Chapter 3

Olivia POV

I slammed the bedroom door shut, locked it, and collapsed against the wood.

The sound of my own sobbing was pathetic, a raw, animalistic keening that seemed to come from someone else. I hated it. I hated him.

Blind with rage, I grabbed a heavy crystal perfume bottle from the vanity and hurled it at the mirror.

The glass exploded on impact. Shards flew everywhere, reflecting a fractured, distorted image of a woman in a ruined dress. A woman I didn't recognize.

I sank to the floor, surrounded by glittering debris, burying my face in my hands.

The door handle rattled. Then, the distinct click of a key turning in the lock.

My mother walked in.

She didn't rush to hug me. She didn't coo or offer soft platitudes. She closed the door quietly and locked it behind her. She stepped over the broken glass in her heels, her face a mask of terrifying calm.

"Get up, Olivia," she said.

I looked up at her, tears streaming down my face. "He chose her, Mom. He humiliated me."

"I know," she said, her voice devoid of pity. "Get up."

I struggled to my feet, my legs trembling.

She walked over to me and slapped me. Hard.

My head snapped to the side from the force of the blow. The shock stopped my tears instantly, silencing the room.

"We do not cry over men who do not respect us," she said, her voice like steel. "Tears are for the weak. You are a Hayes."

She grabbed a towel from the bathroom and began to scrub the wine from my chest.

"He thinks he can shame you? He thinks he can bring his whore into our house and dismiss you?"

She threw the towel down onto the shattered glass.

"He has forgotten who gave him his crown."

She pulled out her phone. She dialed a number without looking.

"Jennings. Bring Ms. Albright to the study. And get Arthur Cole on the secure line. Tell him we have information regarding his niece's conduct that violates the Code."

She hung up and looked at me, her eyes cold and calculating.

"Tonight, Michael Thorne loses everything."

"How?" I whispered.

"Money," she said. "And reputation."

She led me to the closet and pulled out a simple black dress. "Put this on. We are going to the study."

An hour later, I sat in a high-backed leather chair, watching my parents dismantle my husband's life.

Ms. Albright, the family attorney, was typing furiously on a laptop, the clicks sounding like gunfire in the quiet room.

"We have triggered the claw-back clauses in the joint ventures," she said, not looking up. "The capital from the construction projects in the South Side is being withdrawn as we speak. His liquidity is gone. The banks will call his loans by morning."

"Good," my father said. He was smoking a cigar, looking out the window at the skyline he owned.

Jennings entered quietly. "The Commission has been notified. The disrespect shown to a made man's daughter at a sanctioned event is grounds for... re-evaluation. The New York families are distancing themselves from him. They don't want a war with Chicago."

My mother looked at me, a grim satisfaction on her lips.

"He is being sent to Los Angeles," she said. "Your father has arranged a 'diplomatic mission'. He leaves tonight. He thinks he is going to smooth things over."

"He's leaving?" I asked.

"He is being exiled," she corrected. "He just doesn't know it yet. When he lands, he will find his accounts frozen, his allies gone, and his phone silent."

"But that's not enough," I said.

The words came out of me before I realized I was thinking them. The pain in my chest demanded blood.

My parents looked at me, surprised by the venom in my voice.

"He broke my heart," I said, my voice steadying. "I want to break his soul."

My mother smiled. It was a dark, dangerous smile.

"What do you propose?"

I looked down at my stomach. I thought about the baby. The innocent life that was now tied to a traitor. I would protect this child. I would raise him. But Michael... Michael could never know.

"Tell him... tell him I lost the baby," I said.

The room went dead silent.

My father turned around slowly. "You are pregnant?"

I nodded. "Three months."

My mother's eyes softened for a fraction of a second, then hardened again into diamond.

"You want to tell him the stress of tonight caused a miscarriage?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "Tell him he killed his heir. Tell him his whore destroyed his legacy."

My father looked at me with a new respect, seeing the Hayes blood finally rise to the surface.

"That is cruel," he said.

"It is justice," I replied.

My mother walked over and took my hand, squeezing it tightly.

"You are not a canary," she whispered. "You are the Queen."

She turned to Jennings.

"Send the message to Richard, Michael's second-in-command. Tell him Mrs. Thorne has suffered a medical emergency due to distress. Tell him... there is no heartbeat."

I watched Jennings leave to deliver the killing blow.

I felt a strange emptiness settle over me. I had just declared my husband dead to me. I had just stolen his child.

But as I looked out the window at the dark city, I didn't feel fear anymore.

I felt power.