“That’s impossible,” Nicole breathed, stepping back as if the document might bite her. “I was at the funeral. I saw the casket go into the ground.”

“You saw a closed casket,” Alex corrected, his voice tight with suppressed anger. “You saw a show put on for the Chicago Syndicate to make them believe the old king was dead, so the new one could take the throne without a war.”

I stared at the man I married. The man who had held me while I cried over my own mother’s grave. He had been lying to me—to his entire family—for five years.

“Where is he, Alex?” Nicole demanded, her voice shaking with rage. “Where has our father been while I spent five years mourning him?”

“He’s been running the offshore accounts from Geneva,” Alex said, running a hand through his dark hair. “He had to disappear. The Feds were closing in on the shipping ports. If he stayed, he would have spent the rest of his life in prison, and the government would have seized everything.”

“So he faked his death and left you to deal with the mess,” I realized, the pieces of Alex’s stressful, erratic life finally clicking into place.

“He left me to legitimize the empire,” Alex said defensively. “And I did. I cleaned up the hotels. I secured the shipping lanes. I built a life that didn’t require looking over my shoulder.”

He looked at me, a flash of genuine, agonizing sorrow in his eyes.

“That’s why I married you, Rebecca,” Alex whispered.

The words hit me like a physical blow.

“You married me because I was a good cover story?” I choked out, wrapping my arms protectively around my pregnant belly.

“I married you because you were the only real, good thing in my life,” Alex pleaded, taking a step toward me. “You didn’t care about the money. You made me remember what it felt like to be human. But my father… my father doesn’t believe in humanity. He believes in leverage.”

“And what does that have to do with me signing away my baby?” I asked, pointing a trembling finger at the document.

“Arthur found out about the pregnancy,” Madison chimed in from the doorway, looking incredibly smug. “And he doesn’t want a soft, civilian mother raising the heir to the Hayes empire.”

I turned my head slowly to look at the twenty-year-old mistress.

“How do you know what Arthur wants?” I asked.

Madison smiled, stepping fully into the kitchen. She didn’t look like a spoiled college student anymore. She looked calculating. Lethal.

“Because my father is Silas Thorne,” Madison said proudly.

Nicole gasped. Even Rachel, the housekeeper who had remained silently supportive in the corner, took a step back.

Silas Thorne was the head of the rival Chicago syndicate. The very men Alex had spent years trying to push out of his legitimate businesses.

“You brought a Thorne into our house?” Nicole yelled at Alex, disbelief warring with fury.

“I didn’t have a choice!” Alex fired back, his composure finally breaking. “Arthur brokered a peace treaty with Silas Thorne while he was hiding in Geneva. The treaty requires a merging of the families. I have to marry Madison to secure the alliance, or Silas Thorne’s men will slaughter everyone in this house.”

“So you’re selling me out,” I said, my voice eerily calm despite the terror freezing my veins. “You’re divorcing me, taking my baby, and marrying the daughter of a mob boss to save your own skin.”

“I am trying to save your life, Rebecca!” Alex shouted, grabbing my shoulders. I flinched, trying to pull away, but his grip was iron. “If you don’t sign this agreement, Arthur won’t just take the baby. He will ensure you disappear completely. This is the only way I can guarantee you walk away with ten million dollars and a safe place to hide.”

“Hide?” I laughed, a bitter, broken sound. “You want me to hide in Michigan while she raises my daughter?”

I looked at Madison. She was admiring her nails, entirely unbothered by the fact that she was participating in the destruction of my life.

“I won’t do it,” I said, staring directly into Alex’s dark eyes. “I will never sign that paper.”

Alex’s face crumpled. For a fraction of a second, the ruthless billionaire vanished, replaced by the man who used to dance with me in the kitchen.

“Rebecca, please,” he begged, a tear slipping down his cheek. “They are coming tonight. You have to sign it so I can get you out of the city.”

“Who is coming tonight?” Nicole asked, terror finally creeping into her voice.

Before Alex could answer, the heavy oak front doors of the mansion were blown completely off their hinges.