“I panicked! I’m their mother!” “You ceased being their mother the moment you walked out that door.” He nodded at Luca. “Take her to the basement.” Victoria screamed as guards dragged her away. “My family will declare war!” The steel door slammed shut.
Damian turned to Clara. “She won’t bother you again.” “Are you going to kill her?” “I don’t make widows of myself unless I have to. She’ll be sent back to her father in disgrace. The marriage is over. Go upstairs. The doctor is tending to Owen. Tomorrow, your new life begins.”
THE GILDED CAGE
A week passed. Owen’s fever broke. Clara was given a suite larger than her old apartment, silk clothes she hadn’t asked for. She ate at Damian’s table; guards bowed as she passed. But she was a prisoner — armed men politely blocked every path to the gates, and her phone was “destroyed for security reasons.”
“I want to see my mother,” Clara demanded in his study. “She’s in the hospital in Providence.” Damian didn’t look up. “Your mother has been moved to a private facility in Switzerland. The best oncologists in the world are treating her. The bills are paid in full for the next five years.”
“You moved her without my permission?” “I secured her. The Moretti family is still hunting me. If they found out about you, they would use her to get to me.”
“I want to leave, Damian. I saved your sons. Let me go.”
He walked around the desk until he was inches away, tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “You are the mother to my children now. You don’t leave.”
Damian’s obsession grew. Diamonds rivaling Victoria’s. Syndicate dinners at his side. The master suite — though he never touched her without consent. Clara hated the blood money. But every time she looked at Oliver and Owen, her heart melted.
At a tense dinner with the heads of the Five Families, an older don sneered: “You replaced his daughter with… a servant.” Damian set down his fork, drew his gun, and placed it gently on the linen tablecloth. “This woman ran through a burning building while being hunted by assassins to save my bloodline. She has more honor in her little finger than Victoria’s entire family. If anyone at this table disrespects the mother of my children again, I won’t use words to correct them.”
Clara looked at the terrifying, violent, ruthless man beside her — and felt a confusing, dangerous thrill. She was beginning to fall for the devil.
THE AMBUSH
Two months after the fire, the convoy to a private pediatric clinic was ambushed in a narrow tunnel. An explosion flipped the lead SUV. Masked men poured from blocking vans. Damian covered Clara and the baby carriers with his body, returning fire with terrifying precision.