Chapter 2

2

It was near dusk when I left the hospital.

I was driving in a daze when I turned the corner.

Suddenly, an out-of-control truck barreled straight toward me.

I slammed the steering wheel, but it was too late. After a sickening spin, the world turned upside down.

I was pinned in the driver's seat, unable to move.

I didn't even need to think to know this was a hit from one of Alaric's rivals.

My phone was shattered. I couldn't call for help.

Right then, a familiar black Maybach drove past the intersection.

It was Alaric's car!

"Alaric!"

I screamed with every ounce of strength I had, struggling to catch his attention.

As the car slowed for a split second, my heart nearly stopped.

He saw me!

But in the next heartbeat, the car accelerated and drove away without a single hesitation.

Through the window, I saw Alaric reach out to cover Elowen's eyes.

I lost the strength to scream.

Elowen was in the car. He wouldn't stop.

A bloody accident scene from a gang vendetta―he couldn't bear for his precious Elowen to see such things.

The strength holding me together evaporated, and my consciousness began to flicker.

When I woke up, I was staring at a sterile white hospital ceiling.

The door was ajar. I heard Alaric's right-hand man speaking to him.

"Boss, what if the Mrs. sees Miss May? If she investigates, we won't be able to hide it."

Alaric crushed a cigarette butt under his shoe.

"Don't worry about that. Your only job is to protect Elowen."

"She's too clean. She's not like us."

"Madeline has plenty of dirty tricks. Elowen is simple-minded; she's no match for her."

"If necessary, use Madeline's brother. He's the only family she has left. She won't be able to ignore that."

I gripped the bedsheets, biting the inside of my cheek until it bled.

When he proposed to me years ago, he said:

"I will protect you forever. I won't let a single soul hurt you."

The same protective urge, the same script, but the leading lady had changed to Elowen.

The woman he used to shield behind his back had become the "dirty, dangerous woman" in his stories.

Hearing footsteps, I closed my eyes and then slowly opened them as if just waking.

"You're awake? I looked into it. It was the King Syndicate's doing."

"Here is a settlement. Sign it, and they'll agree to give up the West Side territory."

He stood before me.

Our eyes met.

I couldn't find a single word to say.

I had nearly been killed, yet I was just a bargaining chip for his business deal.

My heart felt like a block of ice.

"Alaric, when did you decide this?"

Was it the moment he saw me in the wreckage, or the moment he realized he could use my blood to get that land?

Alaric frowned, clearly annoyed by my questioning.

I wisely shut up.

Provoking him wouldn't help me now.

As if to soothe me, Alaric spent the next two days working from my hospital room.

However, he wore headphones the entire time. Occasionally, his lips would curl into the familiar, gentle smile I used to know.

While he was on a call with Elowen, I handed him the divorce papers.

I thought he would notice. It was so obvious.

But he didn't even glance at the text. He flipped to the last page and signed his name.

His eyes never even left his laptop screen.

My hand trembled as I took the papers back, staring at his wet ink signature.

I suddenly remembered the first time we met ten years ago.

He was being hunted by enemies, covered in blood under a rusted iron bridge.

At eighteen, Alaric's eyes were terrifyingly bright, like a wounded lion cub.

I was supposed to go to piano practice, but I felt a spark of pity when our eyes met.

I turned my steps toward him.

I didn't realize that one step was a leap into the abyss.

Later, he took a bullet in the chest to protect me.

He was in surgery for eighteen hours.

That was the first time I realized that in his world, innocence and kindness couldn't protect anyone.

In ten years, I went from a girl who fainted at the sight of blood to a woman who could handle the Syndicate's messiest business.

I thought we were standing side by side.

But he just thought I was no different from the rest of them now―stained and ugly.

I rubbed the calluses on my fingers.

Then I thought of Elowen playing the piano.

It all felt so meaningless.

My resentment and bitterness felt like they were hitting a wall of cotton.

After I was discharged, Alaric used a business trip as an excuse. He didn't come back for the entire month of the cooling-off period.

But I never expected to run into Elowen.