Chapter 2

Today was Friday. The day Elara Thorne stepped back onto American soil.

Elara Thorne. She and Rhys were the golden couple of the underworld. Elara was supposed to be the Donna, their union sealed by a blood oath upon graduation. But a month before the families were meant to merge, Elara fled to Europe for a civilian romance, leaving Rhys Calloway at the altar.

He descended into a ruthless, suffocating darkness after that. During that volatile era, I became his personal consiglieri-aide. One reckless, dark night in his office resulted in our son, and eventually, a clandestine marriage. I became a wife bound only in the shadows—unacknowledged by the Capos, and entirely unloved.

Sitting in my high-clearance office, I sealed my signed divorce protocol into a secure envelope. Beside it, I began typing my formal resignation from the Calloway Syndicate. Seven years in this blood-soaked world was more than enough to massacre any lingering delusions I once harbored.

"Are you seriously severing your contract, Seraphina?" whispered an associate aide.

I forced a rehearsed, hollow smile. "Yes. Leo's father secured a permanent post with an allied clan overseas. A family should be together."

"Probably for the best," she nodded sympathetically. "Honestly? Most of the crew just assumed you were a single mom, left behind by some foot soldier."

The words stung. I wasn't a single mother, yet my reality was infinitely more pathetic. Married to the city's most powerful Don, yet practically a ghost. Blinking back the acidic burn in my eyes, I finalized the resignation submission.

Suddenly, the doors of the executive floor swung open.

Rhys strode in. Right beside him was Elara.

Untouched by the grit of our world, she wore a soft, radiant smile. Rhys hovered a breath behind her, his lethal presence radiating a fierce, localized protection. The ruthless Don, who usually surveyed a room like a predator, couldn't tear his eyes away from her.

"Look at the Don," my associate buzzed with awe. "They say even a dead heart beats when the true queen returns."

A dead heart. I could bleed out for him for a lifetime, and he still wouldn't look at me the way he looked at her.

As they approached my desk to pass the security perimeter, a foolish instinct hijacked my throat.

"Rhys—"

His gaze snapped to mine. The warmth vanished instantly, replaced by the freezing glare of a mob boss eyeing an insubordinate.

"Do you have a report, Aide Veyra?"

The icy title was a lethal warning. Remember your place.

"My apologies, Don Calloway," I murmured, lowering my eyes. "It's nothing."

With a curt hum, he dismissed my existence, turning back to wrap a defensive arm around Elara's waist. He was legally my husband, yet he unapologetically paraded his devotion to another woman.

Defeated, I sank back into my chair. Handing him the resignation personally was clearly pointless.

My encrypted wrist-comms vibrated.

"Mama," Leo's small voice crackled. "My tutors had an emergency. Enforcer Chen brought me to headquarters to wait for you."

My heart lurched. I bolted from my desk toward the private elevator banks.

Then I rounded the corridor and froze.

Down the hall by the glass viewing deck, Rhys had stopped Elara. With a gentleness alien to his blood-stained hands, he reached out and carefully tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

Standing barely fifteen feet away was my son.

Clutching his prep-school backpack, seven-year-old Leo stared blankly at his father. The man who refused to hold his hand, the man who had abandoned him in an alley, was touching a strange woman with infinite tenderness.

I lunged forward, but the movement caught Rhys's attention.

The Don stiffened the instant he saw our son. His hand dropped from Elara. For a fractured second, the air between father and son was heavy, suffocating.

Then, Rhys made his choice.

Hand on Elara's back, he escorted her down the corridor, walking past Leo with deliberate nonchalance. Not a glance. Like my son was just part of the architecture.

A ragged sob tore at my throat. I grabbed Leo's hand, pulling him into the safety of my office suite before he shattered completely in the hallway.

Once the door locked, Leo looked up at me, his eyes bloodshot.

"Mama... is that the woman Sir likes?"

Stripped of strength, I could only nod through my tears.

Leo didn't ask anything else. He walked to my secondary desk, pulled out his academy workbook, and sat. But he wasn't writing. He just stared blankly as heavy, silent tears fell, staining the crisp paper.

I walked over and wrapped my arms around his trembling shoulders, burying my face in his hair.

Two chances, Rhys. You only have two left.