Chapter 1

I stood alone at the center of my art gallery opening, clutching a glass of warm champagne, while the guests whispered behind their hands.

My husband, the Capo of the Chicago Outfit, wasn't there.

A breaking news alert on my phone explained why.

It was a high-definition photo of Dante shielding his mistress, Isabella, from the rain. He was touching her with a protective possessiveness he had never once shown me.

Then came his text:

"Isabella needed me. Go home."

That was the moment the cage door unlocked. I didn't go home to cry. I went to his office the next morning with a stack of papers disguised as "gallery insurance forms."

While Isabella sat on his desk, mocking me for being a boring housewife, Dante was too annoyed to read the fine print.

He just wanted me gone so he could get back to her.

He signed the divorce decree.

He signed the asset dissolution.

Most importantly, without looking, he signed the irrevocable relinquishment of parental rights.

I walked out with my freedom, but fate had a cruel sense of humor. That night, I stared at a positive pregnancy test.

I was carrying the Sovrano heir he had always demanded.

And he had just legally signed away his right to ever know his child.

I fled to the Swiss Alps, vanishing into the snow to raise my baby away from his world of blood and bullets.

I thought I was safe, until six months later.

Dante hadn't just sent men to look for me.

He had burned his own shipping empire to the ground, destroying his status as King, just to prove he would trade it all for the wife he threw away.

Chapter 1

Elara Sovrano POV:

I was standing in the center of my greatest achievement, clutching a glass of champagne that had turned to vinegar in my mouth, when my phone buzzed with the notification that ended my marriage.

It was a breaking news alert from the Chicago Tribune.

"Sovrano and Romano Families Unite: A Stormy Alliance."

The photo below the headline was brutally high definition. It showed my husband, Dante Sovrano, the Capo dei Capi of the Chicago Outfit. He looked lethal, devastatingly handsome in his charcoal suit, rain slicking his dark hair back from a face that could stop a heart or a bullet.

But he wasn't alone.

His massive hand was pressed protectively against the small of Isabella Romano's back, shielding her from the downpour as they ducked into a black SUV. The body language was undeniable. They looked like a power couple. They looked like royalty.

They looked like they belonged together.

I looked up from the screen, my heart hammering a frantic rhythm against my ribs. I was surrounded by white walls adorned with the paintings I had poured my soul into for the last four years. This gallery opening was supposed to be my night. The one night I wasn't just "Mrs. Sovrano," the trophy wife kept in a gilded cage.

But he wasn't here.

He was across town, playing the hero for a woman who carried a gun in her purse and knew the taste of blood just as well as he did.

"Elara?"

I turned. Julian, the gallery owner, was watching me. His eyes held that look I had grown to hate more than Dante's indifference.

Pity.

"He's not coming, is he?" Julian asked softly, wincing slightly as he said it.

I forced a smile. It felt brittle, like fine china about to shatter.

"Emergency board meeting," I lied, the excuse tasting like bile. "You know how it is. The merger with the Romano shipping lines is... complex."

"Elara," Julian whispered, stepping closer, invading my personal space with his sympathy. "The news is playing in the lobby. Everyone knows."

My smile shattered.

I looked around the room. The whispers stopped as soon as my gaze swept over the crowd. The wives of the minor Capos, the art critics, the socialites-they were all looking at me. They weren't looking at my art. They were looking at the woman whose husband couldn't be bothered to show up for her life's work because he was too busy with his "associate."

I felt the familiar sting of tears, but I swallowed them down. I had cried enough tears in the lonely silence of the penthouse to fill Lake Michigan.

My phone buzzed again. A text from Dante.

Business ran late. Isabella needed me to smooth over a negotiation. Go home. Driver is waiting.

Isabella needed him.

Go home.

Like a dog. Like a piece of furniture to be dusted and covered until he decided to use it.

Something inside my chest, a tight knot that had been winding tighter for four years, suddenly snapped. It wasn't a loud break. It was quiet. It was the sound of a heavy steel door locking shut.

I looked at the photo again. Dante's hand on her back. Possessive. Protective.

He had never touched me like that. With me, his touch was either absent or demanding. I was an asset he had acquired to secure territory. I was a womb waiting to be filled with an heir. I was nothing.

"Are you okay?" Julian asked, reaching for my arm.

I pulled back sharply. The coldness that washed over me wasn't fear. It was clarity.

"I'm fine, Julian," I said, my voice unnervingly steady. "Actually, I'm better than fine."

I walked past him, out the glass doors, and into the cool Chicago night. The air smelled of rain and exhaust.

I didn't go to the waiting town car. I walked around the corner into the shadows and dialed a number I had memorized months ago but never had the courage to call.

"Mark," I said when the line connected.

"Mrs. Sovrano?" The lawyer sounded surprised. "Is everything alright?"

"No," I said, watching the rain hit the pavement. "Draft the papers. The divorce. The relinquishment of rights. Everything we talked about."

"Are you sure? If Dante finds out before-"

"He won't," I cut him off. "He thinks I'm a vapid artist who paints pretty flowers. He thinks I'm furniture."

I looked back at the gallery, at the life I had tried to build within the walls of my prison.

"I'm going to use his arrogance to bury him, Mark. Have the papers ready in the morning."

I hung up. My hands weren't shaking.

For the first time in four years, I wasn't the Caged Canary.

I was the one holding the key.