Isabella POV
The heavy door of the armored Cadillac shut, sealing us in a vault of black leather and suffocating silence. The air inside was thick with Damien’s cedarwood cologne and the lingering, nauseating ghost of Giselle’s gardenia perfume. I pressed myself against the cold door, my hand trembling over my lower abdomen as the rain blurred the neon lights of New York into streaks of blood-red.
Damien didn't look at me. He leaned back against the seat, closing his eyes. "You carry yourself like a frightened mouse," he murmured, his voice a smooth, icy blade in the dark. "It is pathetic. You are unworthy of the Trevino name."
A fresh, violent wave of agony ripped through my gut. I couldn't defend myself; it took all my strength just to breathe. Desperate, I slipped my hand into my purse, my fingers brushing the plastic bottle of painkillers Dr. Evans had prescribed. As I gripped it, the pills rattled—a tiny, pathetic sound.
Damien’s eyes snapped open in the rearview mirror. "Silence."
One word. A Don's command.
I froze. The pain was tearing at my insides, but I slowly released the bottle, letting my hand fall empty into my lap. My life, my health, meant absolutely nothing to him. I was just a disruption to his quiet.
The next morning, the pain was a dull, constant roar, but Eleanor’s orders were absolute. I had to deliver the finalized smuggling ledgers to the Trevino Shipping Company headquarters.
The marble hallways of the top floor were blindingly bright, a stark contrast to the darkness consuming me. As I passed the Associates' Lounge, a sharp, familiar laugh drifted through the open mahogany doors. Vivian.
"Did you see them last night?" Vivian’s voice dripped with malicious glee. "Damien and Giselle looked like the true king and queen of New York. And Isabella? Just a piece of Irish driftwood clinging to a Sicilian battleship. I don't know why the Don tolerates that useless marriage."
My blood ran cold. I stopped, my knuckles turning white as I gripped the leather-bound ledgers.
"Shut your mouth, Vivian," a gruff voice barked. Alva 'Alf' Madden, the Caporegime of the docks, stepped out of the lounge, his scarred face set in a fierce scowl. He spotted me standing there, deathly pale and swaying on my feet.
"Mrs. Trevino," Alf muttered, his rough features softening with clumsy concern.
Another sharp spike of pain hit my side, and the floor seemed to tilt. Alf instinctively reached out, his calloused hand gripping my arm to steady me.
"Take your hands off my wife."
The voice was low, but it echoed down the marble corridor like a gunshot. Damien stood at the far end of the hall, his chief Enforcer, Viktor, a silent shadow behind him. Damien closed the distance with the measured, lethal grace of a predator. His dark eyes were fixed entirely on Alf’s hand.
"She looks unwell, Don Trevino," Alf said, his jaw tight, though he immediately dropped his hand and stepped back.
Damien ignored him completely. He stepped into my personal space, the sheer force of his presence suffocating me. He leaned down, his lips brushing my ear, but his words were laced with pure venom.
"If you wish to entertain my men, do it in the bedroom, not in the halls of my business," he whispered, his breath hot against my freezing skin. "Have you forgotten your place?"
The humiliation burned through my veins, hotter than the fever building in my blood. I saw Alf’s fists clench in my periphery, the veins in his neck bulging. If he spoke, Damien would kill him.
"I apologize," I forced the words past the bile in my throat, keeping my eyes locked on Damien's silk tie.
Damien stared down at me for a long, agonizing second before turning on his heel. He walked away, a king leaving his broken subjects in his wake.
I stood in the freezing hallway, the ledgers heavy in my arms. The physical agony in my abdomen was blinding, but the clarity in my mind was absolute. I looked down at the blue folder hidden beneath the ledgers—the annulment papers I had drafted in the dead of night. I turned my gaze toward the heavy oak doors of his office at the end of the hall.
