Chapter 1 - Thirty
Before Adrian could drop the riding crop, five heavily armed men had already surrounded every exit in the ballroom.
Nobody screamed.
Nobody moved.
Even the string quartet stopped playing.
My husband stood beneath the crystal chandelier, breathing hard, the thin black crop still hanging from his right hand.
I was tied behind him.
My wrists were burning.
My dress was torn at one shoulder.
And somewhere behind the mansion's front doors, someone hit the wood three times.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
A deep voice followed.
“Adrian Cole.”
My heart stopped.
Not from fear.
Recognition.
“Untie our sister.”
Adrian slowly turned toward me.
“What the hell did you do?”
I smiled through a split lip.
“Nothing.”
Another knock shook the doors.
“I just stopped protecting you.”
Three hours earlier, the Cole mansion had been glowing.
Champagne.
Flowers.
A jazz quartet.
Fifty guests dressed like they belonged on magazine covers.
It was supposed to be my thirty-fifth birthday.
Instead, Adrian turned it into a warning.
Vanessa Hart had started it.
She stepped into my path while I carried a glass of Cabernet.
Her shoulder struck mine.
Wine spilled across her gold gown.
She stared at the stain.
Then at me.
“You did that on purpose.”
“You walked into me.”
Her eyes immediately filled with tears.
“Adrian!”
My husband appeared before I could even set down my glass.
He looked at Vanessa.
Then at me.
“What did you do?”
I laughed softly.
Of course.
He didn't ask what happened.
He had already decided.
“She threw wine on me,” Vanessa whispered.
“That's not true.”
Adrian's jaw tightened.
“Apologize.”
“For what?”
“For humiliating my guest.”
My guest.
For six weeks, I had known Adrian was sleeping with her.
I had the hotel receipts.
Photographs.
Credit card records.
Messages.
I even had the reservation for their weekend at the Bellmont Hotel.
But Adrian didn't know that.
Vanessa didn't know either.
I had learned something from my grandmother.
Never interrupt an enemy while he's building the evidence against himself.
“I won't apologize,” I said.
Adrian stepped closer.
“You're embarrassing me.”
“No, Adrian.”
I held his stare.
“You're doing that perfectly well yourself.”
The room went silent.
His face changed.
He grabbed my wrist.
“Take her upstairs.”
Two security guards hesitated.
“Sir?”
“You heard me.”
I pulled free.
“Don't touch me.”
That should have been the end of it.
Instead, Adrian smiled.
“No.”
His voice was almost gentle.
“I think my wife needs to remember who gave her this life.”
I looked around the ballroom.
His mother watched without speaking.
His father frowned but didn't intervene.
Vanessa lifted her chin.
And Adrian's sister actually laughed.
Something inside me became very still.
“You really believe you gave me this life?”
Adrian leaned closer.
“Who else?”
Twenty minutes later, my wrists were tied to a decorative support beside the ballroom staircase.
Guests were protesting now.
A woman near the windows demanded someone call the police.
Adrian's security team locked the doors.
That was when fear finally entered the room.
Adrian returned carrying the riding crop from the adjoining study.
I stared at him.
“You do this, and there is no going back.”
He leaned close.
“Where would you go?”
The first strike silenced the room.
By the fifth, people were begging him to stop.
By the tenth, Vanessa had stopped smiling.
By the twentieth, I stopped pleading.
At twenty-nine, Adrian raised the crop again.
“Apologize.”
“No.”
The thirtieth strike came down.
Pain ripped across my shoulders.
Then Adrian laughed.
“There.”
He turned toward his guests.
“Maybe now Evelyn understands respect.”
I raised my head.
“You're right.”
He frowned.
“You finally taught me.”
“What?”
I looked directly into his eyes.
“That I should've listened to my brothers.”
His expression shifted.
“What brothers?”
Headlights swept across the windows.
One black SUV.
Then another.
Then three more.
Adrian's security chief answered his ringing phone.
His face went pale.
“Mr. Cole…”
“What?”
“There are five men at the gate.”
Adrian swallowed.
“Who?”
The guard looked at me.
“They say they're Mrs. Cole's brothers.”
Then came the pounding on the front door.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
And my oldest brother's voice.
“Untie our sister.”
Adrian tightened his grip on the crop.
Then the front doors exploded inward.
May you like
And the first person through them was a man Adrian had once seen on television—but had never realized shared my blood.
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