Chapter 2
Sylvia stared at her. Said nothing.
This was Maggie's younger sister — Renee Barnett.
Even before the incident with Maggie, Renee had despised her. She'd constantly poisoned Damien's mind against Sylvia, framing her for things she never did, stoking his anger at every turn.
Of all the people to run into the moment she escaped. Of course it would be her.
Before Sylvia could figure out what to say, recognition flickered across Renee's face. A strange, cruel smile curled at the corner of her lips. "Oh — did you break out just to see your dead son?"
Sylvia's nerves jolted. The words flew out before she could stop them. "You're lying. Milo isn't dead!"
Renee crossed her arms. "Dead or not, go find out for yourself."
"Oh!" She feigned sudden recollection, leaning close, her voice dropping to a silky murmur. "Since you're already out, don't forget to stop by the Orsini Manor. You should put up some headstones while you're at it."
"After all, Damien destroyed the entire Orsini family to avenge Maggie. Your father is dead. Your brother vanished without a trace. And your grandfather — that stubborn old man — I hear no one was around to take care of him. Died alone in the house…"
Every nerve in Sylvia's mind stretched tighter. Tighter. Nearly snapping.
"That's impossible! You're lying!" She lunged at Renee, fingers clawing toward that smug, vile face.
Renee dodged with practiced ease, spinning around to shout behind her. "Over here! Sylvia's over here! Someone come quick!"
Frantic footsteps pounded toward them.
Sylvia gritted her teeth and ran.
Once clear of the hospital, she borrowed a phone from a passerby and dialed her brother, Clyde Orsini.
A recorded message: the number was no longer in service.
Her heart hammered. She rushed to Clyde's workplace, grabbing anyone she could find, demanding answers.
"Clyde? He disappeared ages ago."
"No idea where he went. Something happened, I think."
"After everything went down with the Orsini family, he just… never showed up again."
The answers were all the same. Sylvia felt herself crumbling from the inside out.
She forced herself to hold it together and made her way back to the Orsini Manor.
The estate that had once radiated wealth and prestige now stood in decay. Desolate. Crumbling. Sylvia burst through the door, screaming. "Grandpa! Grandpa, where are you?!"
Only her own echo answered.
She stumbled back outside and spotted the old groundskeeper passing by on the road.
"Sir — please — do you know where my grandfather is? Where did he go?" Her voice cracked, barely holding together.
The old man's face fell with pity. "Ms. Orsini, where have you been all this time? These past few years — your father dead, your brother missing — it broke your grandfather's health completely. Two weeks ago, they found him dead inside the house. But there was no one to arrange a proper burial, so they…" He paused. "They sent the body to the dump."
A deafening buzz filled Sylvia's skull. Her vision went black.
How? How could this have happened?
Tears poured down her face in heavy, uncontrollable streams.
It was her fault. All her fault.
If she hadn't insisted on provoking Damien, none of this would have happened to her family.
If only — if only she'd agreed to the divorce the moment Maggie returned. Let them have their childhood sweetheart reunion. Instead, she'd clung to her marriage with white-knuckled desperation, refusing to let go.
Sylvia's knees hit the ground. She faced the manor and whispered, "Grandpa. Dad. I will avenge you."
She dragged herself upright and drifted away like a ghost.
The Nguyen Villa.
Damien had just wrapped up an international conference call. He sat reclined in his chair, eyes closed, resting.
The study door swung open. He opened his eyes in irritation — then froze.
Sylvia? How was she here?
A dangerous storm gathered around him. "How did you get out? And didn't I make myself clear — you are never to set foot in this house again?"
Sylvia stared at him with dead, hopeless eyes. Slowly, she raised a handgun. "Damien, I was blind to ever love you. If I could do it all over again, I'd kill you without a second thought."
"What did you just say?" His gaze turned to ice.
He rose to approach her. Before he could take a single step — a gunshot split the air. Then searing pain ripped through his abdomen.
He looked down in disbelief. Blood bloomed across his shirt, spreading slow and dark.
Sylvia had actually shot him.
Damien pressed his hand to the wound and staggered back two steps, half-collapsing against his desk.
"Sylvia. You have a death wish?" Each word ground out through clenched teeth.
"Yes! I want to die!" Sylvia screamed, her eyes blazing red. "I want to die — but even more than that, I want you dead!"
She rushed forward and seized his collar, her face inches from his. "Damien, I don't care what you do to me. But why — why did you go after my family?"
"My brother grew up with you. He was your closest friend. My father — his research cured your entire family's genetic disease. And my grandfather poured everything the Orsini family had into helping the Nguyen family rebuild from nothing!"
"But destroying my family wasn't enough for you. You couldn't even spare Milo. Damien — even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. Are you even human anymore?"
Damien's brow furrowed.
The child had a congenital heart condition. He'd been sent to the hospital for surgery — which had been successful. He was recovering. What was Sylvia raving about?
He didn't waste time thinking about it. He locked his hand around her wrist and pinned her against the desk.
"I'm not human?" A cold, bitter laugh. "Does anyone in the Orsini family have the right to say that to me?"
"Sylvia — if your father hadn't engineered that compound, my father wouldn't have dropped dead on his way home. My mother wouldn't have lost her mind."
"As for your grandfather — he was merely paying for his own son's sins. Why should I feel any guilt?"
"You're lying!"
Sylvia shattered completely. Her scream tore from her throat, raw and unhinged.
She thrashed against him. Her ashen face flushed with a faint, desperate pink — more life in her expression than anything he'd seen in three years of watching her exist like a walking corpse.
Damien gripped her waist in annoyance, but the hollowness beneath his fingers gave him pause. Something uncomfortably close to softness flickered through his chest.
When had she gotten this thin?
At that moment, a figure burst through the study door and grabbed for the gun in Sylvia's hand.
"Sylvia, have you lost your mind?! Your family got what they deserved — every last one of them! If you have a problem, take it up with me!"
Renee planted herself in front of Damien like a shield.
Under cover of wrestling for the gun, she leaned in close to Sylvia's ear and whispered, "When your grandfather was dying, I heard he crawled around the house like a dog for hours. And your son — that little bastard — God, the sight of him annoyed me every single day."
"So I told the servants to feed him nothing but spoiled leftovers. Made him sleep on the bare floor…"
Renee's honeyed whisper slithered into Sylvia's ear like a curse, shredding what little sanity she had left.
Her eyes went crimson. "You did this to Milo. I'll kill you!"
