Chapter 2 2

Isabella POV

The heavy splash of water was the sweetest sound I had ever heard.

Hudson crashed into the freezing, murky depths of the fountain, his arms flailing wildly as the icy water swallowed his tailored suit. He gasped, choking on the very water that had stolen my Josie's final breath. I stood over him, my chest heaving, the biting winter wind whipping my tear-stained face.

As I watched him thrash, the final piece of the puzzle locked into place. The memory of Don Damien Falcone's deep, rumbling voice echoed in the hollows of my mind: *"Your husband is a man who knows how to close a deal."*

Hudson hadn't just failed to protect me. He had sold me. He had traded my body and my dignity to the Devil of Chicago for a pathetic scrap of power, and then allowed his family to destroy me for it.

A scorching, blinding *Vendetta* (revenge) ignited in my veins, burning away the last remnants of the naive, obedient wife I had once been. "I swear it," I whispered to the cold wind, my eyes fixed on the struggling man below. "I will make you all bleed."

Suddenly, a violent tearing sensation ripped through my chest. The world didn't fade to black; it exploded into a searing, absolute white. The sound of splashing water vanished, replaced by a high-pitched ringing that shattered my senses. I felt my soul being pulled backward through time, burning and reforming in the void.

Then, the freezing wind was gone.

I gasped, my eyes snapping open. The suffocating heat of a roaring fireplace washed over me, mingling with the heavy, expensive scent of aged whiskey and Cuban cigars. I blinked against the dim lighting, my hands instinctively gripping the edge of a cold glass pane.

I wasn't in the Higgins' garden. I was standing before a massive floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, the glittering skyline of 1928 Chicago sprawled like a diamond-studded blanket.

My breath hitched. I looked down at my hands. They were no longer scraped and bleeding from the stone fountain. They were perfectly manicured, trembling slightly against the smooth silk of a midnight-blue evening gown.

1928.

The realization hit me with the force of a physical blow. This was the night. The exact winter night Hudson Higgins, a lowly Associate desperate for a seat at the table, had brought me to the Falcone family's private club. The night my nightmare had begun.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. The air in the room shifted, growing heavy and charged with a dangerous, suffocating gravity. I didn't need to turn around to know who had entered the penthouse.

Don Damien Falcone.

He was the undisputed king of the Chicago underworld, a man whose cruelty was as legendary as his ancient Sicilian bloodline. At thirty-two, he ruled the *Cosa Nostra* (Our Thing) with an iron fist and a heart of ice. He was a predator wrapped in bespoke Italian suits, a man who took whatever he wanted without asking. And tonight, Hudson had offered him me.

He moved with the silent, lethal grace of a wolf. I felt the radiating heat of his massive frame behind me before he even touched me. Then, his large, calloused hand settled on my bare shoulder.

A jolt of pure terror-a phantom memory of the degradation and helplessness I had suffered in my past life-shot down my spine. My body instinctively wanted to recoil, to run from the dark aura that threatened to consume me.

"Cold, Isabella?"

His voice was a deep, dark rumble, vibrating against my skin. It was the voice that had haunted my memories, laced with a possessive edge that demanded absolute submission.

In my past life, I had flinched. I had cried. I had been a broken bird trapped in his gilded cage. But the woman standing here now was a mother who had held her dead child. The sorrow was gone, replaced by a hardened core of pure ice.

I forced my muscles to relax. I swallowed the bile rising in my throat and leaned back, just a fraction, into his solid chest.

Damien Falcone was a monster, yes. But he was the most powerful monster in the city. If Hudson wanted to use me to climb the ranks, I would use the Don's dark, twisted obsession with me to burn the Higgins family to the ground. Damien would be my shield, my weapon, my executioner.

I turned my head slightly, meeting his pitch-black, predatory eyes in the reflection of the glass.

"Just a chill, Don Falcone," I murmured softly, keeping my voice perfectly steady, playing the fragile prize he believed he had just acquired.

I knew Hudson was waiting downstairs right now, practically salivating over his new connection. Tomorrow, my treacherous husband would undoubtedly want to celebrate his sickening triumph, to parade me around and play the doting partner to ensure my continued compliance.

Let him try. I would smile through his deceit, playing the perfectly tamed wife, while I carefully wove the noose that would eventually snap his neck.