From Mafia Pawn To The Don's Queen

It wasn't a gun, but the pen in my hand was going to end my life just the same.

Liam, the man I was supposed to marry in a month, pointed to the tablet on his desk. It showed a live feed of my mother's hospital room.

"Sign the confession, Ava," he said, his voice devoid of any warmth. "Take the fall for the embezzlement. Or the funding for her ventilator stops in ten seconds."

My heart hammered against my ribs. The crimes weren't mine. They belonged to Chloe, his mistress. But Liam Valenti, the Underboss of New York, was sacrificing me to save her.

"She's fragile," he said casually, adjusting his silk cuffs. "She can't handle prison. You're strong. You'll survive."

With tears blurring my vision, I signed the document. I signed away my career as a lawyer and my freedom to save my mother.

Liam snatched the paper like a prize. He didn't offer comfort. He just smirked.

"Good girl. The wedding is still on, of course. You'll look beautiful in the ankle monitor."

He walked out to celebrate with his mistress, thinking he had won. Thinking he owned me.

But he forgot one crucial detail. I wasn't just his fiancée. I was the one who laundered his money. I knew where every body was buried-literally and financially.

The moment the door clicked shut, I stopped crying. I pulled out a burner phone and opened an encrypted app.

I wasn't going to jail. I was going to war.

I typed three words to the one man Liam feared most.

"Execute Protocol Zero."

Chapter 1

Ava POV

I stared at the black resin barrel of the Montblanc.

It wasn't a gun, but I knew it was going to end my life just the same.

"Sign it, Ava."

Liam's voice was devoid of the warmth he used to promise me at the altar. His finger hovered over the tablet screen that displayed a live feed of my mother's hospital room.

"Take the fall for the RICO violation," he said, his tone flat. "Or the funding for her ventilator stops in ten seconds."

My pulse throbbed against my ribs, frantic and irregular.

I looked at the document on the mahogany desk.

It was a confession.

It detailed five years of money laundering, wire fraud, and embezzlement through the Valenti family's front companies.

Crimes I didn't commit.

Crimes that carried a sentence of twenty years in federal prison.

"Liam," I whispered, the name tasting like ash on my tongue. "This isn't my mess. The forensic accounting trail... it leads to the boutique accounts. It leads to Chloe."

Liam Valenti, the Underboss of the New York families, the man known as the Prince of Blood, didn't even blink.

He adjusted his silk cuffs, the same ones I had bought him for our engagement party.

"Chloe made a... miscalculation," he said, his tone casual, as if discussing a spilled drink rather than a multi-million dollar federal offense.

"She's fragile. She can't handle prison. But you... you're a lawyer, Ava. You know how to survive inside. You're strong."

The cruelty of it punched the air out of my lungs.

He wasn't asking me to save the Family.

He was asking me to sacrifice myself for his mistress.

"I won't do it," I said, my voice trembling but my spine straightening by instinct. "I won't go to jail for your goomar."

Liam's eyes went cold.

It was the look he gave rivals before he had them skinned.

He tapped the tablet.

On the screen, the lights in my mother's private ICU room flickered.

The steady beep of her heart monitor skipped a beat.

"That's the power grid," Liam said softly. "I own the clinic, Ava. I own the doctors. I own the electricity keeping her alive. You think you have rights? You have what I give you."

He tapped another button.

The feed showed a nurse walking in, reaching for the plug on the ventilator.

"Five seconds," Liam counted down.

My vision blurred.

This was the man I was supposed to marry in a month.

The man who had postponed our Union Ceremony twice because Chloe had a "crisis."

"Four."

I looked at my mother's pale face on the screen.

She was the only thing I had left in this world.

"Three."

"Stop!" I screamed, my hand snatching the pen. "Don't hurt her!"

"Sign it," he commanded.

I pressed the gold nib to the paper.

Tears hit the ink, blurring the loops of my signature.

I signed away my freedom.

I signed away my future as a lawyer.

I signed away my life to protect the woman who gave me mine.

"Done," I choked out, sliding the paper toward him.

Liam smiled.

It was a terrifying, satisfied smile.

He tapped the tablet again, and the nurse on the screen stepped away from the machine.

The rhythm of the heart monitor stabilized.

"Good girl," Liam said, snatching up the confession.

He didn't look at me. He looked at the paper like it was a prize.

"See? That wasn't so hard. The wedding is still on, of course. House arrest isn't so bad. You'll look beautiful in the ankle monitor."

He walked to the door, pausing with his hand on the brass handle.

"Clean yourself up," he said over his shoulder. "You look a mess. Chloe is waiting for me to tell her the good news."

The heavy oak door clicked shut.

Silence rushed back into the room, heavy and suffocating.

I stood there for a full minute, shaking so hard my teeth chattered.

I wasn't a person to him.

I was collateral.

I was a shield to be battered so his porcelain mistress wouldn't get a scratch.

I wiped my face with the back of my hand, smearing the tears.

The fear was evaporating, replaced by something colder.

Something harder.

I pulled my phone from my pocket.

I opened a hidden app, disguised as a standard calculator.

It showed my mother's vitals.

Stable.

Liam thought he had won.

He thought he held the leash.

But he forgot that I was the one who scrubbed his money.

I was the one who knew where the bodies were buried-literally and financially.

I typed a message into an encrypted channel.

The recipient was just three letters: Nex.

My thumb hovered over the send button.

Once I did this, there was no going back.

The Valenti empire would hunt me.

Liam would try to kill me.

But I was already dead to him.

I typed three words.

Execute Protocol Zero.

Send.