Chapter 2 - The Contract In Blood
“You think Sofia acted alone?” Adrian stepped closer, his damp leather shoes squeaking against the polished hardwood. He ripped his drenched tie off with one hand and tossed it aside like trash. “Open the envelope, Claire. See what your loyal college friend has been doing while you were planning our third anniversary dinner.”
My fingers trembled as I reached down, pulling out the glossy photographs and encrypted chat logs inside. My breath caught in my throat. The pictures didn’t just show Sofia smiling beside Adrian at the steakhouse; they showed her meeting behind an abandoned dock with Luca Rossi—the head of the rival Rossi cartel, Adrian’s bitterest enemy in the Midwest.
The messages detailed financial transfers totaling millions of dollars, wired directly to an offshore shell company in the Cayman Islands. Sofia was never an accidental mistress. She was an operative planted inside our social circle, engineered to dismantle Adrian’s inner sanctum from within.
“She’s pregnant, Adrian!” I screamed, throwing the documents back in his face. “You slept with her! You touched her skin! You breathed her air while I was home waiting for you! Don’t you dare stand there and pretend you’re an innocent victim of corporate espionage!”
Adrian flinched, a flicker of genuine agony cutting through his hardened mafia exterior. “The ultrasound is forged. The clinic that stamped that paper is owned by the Rossi syndicate. And as for touching her—six months ago, Luca Rossi drugged my bourbon during a ceasefire negotiation at the Drake. Sofia was put in my penthouse bed to create leverage. But before anything could happen, my enforcers broke the door down. I never laid a finger on her, Claire. On my mother’s soul, I never crossed that line.”
“Then why hide it?” I demanded, tears finally spilling hot and bitter over my cheeks. “Why delete the logs? Why keep her on payroll? Why let her mock me in public?”
“Because if Luca knew the blackmail failed, he would have targeted you directly,” Adrian roared, slamming his open palm against the wall beside my head. The plaster cracked beneath his fury. “Every breath I take in this wretched city is calculated to keep the bullets flying away from your front door! I kept Sofia on a leash to trace Rossi’s bank accounts. I wanted to wipe them off the map before telling you the truth. But I miscalculated. I let her get too close to our home.”
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I looked into his storm-grey eyes, seeing the wild desperation of a man on the edge of a cliff. Yet the sting of deceit was too fresh, too raw.
“Even if that’s true,” I said, my voice steadying with sudden, ice-cold resolve, “you bought me to settle a debt. You kept secrets that humiliated me. You made me look like a fool to the whole city. Until you prove Sofia’s child isn't yours under oath and in public, don't you dare call me your wife.”
