movement chilled my skin.

The rumors started the next week.

Izzy was at the compound every day. They said she was smart. They said she was ruthless. They said she was the perfect match for the future Don.

I felt the walls of the estate closing in. My fantasy, the one where the beast learns to love the beauty, was crumbling into dust.

He didn't want beauty. He wanted power.

I felt like I was in a maze with no exit. The air was too thin.

I opened the diary to a fresh page.

*If I cannot be seen by him, then I must go to a place where he can never see me.*

I pulled out a map of the United States I had hidden under my mattress. My finger traced the line away from New York, across the plains, stopping on the rugged terrain of Montana.

*Freedom,* I whispered.

I tried to talk to my father the next morning.

"Dad," I said, watching him read the financial reports. "Do we have to... stay this way forever? The alliances? The marriages?"

"It's tradition, Liv," he said without looking up. "It's responsibility. Don't fill your head with nonsense."

He didn't hear me. No one heard me.

Later that afternoon, I saw them in the garden. Marcus and Izzy.

He was listening to her speak. He looked polite, attentive. But I knew his face. I had painted it a hundred times.

There was a flicker in his eyes. Boredom? Exhaustion?

It didn't matter. He was still standing with her.

My heart did that stupid, painful thing it always did when he was near. It raced. My palms sweated.

*Why do I love a man who looks through me like I'm glass?*

I went back to my studio. The painting of Marcus stared at me. The gentle curve of the lips I had imagined. The softness in the eyes that wasn't there.

"You have to let go," I told the canvas. "Or you will wither in this cage."

I picked up a palette knife.

My hand shook, but I forced it to move. I scraped the metal across the canvas.

Scrape.

I scraped away the kindness in his eyes.

Scrape.

I scraped away the warmth.

I left only the cold, hard outline of a monster.

My chest hurt, a physical ache, but my mind felt strangely clear.

The era of the canary was ending.