Chapter 3

Devastation warred with a cold, hard fury. Ethan' s words, "get over it," echoed in my mind. My father' s stolen heart. His grandchild.

I walked out of that penthouse, a ghost in my own life. The life I had tried to build, the normal life, was a ruin.

There was only one person who could help me navigate the kind of darkness Ethan had just plunged me into. A person I had sworn I would never contact again.

Marc Thorne.

Head of The Thorne Group, a global security and intelligence firm so discreet, most of the world didn't even know it existed. I knew. I had once been associated with it. Leaving had cost me.

The "exit protocol" was brutal. Designed to break you, to ensure you never spoke of what you knew. It left scars, physical and emotional, that still ached on cold nights. I endured it all for Ethan, for the promise of a normal life with him.

What a fool I' d been.

I found a secure, untraceable phone. My fingers, surprisingly steady, dialed a number I thought I had forgotten.

He answered on the second ring. "Sarah."

Just my name, spoken in that deep, calm voice that had once been a lifeline.

"Marc," I said, my own voice raw. "I need your help."

A pause. Then, "Anything. You know that."

"It's Ethan. And Chloe Davis. They... they took my father's heart." I explained, the words tumbling out, stark and ugly.

Silence on his end. Then, "I see." Not surprise. Just a deep, resonant understanding. "What do you want me to do, Sarah?"

"I want revenge," I said, the word tasting like ash and iron. "I want to destroy him. Them."

Another pause. "My offer still stands, Sarah. The one I made before you left."

His marriage proposal. Made years ago, when I was still entangled with his world. An offer of protection, of partnership, of something I hadn't been ready for then.

"You marry me," he said, his voice unwavering. "And I will give you the world on a platter, including Ethan Hayes' s ruin."

"I want to publicly auction the truth," I said, the idea forming, cold and precise. "The truth about his rival' s unborn child – Chloe' s child – and their illicit beginnings. The transplant. Everything. The price for silence? The Hayes family' s entire net worth."

Marc was quiet for a moment. "Bold. I like it. Consider it done. When do you want to set the date?"

"For the wedding?"

"And for the auction," he replied. "They can be one and the same, if you like."

My past was reaching out, offering a new, terrifying future. "Yes," I whispered. "Yes."

The pact was sealed. My normal life was over. A different kind of life was beginning.