The world came back to me in fragments—the taste of salt on my lips, the gentle rocking motion beneath me, and a dull ache in my chest where water had filled my lungs.
Everything was blurry, shapes and shadows dancing at the edges of my vision like ghosts.
I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy, waterlogged. A warm hand pressed gently against my shoulder, easing me back down.
"Easy," a familiar voice said. "Don't try to move too quickly."
Lorenzo. His face gradually came into focus above me, dark eyes filled with concern and something else—relief, maybe?
I was lying on what appeared to be the deck of a boat, wrapped in thick blankets that smelled of sea air and safety.
"You're safe now," he said quietly, his hand still resting on my shoulder. "My team pulled you out of the water just as we planned."
The memories crashed back all at once—Jaxon's hands on my back, the moment of weightlessness, the cold shock of hitting the water.
But also the trust I'd felt, knowing Lorenzo would be there. Knowing I wouldn't die in that dark ocean.
"Did it work?" I asked, my voice hoarse from the saltwater. "Did they believe it?"
Lorenzo nodded, reaching for a tablet beside him. "See for yourself."
He helped me sit up slowly, then showed me the screen. It was a live feed from the yacht, and what I saw made my stomach churn with disgust and vindication in equal measure.
There was Jaxon, surrounded by concerned guests, his face a mask of devastating grief. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he clutched what looked like a piece of paper—a suicide note, no doubt.
Hannah stood beside him, her arm around his shoulders, playing the role of the supportive friend comforting the bereaved husband.
"She was struggling," I heard Jaxon's voice through the audio feed, broken and desperate. "The miscarriages, the pressure from work... I should have seen the signs."
I laughed bitterly, the sound harsh in the night air. "Look at him. He's actually crying. Real tears for his performance."
"He's good," Lorenzo admitted, his voice cold. "But not good enough. We have everything recorded—the push, the conversation with his grandfather, all of it."
I watched as the coast guard arrived, as search lights swept across the water where I was supposed to be drowning. The chaos, the panic, the perfectly orchestrated tragedy—it was almost beautiful in its cruelty.
"They think I'm dead," I whispered, the reality of it hitting me fully. "Everyone thinks I'm gone."
"That was the plan," Lorenzo said gently. "Now you can move freely while they believe they've won."
I turned to look at him properly for the first time since waking up. In the moonlight, his features were sharp and calculating, but there was something softer in his eyes when he looked at me.
"About our marriage," he said, his tone becoming more businesslike. "I want to be clear about the terms. This is a business arrangement, nothing more. I help you get your revenge, you help me destroy Jaxon and take down his empire. But don't expect this to become some romantic fairy tale."
His words stung more than I expected them to, but I kept my expression neutral. "Of course. I wouldn't dream of it. This is purely transactional."
"Good." He nodded curtly. "No falling in love, no messy emotions. We both get what we want and then we can go our separate ways."
"Agreed," I said, though something in my chest tightened at the coldness of it all. "So what's our next move?"
Lorenzo smiled, and it was sharp as a blade. "Now we let them think they've won while we systematically destroy everything they've built. Starting with making Jaxon very, very nervous."
Over the next few hours, as we sailed to a safe house Lorenzo had prepared, I watched more footage of the aftermath.
The coast guard search, the interviews with guests, the news reports already beginning to surface about the "tragic suicide" of the young pharmaceutical heiress.
It was surreal, watching my own death being reported. Seeing the fake grief, the crocodile tears, the carefully crafted narrative of a troubled woman who couldn't handle her losses.
But what struck me most was how quickly Jaxon seemed to recover once he thought the cameras weren't on him. I caught glimpses of him on the security footage—moments when his mask slipped and I could see the satisfaction, the relief, the pure triumph in his expression.
"He really thinks he's won," I murmured, studying his face on the screen.
"Let him," Lorenzo said. "It'll make his fall that much more satisfying."
By dawn, we'd reached the safe house—a secluded property on a private island that Lorenzo owned. It was beautiful and isolated, the perfect place to plan a war.
I spent the morning going through all the evidence we'd gathered, organizing it, preparing for what came next. But as the day wore on, an idea began to form in my mind. Something that would shake Jaxon to his core and let him know that his victory wasn't as complete as he thought.
That evening, I sat at Lorenzo's computer, my fingers hovering over the keyboard. I'd created an untraceable email account, a digital ghost that could reach out and touch my enemies without revealing my hand.
I attached a single video file—crystal clear footage of Jaxon pushing me off the yacht, his face clearly visible, his intent unmistakable. Then I typed a simple message:
"I saw what you did. You're not as clever as you think. This is just the beginning. - A Friend"
I hit send and watched as the email disappeared into the digital ether, carrying with it the first crack in Jaxon's perfect crime.
Within minutes, my phone—a burner Lorenzo had given me—buzzed with an incoming call to the number I'd included in the email. I answered but said nothing, waiting.
"Who is this?" Jaxon's voice was sharp with panic, all pretense of grief gone. "How did you get this video? Who are you?"
I smiled in the darkness of the safe house, savoring the fear I could hear creeping into his voice. The hunter had become the hunted, and he didn't even know it yet.
The game was just beginning.
