The Abandoned Husband in the Manor

The grand hall blazed with light. Blackwood Manor was hosting a lavish celebration.

I stood beneath the shadow of a crystal chandelier in a cheap black uniform, a silver tray full of champagne in my hands.

“A toast! To the Blackwood Consortium taking back control of the East District Port!”

At the center of the crowd, my wife, Elena Blackwood, raised her glass. Pride and arrogance were written all over her face.

She was wearing a custom evening gown, her arm wrapped tightly around the man beside her—

Victor Sterling, the family’s chief security adviser.

“This is all thanks to Victor.”

Elena raised her voice so every executive and socialite in the room could hear her. There was no hiding the admiration in her eyes. “If he hadn’t handled the port riots by himself and secured the new security contract, Blackwood would’ve been pushed out of the game.”

Thunderous applause broke out. Victor lowered his head with fake humility, a smug smile still hanging at the corner of his mouth.

I watched in silence, my fingers tightening around the tray.

The riots at East District Port?

That had nothing to do with business competition. It was a probing move by the Moretti mafia family, testing the waters before swallowing the underground shipping routes whole.

And Victor’s so-called “single-handed victory” was nothing more than him piggybacking off part of the Aegis Circle security network I had built three years ago.

What put me on alert even more was this—

In the middle of soaking up the applause, Victor looked past the crowd and exchanged a quick glance with a bald man standing in the corner.

There was a black scorpion tattooed on the back of the man’s right hand.

That mark belonged to a senior cleaner from the Moretti family.

I understood everything in an instant.

This celebration was just cover.

Victor hadn’t driven the mafia back. He’d sold the port’s underground control to the Morettis in exchange for his new hero status and the Blackwood family’s trust.

“Ares, what are you standing there for? The guests’ glasses are empty.”

Elena’s cold voice cut through my thoughts.

She walked up to me in high heels, looking at me like I was spoiled trash.

As her husband in name only, my only value in this manor was being a driver and waiter whenever she snapped her fingers.

“Put the tray down.”

Elena pulled a document from her Hermès purse and slapped it against my chest. “Sign it. Next month is my engagement ceremony with Victor. I’m not letting the outside world see that the heir to the Blackwood Consortium still has a useless kept-man ex-husband on her record.”

It was a divorce agreement, with a waiver giving up all claims to any property settlement.

I didn’t take it. I let it fall to the floor and looked at her calmly. “The three-year judicial confidentiality period isn’t over yet. You can’t even wait two more months?”

“Confidentiality period? Are you sick in the head?” Elena let out a mocking laugh, loud enough for several consortium executives nearby to hear. “You’re just a broke ex-soldier who couldn’t find work after retirement. Stop feeding me those shady little mystery-code stories every day. If Victor hadn’t been protecting you, you’d already be dead in the street.”

Victor walked over with a drink in hand and gave my shoulder a fake-friendly pat. “Ares, don’t make this harder for Elena. I know money’s tight for you lately. If you sign without making a scene, I can personally sponsor you a little cash. Enough to cover that sickly little girl’s hospital bills.”

The moment he said that, my eyes went cold.

Lily was my daughter.

She was my fallen brother’s orphan, only five years old, with a severe blood disorder.

Three years ago, to cooperate with a federal purge of an international arms network—and to keep the surviving players from retaliating against her—I had no choice but to fake my death, bury my name, and marry into the Blackwood family. I lived on scraps just to keep her in specialized treatment.

“Don’t mention Lily.”

I looked straight at Victor, my voice low and flat, carrying a warning he couldn’t mistake.

“Why not?” Elena frowned in disgust. “Ares, I’m sick of watching you waste money and time on that burden you’re not even related to. If I didn’t need people to think I cared about charity, why would I ever agree to adopt her? That girl, Lily, is a bottomless pit. She doesn’t deserve a single Blackwood resource. Sign the papers, take that little baggage with you, and get out of my life for good.”

A ripple of muffled laughter spread through the room.

To these people, I was a parasite clinging to a wealthy family while dragging around a sick child.

I buried the killing intent in my eyes.

If I hadn’t been waiting for the federal evidence chain to fully lock into place, if I hadn’t been protecting Lily from fallout, Victor and that Moretti cleaner would already be two bodies on the floor.

Then the old phone in my pocket started vibrating with a harsh, urgent buzz.

It was the emergency line I had left with the special care unit at St. Jude Medical Center. It only rang when things had gone very, very wrong.

Ignoring Elena’s murderous glare, I pulled it out and answered at once.

“Mr. Vance!” a nurse screamed on the other end. I could hear the shrill alarm of medical equipment in the background. “Lily’s heart just stopped! We’re trying to revive her, but a group of men in black suits just showed up outside. They sealed off the ward floor and cut off access to the backup blood supply!”

“Keep her vital signs stable. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

I hung up.

The fury inside my chest ripped apart three years of restraint in a single second.

The Moretti family had made their move.

They hadn’t just taken the port. They were cleaning up the one “former employee” who might still know what really happened back then.

And Elena and Victor were giving those killers perfect cover.

“Ares! Who said you could answer a phone during my party?” Elena shrieked, pointing at the document on the floor. “Sign it, then get out!”

I looked at her, and there wasn’t a trace of that practiced softness left in my eyes.

I slammed the tray onto the long table beside me. The champagne tower crashed down in an explosion of glass, and the whole hall went silent.

“As you wish, Elena. Whatever exists between us ends here.”

I turned and strode toward the manor doors.

Victor’s face darkened. He flicked a glance at the two security men by the entrance.

The two hulking guards, both well over six feet tall, moved at once and reached for my shoulders.

“Stop right there. Did Elena say you could leave?”

I didn’t break stride. I caught the left guard’s wrist with my backhand and twisted down hard.

Crack.

The snap of bone rang clear through the hall.

The other guard yanked out his baton. Before he could swing, I drove a front kick straight into his knee. He dropped with a scream.

The whole exchange took less than two seconds.

Every laugh at the party died on the spot. Everyone stared at the two elite guards on the floor like they were seeing me for the first time.

The driver who had spent years swallowing insults inside this manor.

I shoved open the manor’s heavy oak doors. Cold night wind and rain rushed into the glittering hall.

“Ares! If you walk out that door, don’t ever expect another cent from the Blackwoods! You’ll die in the street!” Elena screamed behind me.

I didn’t look back. I stepped straight into the rain.

To hell with the confidentiality period.

If they wanted to use Lily as a piece to be cleared off the board, then I’d make the entire East Coast underground remember what it meant to live in fear of Aegis Circle.