Chapter 4

Olivia Carter POV

Recovery was a slow, agonizing crawl. My body knitted itself back together faster than my fractured mind.

Every time a car door slammed outside the clinic, I flinched. Every time I saw a man with dark hair or broad shoulders, my heart stuttered in my chest.

I spent my days in the hidden clinic, reinventing myself.

Ava Miller was a ghost. She walked with her head down, hands clasped tightly in front of her. Olivia Carter had walked with a stride that commanded attention.

Ava spoke softly, apologetically. Olivia had spoken with purpose.

I cut my hair into a sharp bob and dyed it jet black. I started wearing bold lipstick that felt heavy on my mouth. I practiced a new smile in the mirror-one that didn't reach my eyes, a shield rather than an invitation.

Maya visited every evening. She was the architect of my new world.

"Here," she said one night, tossing a thick binder onto my bed. "This is you."

I opened it. There were bank accounts in the Cayman Islands-ironically, using the same bank Ethan used for his dirty money. A lease on a small apartment in a quiet neighborhood. A backstory about a marketing consultant from the West Coast.

"It's perfect," I said.

"It's illegal," Maya corrected with a grin. "But it's solid. My dad pulled every string he had."

"How is he?" I asked. "Ethan."

Maya's face darkened. "Arrogant. He's consolidated power. He declared himself Capo yesterday. The Commission is wary, but they can't argue with results. He's making money."

"Dirty money," I said.

"Very. He's selling off the legitimate businesses your father built to fund drug routes. He's sloppy, Ava. He thinks he's untouchable because the only witness is dead."

I picked up the tablet Maya had brought me. I accessed the encrypted drive where we stored the data from the recorder and the financial leaks Mr. Rodriguez had found.

"He's not untouchable," I said, my voice cold. "He's standing on a trapdoor."

"What's the plan?"

"We wait," I said. "Let him get comfortable. Let him think the ghost is gone. Then we start loosening the bolts in the floorboards."

Maya nodded. "I have a contact for you. Ben. He runs a bookstore in Queens. He used to be a soldier for your grandfather. He's... retired. He hates the life, but he's loyal to the blood."

"Can I trust him?"

"He's the only one who can keep you safe while you build your empire. He has a safe room."

I hesitated. Another man. Another cage?

"He's not like them," Maya assured me, reading the panic in my eyes. "He chose to leave."

Two weeks later, I was ready.

I stood in the clinic room, dressed in jeans and a leather jacket-clothes the old Ava would never wear. I packed my meager belongings.

"One last thing," Maya said. She handed me a piece of stationery. It was cream-colored, heavy stock. The kind the Miller family had always used for correspondence.

"The suicide note," she said. "The police report says it was an accident, but we need to close the loop for Ethan. Make him think you chose to die. It stops him from looking."

I took the pen. I wrote a few lines about despair, about love lost. Standard tragic heiress drivel.

Then, at the bottom, I added a line. A line only he would understand. A line he had whispered to me the night we got engaged, when he promised to protect me.

The north wind remembers.

It was a childish code we had. It meant: I see what you did.

"He'll read this and think you were delirious," Maya said, reading over my shoulder.

"No," I said, sealing the envelope with a definitive press of my thumb. "He'll read this and he'll know that even in hell, I'm watching him."

I handed the letter to Maya. "Plant it."

"With pleasure."

I walked out of the clinic and into the sunlight. The air smelled of exhaust and rain, but to me, it smelled like oxygen.

I hailed a cab. "Quiet Corner Bookstore, Queens," I told the driver.

I watched the city roll by. The skyscrapers where Ethan ruled were just glass needles in the distance.

I wasn't a pawn anymore. I wasn't a queen, either. I was the hand that was going to flip the board.

I took out my new phone and checked my bank balance. The funds Maya had siphoned from Ethan's shell companies were sitting there. Two million dollars.

Seed money.

I smiled, and this time, it reached my eyes. It was a cold, dangerous smile.

"Thank you, Consigliere," I whispered to the empty cab.

I was ready to meet Ben. I was ready to build Phoenix Holdings.

Ethan Reed thought he had buried his past. He was about to learn that some things grow in the dark.