Chapter 3 3

The blinding light of the Waldorf Astoria chandelier faded into the muted, suffocating gold of the Romano family's private penthouse suite. The transition from the chaotic ballroom floor to this heavily guarded cage was a blur of shouting Enforcers and Donatella's sharp, unquestionable orders.

Now, the air smelled of expensive cigars and sterile rubbing alcohol. A man with a leather medical bag hovered over me. A needle pierced my arm.

"For the pain," the doctor murmured, his eyes avoiding my mangled hands.

I tried to fight the heavy, dark tide of the morphine, desperate to stay alert in a viper's nest, but my pulverized fingers throbbed with a blinding, white-hot agony. The darkness dragged me under, pulling me straight into hell.

I didn't find peace in sleep. I found the freezing, black waters of the Brooklyn pier.

The iron chains bit into my wrists, suspending me against the rusted bollard. I could taste the copper of my own blood and the caustic, burning iron of the chemicals they had forced down my throat. *Crack.* Leo's heavy leather belt tore open the skin of my back. The surrounding Associates, men I had once bled to protect, spat at my feet.

*"Rat,"* they hissed, their faces twisted in disgust. *"Traitor."*

The freezing wind suddenly morphed into the stifling, mahogany-scented heat of the Falcone dining room. Isabela's perfectly painted lips curved into a sorrowful, maternal smile as she slid the poisoned vintage wine toward me.

Then came the sound. The sound that would echo in my skull until the day I died.

*Crunch.*

The heavy iron pliers in Leo's hands clamped down. The sickening snap of my right index finger. Then the next. Bone and cartilage splintering into jagged shards under the crushing pressure. I screamed, a ragged, silent tear from my ruined vocal cords. I was dying. The foolish girl who just wanted her family's love was bleeding out on the floor, piece by piece.

I violently jerked awake.

My chest heaved, dragging in the quiet air of the bedroom. Cold sweat plastered my hair to my face, soaking the luxurious silk sheets of the Romano guest bed.

I waited for the tears. I waited for the familiar, crushing weight of betrayal and sorrow to suffocate me. But there was nothing. The agonizing fire that had burned in my veins was gone, replaced by an expanse of absolute, freezing ice.

The nightmare hadn't broken me; it had burned away the last pathetic remnants of my weakness. My mistake wasn't that I wasn't strong enough. My mistake was handing my loyalty, my blood, and my hard-won crown to a pack of rabid wolves who didn't deserve it. The Anya who craved a mother's touch and a father's pride had died on that pier. I was a ghost now, tethered to this earth by a single, sacred word: *Vendetta*.

A shadow moved by the bedside. Gia.

My loyal maid's eyes were red-rimmed, her hands trembling as she hovered over me with a damp cloth. She looked into my eyes and suddenly froze. Whatever she saw in my gaze made her breath hitch. She wasn't looking at her broken mistress anymore. She was looking at a monster forged in their fire.

I slowly lifted my heavily bandaged hands, the twisted, useless claws resting against the dark silk. The physical pain was a dull roar beneath the drugs, but my mind had never been sharper.

Donatella Romano had given me a bed, but she hadn't given me a verdict. My family would not sit idle. Marco was a coward, but a cornered coward was dangerous. By morning, he and Isabela would be spinning a web of lies, using their wealth to paint me as a grief-stricken, delusional madwoman to the rest of New York. I couldn't wait for the Commission's slow justice. I had to force their hand.

I looked at Gia, forcing the words through my chemically burned throat. The demonic rasp sounded exactly like the ghost I had become.

"Bring me a black dress, Gia. The simplest mourning gown you can find. We are going to church."