Chapter 6

Maya POV

Silence wasn't just a defense mechanism anymore; it was a weapon I was learning to wield.

Liam didn't sign the divorce papers.

He didn't reject them, either.

He just stalled.

It was the classic Ricci maneuver: ignore the rot until the problem suffocates or simply ceases to exist.

He spent his days at the "legitimate" shipping offices, burying himself in paperwork that I knew was just a paper shield for moving product never listed on any manifest.

He thought he could starve me out.

He believed that if he withheld his presence, I would eventually cave, crawling back to beg for scraps of his attention like the girl I used to be.

He didn't realize that his absence was the first breath of fresh air I'd had in four years.

I stopped answering the phone.

I stopped replying to the texts that oscillated wildly between "We need to talk" and "Stop being dramatic."

I sat in my apartment, a small studio I had rented with cash my mother had siphoned away for me years ago.

It was cramped.

It smelled of cheap lemon polish, stale dust, and freedom.

But freedom in our world is never free.

A knock on the door shattered the quiet.

It wasn't a polite knock. It was a demand.

I looked through the peephole.

Marc Chen.

Of course. Liam wouldn't soil his hands with the initial negotiation.

He sent his lapdog.

I opened the door.

I didn't have a weapon, but I had something better: absolute, hollow desperation. I had nothing left to lose.

Marc pushed past me without an invitation.

He scanned the small living room with a sneer, his nose wrinkling as if he smelled decay.

"Cozy," he deadpanned.

"Get out, Marc."

He turned to me, plastering on that slick, brotherly smile that used to fool me.

"Liam is worried about you, Maya. This... tantrum... it's beneath you."

"Tantrum?"

A laugh escaped me. It was a dry, jagged sound that scraped my throat.

"I lost my child because he pushed me. I lost my marriage because he couldn't keep his vows. And you call it a tantrum?"

Marc sighed, adjusting his silk tie with practiced indifference.

"The Boss has needs. You know how this life works. You signed up for it."

He took a step closer, invading my personal space.

"Think about the family honor, Maya. Think about the optics. Liam is willing to be generous. He wants you to come home. He'll increase your allowance. He'll even buy you that villa in Tuscany you always wanted."

"And Ava?" I asked, my voice flat.

Marc waved a hand dismissively.

"A distraction. She means nothing."

I looked at him. Really looked at him.

I remembered the text messages I'd found.

*She's boring. Frigid.*

Marc hadn't just watched the affair happen; he had cultivated it. He had fed Liam's vices to keep him distracted while he carved out his own slice of the empire.

"You really think," I said, keeping my tremor internal, "that after everything, I care about the 'family honor'? I don't care if his empire burns, Marc. In fact, I hope I'm the one holding the match."

Marc's smile dropped.

His eyes went cold, the mask slipping.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Maya. You're a Ricci by marriage. You don't just walk away. We protect our own, but we also amputate our liabilities."

The threat hung in the air.

Heavy.

Suffocating.

I knew I couldn't fight them physically. Not yet.

I needed time.

I forced my shoulders to slump, mimicking the defeat he expected to see.

I let a calculated tremor enter my voice.

"I... I just need time, Marc. I'm grieving."

I looked down at my hands, hiding the fire in my eyes.

"Tell Liam... tell him I'll think about it. Just give me a few days."

Marc studied me.

He saw the broken woman he wanted to see.

He nodded, satisfied.

"Smart girl. I'll tell him. But don't take too long. Patience isn't one of Liam's virtues."

He left.

I locked the door and leaned against it, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird throwing itself against a cage.

My phone buzzed.

It was a secure message from my mother.

*He's digging. His lawyers are auditing your old accounts. They're looking for the money I gave you.*

I stared at the screen.

He wasn't waiting for me to come back.

He was hunting me.

I walked over to the trash can.

I was wearing a brooch on my sweater. A silver dove.

Liam had given it to me on our first anniversary.

*For my peaceful little bird,* he had said.

I unpinned it.

The metal felt heavy, tainted by the lie it represented.

I dropped it into the garbage.

The hollow clatter was the sound of a door slamming shut.

I wasn't peaceful anymore.

I sat down at my laptop.

I opened the encrypted file the private investigator had sent me an hour ago.

Surveillance footage.

It was grainy, black and white.

A restaurant booth.

Liam and Marc.

I slid my headphones on.

The audio was laced with static, but the voices were unmistakable.

"...she's becoming a problem," Marc said.

"I'll handle Maya," Liam replied. His voice was devoid of emotion, cold as the grave. "She'll come back. She has nowhere else to go."

"And Ava?"

Liam swirled his drink, watching the amber liquid coating the glass.

"The pregnancy was an accident. But a direct heir is essential. If the kid is a boy... we keep him. Ava goes."

"Goes where?"

"Away," Liam said. "Permanently. Pay her off. If she refuses... liquidate the asset."

My stomach churned.

He was discussing murder with the casual indifference of ordering a sandwich.

Then, the camera angle shifted.

Ava walked into the frame.

She sat down next to Liam.

She looked smug, victorious.

She placed a hand on her stomach.

"He's kicking," she lied. It was too early for that.

Liam didn't smile.

He just looked at her stomach like it was a vault containing his property.

"Good," he said.

I ripped the headphones off.

They were monsters.

All of them.

And they thought I was just a grieving widow they could manipulate.

I picked up my phone.

My hand hovered over the screen.

This was it.

The point of no return.

If I did this, I was declaring war on the most dangerous man in the city.

But I looked at the empty apartment.

I thought about the blood on the stage.

I thought about the baby I would never hold.

I dialed the number.

"Agent Miller," a gruff voice answered.

"I'm ready," I said, my voice hard as steel. "I have the recordings. I have the ledger. I want to make a deal."