Chapter 5

Harlow POV

Brittaney's nails dug into the tender flesh of my upper arm, sharp crescents biting through the long satin sleeve of my gown.

"Move it, Duchess," she hissed.

I stumbled, barely catching myself on the limousine's doorframe.

My body was a wreck, a fragile architecture held together by high-dose painkillers and sheer, stubborn willpower.

Inside the car, the air was suffocating, thick with the scent of leather and Brittaney's cloying perfume.

She draped herself over Kaden like a cheap fur coat, giggling incessantly and whispering wetly into his ear.

I sat on the opposite seat, staring out the darkened window, invisible.

A ghost haunting my own life.

We arrived at the Private Club, the beating heart of the city's underworld.

The music was already thumping, a heavy, rhythmic bass that vibrated painfully against my bruised ribs.

The atmosphere shifted the moment we entered. Heads turned.

The Don. The Mistress. And the Wife.

The whispers started immediately, a sibilant hiss underneath the music.

"Look at her dress," someone murmured nearby. "It's last season's."

"I heard she's sleeping in the guest wing."

"Brittaney is the real mistress of the house now."

I kept my chin up, staring straight ahead.

The Ice Queen mask was cracked, hairline fractures running through the porcelain, but it hadn't shattered yet.

Kaden led us to the VIP section, holding court like a king on his throne.

Politicians, mobsters, corrupt judges-they all came to kiss the ring.

I stood slightly behind him, a shadow, my gloved hands clasped tight to hide the bandages beneath.

Brittaney was preening, drinking champagne too fast, her laughter shrill and too loud for the room.

Then, the music stopped.

A sudden, jarring silence fell over the crowd.

I looked up.

From the mezzanine balcony, a shower of white paper began to fall.

Like snow.

Hundreds of photographs, drifting lazily down onto the dance floor.

A man standing next to me caught one as it fluttered past.

He looked at it.

Then, slowly, he looked at me.

His eyes widened in shock.

I snatched the photo from his hand.

It was a nude.

Grainy, taken in a bedroom I recognized instantly.

It was the Master Bedroom of the Barnes estate.

But the woman...

The woman was on her knees, wearing a leather collar.

Her face was turned away, obscuring her identity, but the hair was blonde. Platinum blonde.

Like mine.

And like Brittaney's.

My heart hammered violently against my injured ribs.

Brittaney went pale, the champagne glass trembling in her hand. She grabbed Kaden's arm.

"Kaden," she squeaked, terror choking her voice.

Kaden snatched a photo out of the air.

He stared at it.

His face went blank. Deadly calm.

He pulled his gun and fired a single shot into the ceiling.

The room went deathly silent.

"Who did this?" he asked, his voice low but carrying to every dark corner of the room.

No one moved.

He looked at the photo again.

He recognized the body.

He knew every inch of Brittaney.

He knew it was her.

Then, slowly, he looked at me.

He looked at the crowd, watching, waiting for the Don to react to his house being exposed.

I saw the calculation in his eyes. If he admitted it was his mistress, he looked weak. A man who let his side-piece get compromised.

But if it was his wife...

If it was his wife, she was just a whore. And he was the victim.

"Explain this, Harlow," he said, thrusting the photo into my face.

I recoiled as if he had struck me.

"That's not me," I whispered, my voice trembling. "You know that's not me."

Kaden smiled.

It was a shark's smile-cold, predatory, void of humanity.

"The Mistress of the House seems to have forgotten her dignity," he announced to the room, his voice ringing with mock disappointment.

A gasp rippled through the crowd.

He was confirming it.

He was branding me.

"Whore," someone whispered.

"Disgusting," another spat.

Kaden grabbed my arm, his grip bruising.

"We're leaving."

He dragged me through the crowd, forcing me to walk the gauntlet.

I could feel their eyes. Their judgment peeling the skin from my bones.

The shame burned hotter than the lashes on my back.

He threw me into the car.

Brittaney scrambled in after us, sobbing hysterically.

"Oh god, Kaden, my career! If anyone finds out it's me..."

"Shut up," he snapped.

He looked at me.

I sat there, frozen, tears streaming silently down my face.

"Why?" I asked, my voice barely a croak.

"Why did you do that?"

He lit a cigarette, his hand perfectly steady.

"Better you than her, Harlow."

The words hit me like a physical blow to the chest.

Better me.

I stared at him, trying to comprehend the depth of the betrayal.

"You destroyed my reputation. My dignity. To save a stripper's vanity?"

"She is fragile," he said coldly, exhaling smoke. "You are strong. You can take it."

I laughed.

It was a broken, jagged sound, scraping my throat.

I laughed until I couldn't breathe, until the edges of my vision blurred.

"You think I'm strong?" I choked out.

"I'm not strong, Kaden. I'm just broken."

He looked away, staring out the window at the passing city lights.

"I would sacrifice anyone for her," he said softly. "Even you."

The car braked hard.

We were home.

I opened the door.

I didn't wait for him.

I walked into the house, my footsteps echoing in the foyer.

I didn't go to my room.

I went straight to the guest bathroom.

I looked at myself in the mirror.

The Ice Queen was gone.

There was only a woman with dead eyes staring back.

I peeled off the gloves.

My fingernails were black and blue.

I unzipped the dress and let it pool on the floor.

My back was a map of scars.

I realized then that hope was the enemy.

Hope was the thing that kept me staying.

Hope that he would see me.

Hope that he would care.

But he had just told me the truth.

I was a sacrifice.

And the altar was ready.

I sat on the cold tile floor and waited for the silence to kill me.

But it didn't.

Instead, a new feeling began to grow in the hollow space where my heart used to be.

Cold.

Hard.

Indifference.

I didn't hate him anymore.

Hate requires passion.

I felt nothing.

And for the first time in five years, I was free.