Chapter 3

Maya POV

I carried the secret of my pregnancy like a live grenade with the pin already pulled.

Every time Liam touched me, every time he looked at me with those deceptive, lying eyes, I imagined the explosion. But I held it in. Silence was my only weapon now.

I needed confirmation. Not just photos, not just the lingering scent of another woman's perfume. I needed to hear it directly from his mouth. I needed to know exactly where I stood in the hierarchy of his heart.

I knew Liam played golf every Wednesday at the exclusive Stonewall Club. I also knew he used the private VIP lounge for "meetings."

I had bribed a waiter two thousand dollars to plant a listening device under the coffee table in Suite 1.

I sat in my car in the parking lot, hidden behind oversized sunglasses and a scarf, listening through an earpiece connected to a receiver.

The door to the suite opened. I heard Liam's heavy footsteps. Then, the distinct click-clack of high heels.

"God, I missed you," Ava's voice purred, dripping with need. "That old hag at the gala kept staring at me."

"Don't worry about her," Liam said. Through the static, I heard the rustle of fabric. The slide of a zipper. "She's clueless."

"When are you going to dump her, Liam? You promised."

"I can't just dump her, Ava. She's a Goldstein by marriage. It's complicated. The families expect stability."

"So I'm just a side piece forever?" Ava whined.

"You are my Queen," Liam said, his voice dropping to that low, seductive register I used to think was reserved only for me. "Maya is just... decoration. She's the face on the Christmas card. You're the one I want in my bed."

My heart stopped beating. It just sat in my chest, a cold, heavy stone.

"But what about the heir?" Ava asked. "You need a son."

"Maya hasn't given me one in five years," Liam scoffed. "Maybe she's barren. If you give me a son, Ava... then things change. If you carry my blood, you become the priority. Maya gets a nice settlement and a house in the Hamptons. You get the empire."

The static in my ear seemed to roar louder than his words.

*Barren.*

I looked down at my stomach. The irony was a knife twisting in my gut. I was carrying the very thing that could save my marriage, the thing that would secure my place as his "Queen."

And he was promising it to her.

He didn't want me. He wanted an incubator. He wanted a prop.

I ripped the earpiece out and threw it onto the passenger seat.

I remembered our wedding day. The way he looked at me when I walked down the aisle. I had whispered to him, *"If you ever betray me, Liam, I won't just leave. I will disappear."*

He had laughed and kissed my knuckles. *"I'd burn the world down to find you."*

He wouldn't have to burn the world. He had already burned us.

I drove straight to my lawyer's office. Not the family lawyer. A shark I had found on the dark web, someone whose hatred for the Goldsteins rivaled my own.

"I want a divorce," I told him. "And I want to liquidate my personal assets. Cash. Offshore accounts."

"This is dangerous, Mrs. Goldstein," he warned, his eyes narrowing.

"I know."

Then I drove to the clinic.

I sat in the consultation room, the white walls closing in on me. The doctor looked at my chart.

"You're here to schedule a termination?"

"Yes," I said. The word tasted like ash.

"Are you sure? The fetus is healthy."

"I'm sure," I said. My hand went to my stomach instinctively. "This child... cannot be born."

Not into this family. Not to a father who saw it as a bargaining chip for his mistress. Not to a mother who was planning to vanish.

I scheduled the procedure for two days later.

When I got home, Liam was there. He was standing in the middle of the living room, holding a massive bouquet of white roses.

He looked at me, his eyes soft. "The groundskeeper told me about the garden. Why did you destroy it, Maya?"

I looked at the flowers in his hand. Dead things wrapped in expensive plastic.

"I'm allergic," I said calmly. "I developed an allergy. They make me sick."

He frowned, confused. "Since when?"

"It's a recent development."

He stepped closer, offering the bouquet. "I'm sorry. I'll get you lilies. Or orchids. Whatever you want."

"I don't want flowers, Liam."

"What do you want?"

*I want you to hurt. I want you to bleed like I'm bleeding.*

"I'm tired," I said. "I'm going to bed."

I walked past him. He reached out and grabbed my arm. Not roughly, but firmly.

"You've been distant," he said, searching my face. "Is it the baby thing? Are you upset we haven't conceived?"

I almost laughed. The hysterical, bubbling laughter of the insane.

"No, Liam," I said, pulling my arm free. "I'm not upset about the baby."

I walked up the stairs, feeling his eyes boring into my back.

That night, I lay in bed next to him. He tried to initiate sex. His hand slid presumptuously up my thigh.

"Don't," I said, rolling away. "I have a migraine."

He sighed, frustrated, and rolled over.

Minutes later, his breathing evened out. He was asleep.

I lay there in the dark, staring at the ceiling.

I pulled out my phone under the covers. A message from my private investigator.

*"Photos attached. Liam and Ava entering the penthouse at 432 Park Avenue. His Capos, Tony and Sal, are guarding the door."*

I opened the photos. There they were. And there were his men. The men who had sworn to protect me. They were guarding his infidelity. They were complicit.

The betrayal wasn't just marital. It was systemic. The whole family was rotten.

I got up and went to the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror.

"Two days," I whispered.

In two days, the last tie binding me to Liam Goldstein would be severed. And then, the Phoenix Plan would begin.