Chapter 1 1

The metal chair was bolted to the floor. Mia Sterling sat on it, her spine not touching the backrest, her hands clasped on the cold steel table. Her knuckles were white, the skin stretched tight over the bone. She focused on the sensation of her own pulse throbbing in her fingertips. It was the only thing proving she was still alive in this gray, airless room at the New York State Department of Corrections.

The heavy door groaned. It was a sound of friction, metal grinding against metal.

The Warden stepped in first, holding a file. He didn't look at her. He looked at the wall, at the floor, anywhere but her eyes.

"Parole denied," he said. The words were flat, rehearsed. "New evidence submitted by the victim's legal team. Sterling Group alleges further financial misconduct."

Mia didn't blink. She didn't scream. She felt a cold knot tighten in her stomach, a physical constriction of her diaphragm, but her face remained a mask of porcelain indifference. She had expected this. Her father, Howard Sterling, didn't leave loose ends. He tied them into nooses.

"However," the Warden said, stepping aside. "You have a visitor."

Howard walked in. The scent of expensive cologne-sandalwood and arrogance-hit Mia before he even sat down. It overpowered the smell of industrial bleach that permeated the prison. He waved a hand, dismissing the Warden.

The door clicked shut. Silence, heavy and suffocating, filled the space between them.

Howard didn't say hello. He tossed a black folder onto the table. It slid across the metal surface and stopped inches from Mia's hands.

A griffin crest was embossed on the leather. The Kensington family seal.

Mia stared at the mythical beast. The Kensingtons were royalty in New York, the kind of old money that made the Sterlings look like street peddlers.

"Sign it," Howard said. He adjusted his silk tie. "You sign, the charges disappear. The parole board reverses the decision. You walk out today."

Mia let out a short, dry laugh. It scraped her throat. "Has the stock price dropped that low, Howard? You're selling me to fix the quarterly report?"

Howard's jaw clenched. A vein pulsed in his temple. He slammed his palm on the table. The sound echoed like a gunshot.

"Don't be ungrateful. Do you know how many women would kill for this? Lucas Kensington is the most eligible bachelor on the East Coast."

"Lucas Kensington," Mia said, her voice dropping to a whisper, "is in a persistent vegetative state. He's been in the ICU for three months. The doctors declared his condition irreversible last week. You aren't selling me a husband. You're selling me as a nursemaid for a corpse so you can access their trust fund liquidity."

Howard leaned back. The anger in his eyes was replaced by something worse. Amusement.

He reached into the inner pocket of his suit jacket. He pulled out a photograph and slid it over the black folder.

Mia's breath hitched. Her heart hammered against her ribs, hard and painful.

The photo was grainy, taken from a distance with a telephoto lens. It showed a toddler in a playground. The face was turned away, but on the back of the child's neck, just above the collar, was a birthmark shaped like a crescent moon.

Her vision blurred. The room tilted.

She lunged across the table, her fingers clawing for the photo.

Howard caught her wrist. His grip was bruising.

"He's dead," Mia hissed, her voice shaking. "You told me he died in the incubator. You showed me the death certificate."

"Paperwork is easy to forge, Mia. You of all people know that." Howard smiled, showing his teeth. "He's alive. He's safe. He's well-fed. But his continued safety depends entirely on your cooperation today."

Mia froze. The fight drained out of her muscles, replaced by a cold, paralyzing dread. She stared into her father's eyes and saw the truth. He wasn't bluffing.

Her mind raced. As "The Saint," the underground surgeon who had patched up cartel leaders and shadow brokers, she could break out of here. She could disappear. But if she ran, she would never find the location of the child. She needed a legal identity. She needed resources. She needed to be inside the circle of power to track the money trail that paid for the boy's care.

She pulled her hand back. She sat down. She forced her lungs to expand, inhaling the stale air.

"Where is the pen?" she asked.

Howard produced a Montblanc fountain pen. He uncapped it and set it down.

Mia opened the folder. She didn't read the clauses about the prenup, the debt transfer, or the fact that she would be penniless if Lucas died. She didn't care.

She pressed the nib to the paper. The ink flowed black and permanent. She signed Mia Sterling. The tip of the pen tore through the paper on the last loop of the 'g'.

"Good girl," Howard said. He took the folder and the photo.

"The photo stays," Mia said.

Howard paused, then shrugged. He tossed the photo back to her. "The car is outside."

Mia took the photo. Her fingers trembled as she touched the image of the birthmark. She tucked it into her sleeve, feeling the sharp edge against her skin.

Thirty minutes later, she walked out of the heavy steel gates. The sun was blinding.

A black Rolls-Royce Phantom was waiting. It wasn't her father's car. It bore the Kensington crest.

The window rolled down. An elderly man with a face like carved granite looked at her.

"Get in," the butler said. He didn't open the door for her.

Mia climbed into the back seat. The door locked automatically. The air conditioning was freezing.

As the car pulled away, heading toward the Hamptons, Mia closed her eyes. She wasn't thinking about the wedding. She was visualizing the anatomy of the cervical spine. She was pulling up the hacked medical files of Lucas Kensington in her mind.

Her hand drifted to the hem of her sleeve. Hidden within the double-stitched fabric, she felt the reassuring hardness of six thin, sharpened silver wires she had painstakingly fashioned from a stolen coil in the prison workshop over the last six months. They were crude compared to her surgical tools, but they would have to suffice.

She wasn't going to a marriage. She was going to war.

As the privacy partition slid up, blocking the driver's view, Mia didn't waste a second. She stripped off the prison-issue sweats. On the seat beside her lay a white dress box Howard had clearly arranged. She pulled out the white silk dress. It was simple, elegant, and felt like a costume. She pulled it on, the silk cool against her skin, zipping it with efficient, steady hands. She smoothed her hair, checking her reflection in the dark window. The convict was gone. The trophy wife remained.