Chapter 3

The scandal spread like wildfire.

In under half an hour, every mafia family knew about the gruesome murder.

The Hales were the laughingstock of the underworld.

Adrian Hale ignored the mockery. He dodged my father and slipped into my bedroom.

"Elise Hart, you need to take the fall for the body," he said, slamming the door. He said it like it was my wifely duty.

I was packing my clothes. I stopped dead.

He had no idea my brooch was recording every single word.

"Excuse me?" I laughed. Pure, cold anger. "I take the fall for your brother's wife? I face the Commission's wrath for her? What about my son?!"

Adrian Hale stepped close, acting like he was doing me a favor.

"We'll let Dante Hale take Theo as his heir. I'll talk to the patriarch. They'll banish you to the country estate for a year, tops." He thought his plan was flawless. "Vivian Hale just lost her kid. She can't handle the family punishment."

The wire caught it all. Even his sick obsession with his brother's wife.

I grabbed a full glass of red wine from the table and threw it in his face. The dark liquid dripped down his custom suit like fresh blood.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" I spat.

Adrian Hale wiped his face. He twisted into an ugly scowl.

"You're selfish! You don't care about family!" he roared. "Vivian Hale was right. We never should've let an outsider in!"

I yanked the drawer open, pulled out our prenup, and slammed it onto the table. The smack echoed in the room.

"I'm leaving. Right now!" I pointed at his face. "I'm taking my family's money and my territory. I'm done with your sick family!"

Adrian Hale froze. He was used to me keeping quiet. He never expected me to blow the whole deal up.

He muttered something about me being crazy, grabbed his coat, and bolted.

I watched him run. I picked up the jacket he dropped.

There was a short hair on the collar.

I bagged it, along with a few blonde strands I took from Cora Hale's brush.

I gave them to my best guy and told him to run a DNA test at my father's private lab.

Just as I got the explosive results back, my bedroom door burst open.

Adrian Hale's mother barged in with her capos.

She walked right up to Cora Hale and kicked her in the back of the knees. The ten-year-old shrieked and dropped to her knees in front of me.

"Apologize to Elise Hart!" Eleanor Hale commanded.

Cora Hale sobbed and pressed her head to the floor. Once the fake apology was over, the Eleanor put her boss face on.

"Elise Hart, it's time you used the Hart connections to fix this," she ordered. "Get Adrian Hale and Vivian Hale away from Dante Hale's wrath. You're a Hale now. Act like it."

Dante Hale slumped onto my expensive designer sofa. His eyes were red, breathing out cheap booze. He pointed at me.

"You owe me for my dead boy! If you hadn't made a scene, he wouldn't have been crushed!"

I looked at these leeches with pure disgust.

"I'm not cleaning up your mess." I smiled, slow and nasty. "But didn't you forget something? Cora Hale wasn't alone. Mira Ross pushed that carriage too. Why don't you go knock on her door?"

The old woman's eyes lit up. Blaming an outsider was the perfect mob scapegoat.

"patriarch't go to Mira Ross's!" Cora Hale cried, hugging her grandmother's leg. "She's my best friend! If she goes down, everyone will hate me!"

The old lady kicked her off. "You killed your own brother, you little freak. You don't get to speak."

I watched these rabid dogs tear into each other. Then I called my guards to throw them all out.

That afternoon, I cut all ties and moved back to my family's compound.

Riding in the back of my car, I thought about my past life.

Back then, Mira Ross's family paid a huge ransom to make it go away. Because it was my son who died, the Hales took the cash and shut their mouths.

I looked out the window and laughed.

But this time, it was their own flesh and blood.

The other families wouldn't let them off so easy.

Plus, I had successfully pointed them at Mira Ross.

And I held a DNA test that would bury the Hales for good.