Chapter 4

Josie's POV

The treatment was brutal. Shattered bones had to be reset. Dead tissue had to be cut away piece by piece.

Every time they changed my dressings, I broke into a cold sweat and bit down on my lip, anything to keep from screaming.

And Leon, a man who didn't so much as flinch under gunfire, went red-eyed every time he saw me bleed. He'd grip my arm and let me bite down on his shoulder to get through it.

"Scream if it hurts, Josie. You don't have to be strong in front of me." He said it every time, gentle as anything.

I never understood why he did any of it for me. We barely knew each other.

Eventually I pushed him for the truth, and he told me.

Years back, he'd gotten badly hurt on a job in the South Bronx. A little girl gave him bread and water and saved his life.

That little girl was me.

He'd spent years looking for me, and by the time he finally found out where I was, I was already half dead at his own brother's hands.

Funny how fate works. Both Caster men owed me their lives, and one of them treated me like something precious while the other tortured me half to death.

Under Leon's care, no expense spared, my hands healed almost like magic. Not a single scar.

When they finally took the bandages off my face, even the specialists in the room gasped. The skin the acid had eaten through had come back smooth, unmarked, even softer and paler than before. My whole body had filled back out, healthy again.

Leon looked at me like he couldn't tear his eyes away.

A few months later, I found out I was pregnant.

When Leon heard, he lit up like a kid and picked me up, spinning me around the living room.

"I'm going to be a dad! Josie, we're having a baby!"

Watching him smile like that, my hand on my stomach, warmth spread through me like nothing I'd felt before.

He had a necklace made just for me, one of a kind, nowhere else in the world. As he stood behind me and fastened it around my neck, he said, "Tomorrow night is the Casters' family dinner. My brother sent an invitation. Josie, if you don't want to go, I'll turn it down. I don't want you seeing any of them again."

I wasn't the old Josie anymore, the one people could push around. For my baby, for Leon, I was going to cut the past off for good.

"You can run from it today, but it always catches up with you." I looked back at Leon as he finished fastening the necklace, my voice calm and sure. "I'm your wife. I should be standing next to you with my head up. Besides, it's time some debts got paid."

Leon kissed my hair, his eyes full of love. "Okay. I'll be right there with you."

When Leon walked me into the gold ballroom of the Caster family estate, hand in hand, the noise in the room dropped to nothing.

Every eye in the place landed on us. Victor sat at the head of the table, Sabrina still pressed against him.

The second Sabrina saw Leon, something ugly flashed behind her eyes. She raised her voice, sickly sweet. "Leon, why did you bring your crippled wife tonight? This is a family dinner. She's the kind who steals what isn't hers, and now she's hiding under that heavy veil. Guess her face is bad enough it might scare the elders."

Laughter rippled through the room.

Victor frowned too, his eyes cold on Leon. "Leon, that's enough. Take her out of here. She doesn't belong at this table."

"And if I don't?" Leon pulled me behind him, his eyes gone hard.

Right as the two brothers looked ready to draw on each other, I gave Leon's hand a light pat and let go, stepping forward slowly.

In front of everyone, I reached up and pulled the black veil off my head.

Under the light of the ballroom, there was no scar, nothing ruined. Just my face, striking and cold and proud.

A gasp swept through the room.

And Victor, sitting at the head of the table, went completely still the moment he saw my face.

A second later he shot to his feet, his voice shaking. "You..."