Chapter 2

I froze for barely a second, then thrashed even harder, crazed with fury. "You're lying! Bullshit!"

I craned my neck upward, staring daggers at Zoe's pretty, poisonous face. "Silas and I have been married for five years! Winnie is his legitimate daughter! Who the fuck do you think you are, parading around here claiming to be his fiancée?!"

At my desperate, screaming accusation, Zoe didn't get mad at all. She just laughed harder, like I was some clown performing for her amusement.

She straightened up and slowly, deliberately smoothed out the skirt of her couture dress.

Then she lifted her foot and, with the muddy, filthy toe of her shoe, hooked it under my chin and forced my head up, making me look at her from this humiliating, defeated angle.

"Married?" Zoe sneered down at me, the sound coming straight from her nose, dripping with condescension. "Did he ever throw you even one real wedding? Did he ever buy you even the tiniest fucking diamond ring? Out of all the socialites and powerful people in this country—does anyone even know you exist?"

Each question landed like a sledgehammer to my chest.

"Wake the fuck up, you idiot." Zoe ground her shoe harder against my chin, her voice thick with cruel mockery. "Silas felt sorry for you, that's all. Kept you around like a stray dog, threw you scraps every now and then. And you actually thought that was love? That you were his wife? Please."

I opened my mouth to snap back, but it felt like there was a waterlogged sponge stuck in my throat. I couldn't get a single word out.

Because every single thing she said was the goddamned truth.

Yeah. No wedding. No ring.

Hell, I was never even his wife to the outside world. To everyone he met, I was just some "distant relative" crashing at his place.

Five years ago, he said his position wasn't secure yet, that enemies were lurking in the shadows. He said he wanted to keep me and Winnie safe, that he didn't want us dragged into the mess of his world.

He told me to hide in the dark, out of sight. And I—like some brain-dead, lovesick fool—swallowed every single lie.

I was so fucking stupid. Stupid enough to die for it.

Rage and humiliation and the bitter taste of betrayal churned in my chest, hot and acidic.

Zoe saw my face go white and figured she'd landed a hit. She smirked, triumphant, then turned and sashayed back over to Winnie.

"C'mon, you little bastard. Let's pick up where we left off, yeah?"

She squatted down again, flipped the knife, and used the flat of the cold blade to slap Winnie's tear-streaked little face, over and over, slow and deliberate, each slap a fresh insult.

"Don't be scared. I'm doing you a favor, see? Gonna scrape all these nasty, gross little things right off your legs." Zoe's voice was sweet, syrupy, and it made my skin crawl. "Once they're gone and you look normal, maybe your daddy will even like you."

Winnie trembled so hard she looked like she might shatter. Big tears streamed down her face like a broken dam.

But even terrified out of her mind, she bit down on her colorless little lip until it bleed, refusing to make a sound. She didn't dare cry out loud, scared of making the monster in front of her even angrier.

Watching my daughter like that... my heart shattered into a million tiny pieces. It hurt so bad I could taste blood with every breath.

"No! Zoe, you fucking psycho! Don't touch her!"

I screamed until my throat was raw, my fingers clawing at the hard tile until my nails split and bleed, and I didn't even feel it.

I was gonna kill her. I swear to God I was gonna fucking kill her.

But Zoe just glanced sideways at the bodyguards holding Winnie down and gave them a cold, vicious look. "Hold her tight! If she moves and I cut her by accident, it's your asses! Today I'm gonna scrape every last one of these nasty little things clean. Wanna see what kind of freak is hiding under this skin?"

The goons pressed down harder, pinning Winnie to the ground.

The next second, that razor-sharp blade pressed against Winnie's delicate calf and raked across, hard.

"AHHH—!!!"

Winnie couldn't take it anymore. The pain was unbearable, and she let out a scream so shrill it made my scalp prickle.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I could feel every drop of blood in my body boiling, burning.

That terrifying power sleeping deep in my blood was roaring to get out. Under my skin, the faint shadow of fine, cold-glinting scales shifted and writhed, threatening to break through my human shell.

Kill them all. Drag every last one of these motherfuckers into the endless deep.

The voice in my head was screaming, bloodthirsty and wild.

And then—right when I thought I'd lose my mind completely—

My phone, dropped somewhere across the tile, buzzed violently.

The screen lit up, and I saw the caller ID instantly. It was Silas.

In that hopeless moment, it felt like grabbing onto the last lifeline in the ocean. I screamed at the top of my lungs, desperate and ragged, "Answer the phone! Let me talk to him! It's Silas! Give me the fucking phone!"

At the sound of his name, Zoe finally stopped.

She stood up and nodded at one of the bodyguards, jerking her chin toward the phone.

The goon grabbed it and handed it over. Zoe glanced at the caller ID, and that smug, challenging smirk spread across her face again.

Right in front of me, she slowly slid her thumb across the screen to answer. And then she hit speakerphone.

"Baby~"

Her voice shifted instantly—soft, sweet, dripping with fake innocence, like honey. "What took you so long to call~? I've been waiting forever~"

All the noise around us seemed to vanish.

And then, from the other end of the line, came a voice I knew so well it was carved into my bones.

"Hey, beautiful."

It was Silas.

The man who always sounded tired and distant with me, who'd even been cold to Winnie.

Right now, his voice was so soft and tender, like he was talking to the most precious thing in the world. "Sorry, the dinner's about to start. Where are you? Stay put, okay? I'm coming to get you myself."