Chapter 2

Harlow POV

The air in the foyer was thick, suffocating, charged with the copper tang of my own blood and the cloying, expensive perfume Brittaney bathed in.

Kaden Barnes towered over me like a vengeful god.

He did not just radiate power; he consumed the space around him with a lethal aura that made grown men question their own survival.

"Why?" he demanded.

One word.

Loaded with accusation.

"She..." I tried to speak, but my throat was lined with sandpaper. "She pushed me. The dog... it bit me."

"Liar!" Brittaney sobbed into Kaden's chest, clutching the growling beast as if it were a victim.

"She kicked Princess! She's jealous, Kaden! Look at her! She's crazy!"

Kaden looked down at me.

He really looked at me.

His gaze snagged on the crimson stain spreading across the back of my dress, the way the silk clung explicitly to the raw flesh.

For a second, just a heartbeat, his brows knit together.

Something flickered in his eyes.

Confusion?

Concern?

Whatever it was, Brittaney extinguished it with a fresh, piercing wail.

"She tried to hurt my baby!"

Kaden's face hardened into a mask of stone.

"Why would you attack a helpless animal, Harlow?"

His voice was cold. Detached.

I stared at him, disbelief numbing the searing pain in my back.

"Look at my leg," I whispered.

Blood was trickling down my ankle where the dog's teeth had punctured the skin, pooling on the marble floor.

Kaden glanced at it, then back at Brittaney's tear-streaked face.

It didn't matter.

Facts didn't matter.

Only she mattered.

"Apologize," Kaden said.

I blinked, sure I had misheard.

"What?"

"Apologize to Brittaney," he commanded. "And to the dog."

The humiliation hit me harder than the floor had.

I was the daughter of a soldier.

I was the woman who had run his empire's legitimate front for five years.

And he wanted me to bow to a mistress and a pet.

I tried to push myself up, my arms shaking violently under the strain.

"No."

The word hung in the air, fragile but absolute.

Kaden's eyes narrowed.

He wasn't used to no.

Especially not from me.

"I am the Don," he said softly, a threat wrapped in silk.

"And I am giving you an order."

I finally managed to stand, swaying on my feet.

I looked him dead in the eye.

"Am I the mistress of this house, Kaden? Or is she?"

My voice gained strength, fueled by adrenaline. "Because if I am your wife, even a fake one, you do not order me to bow to a whore."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Brittaney gasped.

Kaden's jaw clenched, a muscle feathering in his cheek.

He took a step toward me, looming over my broken form.

"You are whatever I say you are," he hissed.

"And right now, you are an embarrassment."

He snapped his fingers.

Two guards materialized from the shadows.

"Take her to the courtyard," Kaden ordered, not breaking eye contact with me.

"She stays on her knees until she learns how to speak with respect."

"Kaden, please," I whispered, the fight draining out of me. "My back..."

He turned away.

He turned his back on me to comfort the woman who was laughing behind her hand.

The guards grabbed my arms.

Pain exploded across my shoulders as they dragged me backward.

"You are a man without honor, Kaden Barnes!" I screamed, the words tearing raw from my throat.

He didn't flinch.

He didn't look back.

He just walked Brittaney into the drawing room and closed the door.

I was dragged out into the cold night air.

The gravel dug into my knees.

The wind whipped against my open wounds.

I didn't apologize.

I knelt there as the moon rose and fell.

I knelt there as the fever began to burn through my veins.

I told myself one thing, over and over again, like a prayer.

Just a little longer.

Just survive this.

And when I do... I will burn this kingdom to the ground.