Chapter 2 of The Real Boss Was His Neglected Wife

Dr. Hailey Hogan POV:

The Estate was deathly quiet when I returned.

It was a sprawling, ten-bedroom fortress in the Hamptons that served as the Dorsey family compound.

Legally, it belonged to a shell company.

In reality, it belonged to me.

I walked into the kitchen, the silence pressing against my ears like a physical weight.

It forced me to remember five years ago.

I remembered the panic that had suffocated this very room.

Jefferson, the Don, had sat at the head of the table, his head buried in his hands.

The Commission had levied a five-million-dollar tribute. If the Dorseys didn't pay, they would burn the house down.

They had no liquidity.

The Feds had frozen everything.

I was the one who sat down.

I was the one who clicked open my briefcase.

I was the one who signed the Promissory Note, leveraging my future earnings as the top neurosurgeon on the East Coast to buy their lives.

I bought their breath.

I purchased the very air in their lungs.

And tonight, they used that breath to mock me.

My phone buzzed against the countertop.

A text from Cornelia.

Make sure you bring the truffles when you land. Amber has a craving. Family first, Hailey.

I stared at the screen, the backlight glaring in the dim room.

Family first.

I walked into the dining room.

The table was set for a ghost dinner, empty now, but I could still see the scene from two nights ago as if it were projected in front of me.

Amber had been sitting in my chair.

My chair.

At the right hand of the Don.

"Hailey," Cornelia had said, pointing dismissively toward the kitchen. "The sauce needs stirring. Amber shouldn't be on her feet."

"I just finished a twelve-hour craniotomy, Cornelia," I had said, my voice tight, still wearing my scrubs.

"And now you can finish dinner," she had replied, sipping the vintage wine I paid for. "A good wife serves."

Jackson had said nothing.

He had just watched Amber eat, his eyes glazed with a pathetic, sickening adoration.

Jordan, my sister-in-law, had laughed.

"Don't be dramatic, Hails. You're good with knives. Chop the vegetables."

They treated me like a glorified ATM with a medical degree.

They forgot that the hand that writes the checks can also close the account.

I looked at the empty chair at the head of the table.

Jefferson's chair.

The Failing Don.

He had allowed this.

He had sanctioned the disrespect because he wanted a grandson, and I hadn't given him one yet.

He thought Amber was his salvation.

He didn't realize she was his eviction notice.

I walked over to the safe hidden behind the oil painting of Jackson's grandfather.

I spun the dial.

Click.

I pulled out the ledger.

The "Blood Contract."

It was a simple document, drafted by my lawyer, Jessica.

It stated that the five million dollars was a loan.

A callable loan.

With interest.

And the collateral was everything.

The house. The cars. The name.

I ran my fingers over Jackson's signature.

He had signed it with a shaking hand, weeping, promising me the world if I saved him.

Now, he couldn't even give me a seat on a plane.

I closed the ledger with a definitive thud.

The ice in my veins was spreading, freezing the last few drops of affection I held for my husband.

I wasn't just a wife scorned.

I was a creditor.

And the bill was due.