Chapter 1
At my own birthday party, my husband tied me to a ceiling beam and whipped me thirty times because I had spilled wine on his mistress’s dress. He laughed as fifty guests watched me endure the humiliation, but when they finally cut me down, I made one phone call to my five brothers, and seconds later, the mansion gates slammed shut.
The thirtieth strike burned across my skin as Vanessa stood beneath the chandelier, smiling in her ruined silver designer dress.
“Maybe now you’ll learn your place,” my husband, Adrian Cole, laughed.
That was the moment I stopped thinking of him as my husband.
My wrists were bound above my head to a decorative beam in the Cole estate ballroom. Fifty guests surrounded me, yet nobody dared move.
All because I had accidentally spilled red wine on Vanessa Hart.
Adrian’s mistress.
The woman he had been sleeping with for eight months.
I’d discovered their affair three weeks earlier, but Adrian didn’t know that. Neither did Vanessa.
“Apologize,” Adrian commanded.
I stared straight into his eyes. He wanted tears, begging, humiliation.
He had always mistaken my silence for surrender.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Vanessa’s smile widened.
Then I looked directly at her.
“I’m sorry you think this ends here.”
The entire ballroom went silent.
Adrian stormed toward me and grabbed my chin. “Still pretending you’re important?”
His mother, Margaret, laughed beside the champagne tower. “She came from nothing, Adrian. She should be grateful we even allowed her into this family.”
Poor Elena Moretti.
Quiet Elena.
Lucky Elena.
That was the story the Coles had told themselves for years.
They knew I had five older brothers, but they had never bothered learning much about them.
Dominic ran an international security firm. Matteo controlled several logistics companies. Luca was a criminal defense attorney. Gabriel specialized in forensic accounting. Nico handled private investigations.
Years ago, the Moretti name had carried a reputation powerful enough to make people lower their voices.
Adrian mockingly called my brothers “gangsters.”
I never corrected him.
Finally, one terrified employee stepped forward and cut me down. My knees nearly buckled when my feet touched the floor, but I forced myself upright.
Adrian raised his champagne glass.
“Party’s over.”
“No,” I said softly.
I walked toward the table and picked up my phone.
Every eye followed me.
Dominic answered on the first ring.
“Elena?”
I looked at Adrian, Vanessa, Margaret, and Richard Cole, who had spent dinner boasting about their billion-dollar construction empire.
“Make his entire family beg for mercy.”
Silence.
Then Dominic’s voice turned ice-cold.
“What did he do?”
“I’ll explain when you arrive.”
Suddenly, the enormous front gates slammed shut.
Adrian’s face changed.
Outside, black SUVs began rolling slowly up the driveway.
For the first time that night, my husband looked afraid.
I picked up my coat and met his eyes.
“You wanted me to learn my place.”
May you like
Headlights flooded the ballroom windows.
“Now you’re about to learn yours.”
