1 I’m a decade older than Julian Vance. The first time I saw him, he was a teenager in rags, fighting a stray dog for scraps in an alley. His eyes, fixed on me, were like a wolf’s. Fierce. Wild. I took him in. I sculpted him from nothing. In ten years, Julian went from a nameless beggar to the most sought-after CEO in New York City. I always considered him my most perfect creation. Until the day a young woman blocked my car, her hand resting smugly on her stomach. She held up a recorder and pressed play. “Julian, who do you love more? Me, or that old hag?” Then, a voice I knew better than my own: “She’s just some old woman who’s past her prime. All these years, the thing I’ve hated most is that high-and-mighty look on her face.” I smiled. It seemed the years of success had made Julian forget the days he spent groveling at my feet like a dog. The next day, a gift-wrapped box containing a bloody, stillborn fetus was delivered to his office. The man, his eyes red-rimmed, pressed the barrel of a gun to my forehead. “Victoria,” he gritted out. I sipped my tea, unbothered. “It seems, Mr. Vance, you’ve forgotten what I’m capable of.” 2 Julian’s face was a mask of fury. “You think I won’t pull the trigger?” He wasn’t the scrawny boy I’d found anymore. Years of walking on the razor’s edge of the corporate world had given him an aura of command. I just smiled and shook my head. “If I were you, I’d be done with the empty threats by now.” He tensed. From behind him, a faint noise came from the floor-to-ceiling windows. He spun around, and the color drained from his face. The little tramp, Chloe, was bound by her hands, dangling seventy-two stories above the streets of Manhattan. Her white dress billowed in the wind, the city a dizzying abyss below her. “I’d be careful if I were you,” I said calmly, the gun still pressed to my skin. “After all, if your hand slips, I die… and your little girlfriend becomes a pancake on the sidewalk.” “One body… oh, wait. Just the one life now, isn’t it?” The girl’s panicked sobs echoed from outside. “Julian, save me!” Julian’s eyes were bloodshot. He clicked off the safety. “Victoria, you wouldn’t dare.” My bodyguards instantly surrounded him, the tension in the room thick enough to cut with a knife. I waved a dismissive hand. “Everyone, out.” Then, I pulled a stiletto dagger from my sleeve and, without looking, plunged it into his abdomen. He let out a muffled grunt, but the gun at my forehead only pressed harder. “Does it feel good?” I murmured, my voice like a lover’s whisper. His face was a stone mask. “Are you satisfied? Let her go. Chloe is different from you. She’s just an innocent girl.” Julian’s men arrived and quickly rescued her. I never intended to actually harm her. Watching him hold the girl, whispering soothing words as if she were a priceless, fragile treasure, a wave of boredom washed over me. He used to hold me that way. After a rival’s attack had cost me our child, and with it, my ability to ever conceive again. She was a girl, already formed. We had named her Summer. Julian had a private chapel built for her, commissioning a gilded statue in her image. “Victoria,” he’d said, “our daughter will have a peaceful life next time.” He wanted a constant stream of prayers to build her good karma. I once asked him why he did it. His face was unshaven, but his voice was firm. “Because Summer is the only child I will ever have.” Now, I glanced at the gift box on his desk. You broke your promise, Julian. But don't worry. I’ll help you keep it. Chloe, having cried her fill, glared at me with swollen, hateful eyes. “Julian, it was her! That bitch killed our baby!” Julian’s expression hardened. He stroked the girl’s hair, his voice devoid of emotion. “You’re out of line.” Chloe’s sobs caught in her throat. She didn’t know. After losing Summer, no one in our circle ever dared to mention the word ‘child’ around us. It was a wound that never healed. She was just a clueless girl, crying her heart out. Julian scooped her up as she fainted and shouldered past me. “Victoria,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “I won’t forget this.” 3 I didn’t expect his revenge to come so swiftly. I was stroking the cat on my lap, listening to my assistant’s report with an air of detached boredom. “Mr. Vance outbid us for the South Side development, paying double the market value.” “Mr. Vance has been meeting with shareholders, buying up stock.” “Mr. Vance… demolished the chapel built for Miss Summer.” My hand clenched. The cat yelped and fell silent, cowering in my lap. “Say that again,” I said, my face a blank canvas. My assistant swallowed hard. “He demolished the chapel, ma’am. He said he’s building… building an amusement park for the other woman. Construction started this morning.” CRASH! The teacup in my hand hit the far wall, shattering into a thousand pieces. “I’ll handle this immediately,” my assistant said, bowing his head. I held up a hand. “No. I’ll go myself.” 4 When I arrived, half of the chapel was already rubble. Chloe was holding a balloon, happily directing the demolition crew. “Clear that area out! And over here… Julian, I want a carousel right here!” Julian stood beside her, a gentle smile on his face. To any outsider, they looked like the perfect couple. If only they weren’t destroying my daughter’s memorial. I stepped out of the car. Someone spotted me and started to speak, but froze when they saw the pistol I pulled from my coat. Chloe turned. “Ms. Blackwell…” I raised the gun and fired. The balloon in her hand exploded. “Ah!” she shrieked, diving into Julian’s arms. “Are you insane?!” Julian roared. I said nothing, striding toward them. I racked the slide, chambering another round, and fired again into the air. The chaos on the site ceased instantly. Everyone stared at me as if they’d seen a ghost. “Get out,” I said. Julian scowled. “Victoria.” “GET OUT!” I screamed. It had been years since anyone had pushed me to this point of losing control. No one moved. But Chloe, safe in Julian’s embrace, lifted her head, her eyes full of defiance. “Ms. Blackwell, why let the dead hoard so much space? It’s the living that matter, isn’t it?” At her words, Julian pulled her behind him, shielding her from my aim. He was afraid. Afraid I’d hurt his precious girl. “Victoria,” Julian said, his voice cold. “Summer is gone. We need to move on. Maybe… maybe it was for the best that she was never born.” My hand, clutching the trigger, began to tremble. “What did you just say, Julian?” His eyes held a flicker of something I hadn’t seen before: triumphant cruelty. “You were the one who sinned so much in your life, Victoria. Your hands are dirty. That’s why you couldn’t keep her.” He was talking about the blood I’d spilled to claw my way to the top. “Chloe is different,” he continued. “She’s clean. She’s pure. Summer’s soul was willing to be reborn through her. But you… you lost the right to be a mother forever.” He knew exactly where to twist the knife. “Go on, pull the trigger,” he goaded me. “Do it in front of Summer’s grave. Let her see what a monster her mother truly is.” My hand was shaking so badly I couldn’t aim. My assistant rushed to my side, but I pushed him away. “I’m fine.” I’m fine, Summer. Mommy’s fine. Mommy is so sorry. I’m taking you home now. The chapel’s caretaker emerged with a simple, polished wooden box and placed it in my hands. I clutched it to my chest, just as I had clutched my daughter’s lifeless body on that storm-swept night, my own screams lost in the wind. If she had lived, she would be calling me ‘Mommy’ by now. As I staggered away, Julian called out. “Victoria, I won’t harm Summer’s memory. You can leave her here. This will be a place of joy soon.” Chloe chimed in. “That’s right, Ms. Blackwell! When Julian and I have our baby, she can be the big sister, watching over her little brother or sister from beneath the playground.” I ignored them. Julian stepped toward me, but my bodyguards leveled their guns at his chest. My voice was a raw whisper. “The first thing I ever taught you, Julian, was to have no attachments.” “I always thought you were a poor student. I was wrong.” “As of now, you’ve graduated.” This was war.
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