Chapter 1

For years, I was known as Killian Emerson's only weakness, the anchor for the ruthless crime boss while he built an empire. I thought it was for us, a life he was building to protect me.

But then I found out the truth. My high school bully, Dallas, was his mistress. He paraded her around at galas, bought her penthouses, and funded her multi-million-dollar cat sanctuary.

He bought her a sanctuary for stray cats while my brother was dying. I begged him for money for a life-saving treatment, but he told me he was busy and hung up. My brother died alone. Killian didn't even come to the funeral.

When he finally called, he sounded bored. "Sorry to hear about your brother," he said casually, while I could hear Dallas in the background asking him to go ring shopping.

In that moment, the last bit of love I had for him simply died. He had forgotten every promise, even the one he made to ruin Dallas for carving "Worthless" into my wrist years ago.

Now, he protects her. He even let her crush the last memento my brother ever made for me, then broke my wrist when I lunged at her. After a car crash he caused, he left me bleeding in the wreckage to save Dallas, without a single look back.

But the biggest secret was yet to come. Lying in a hospital bed, a call from the county clerk revealed the truth. Killian and I were never legally married. The entire foundation of my life was a lie designed to control me.

And now, I'm taking back everything he stole from me. Starting with his empire.

Chapter 1

Elena POV:

The underworld used to whisper that I was Killian Emerson's only weakness.

The truth, I now know, is far simpler: I was merely his anchor, the one thing holding him steady while he built an empire meant to protect a life I was never destined to share.

The secret wasn't even a secret anymore. Killian's affair with Dallas Lucas-the girl who had been my personal nightmare in high school-was splashed across every gossip blog and society page.

The final nail in the coffin had been the charity gala two months ago. It was supposed to be our night, a rare public appearance together. I had spent hours getting ready, choosing a dress the color of his eyes, only to watch him step out of his Maybach on the evening news, her hand on his arm.

He didn't even bother to call.

After that, the silence in our mansion became a living, breathing thing. The bed grew cold, dinners were canceled with terse texts from his assistant, and the space between us stretched into a chasm of ice.

Dallas made sure I felt every inch of it. DMs would appear on my phone, sent "accidentally" from Killian's account-selfies of her wearing my emerald necklace, the one he'd given me on our first anniversary, her lips curved into a smug, triumphant smile.

While she played dress-up with my life, my own world was ending.

My brother, Leo, was dying. A rare genetic disorder was eating him alive from the inside out.

Killian had promised me years ago, back when he had nothing but the clothes on his back and a fire in his eyes, that he would move heaven and earth for Leo.

"Any treatment, Elena," he had vowed, his hand over his heart. "No matter the cost."

I called him a week ago, my voice cracking with a desperation that bordered on begging. A new experimental treatment, off-the-books and astronomically expensive, was Leo's last chance.

Killian cut me off, his voice laced with an irritation so profound it stole my breath.

"I'm busy," he'd snapped. I could hear Dallas in the background, laughing about some Persian cat she wanted.

A few days later, I saw the headlines. Killian Emerson, the ruthless Don of the city's most powerful crime family, the man who rose from the gutter to control shipping routes and politicians with an iron fist, had just funded a multi-million-dollar stray cat sanctuary.

It was Dallas's pet project, a PR move to soften his brutal public image.

He bought her a sanctuary for stray cats while my brother slipped through my fingers.

Leo is gone now.

In the suffocating quiet of my grief, my fingers moved on their own, finding a number I hadn't contacted in eight long years.

I sent a single text: *I need help.*

A reply came back instantly. *I'm on my way.*

Tonight, the television in Leo's empty hospital room is on, the volume turned low. Killian and Dallas are on the screen, cutting a ribbon at the grand opening of the sanctuary. They look happy, powerful. A perfect couple.

My gaze falls to the small, wooden music box on the nightstand, the last thing Leo ever made for me. Its simple, hand-carved birds are a world away from the glittering life on the screen. It's a memory of our humble beginnings, of a time when Killian's promises felt real.

Now, it is nothing more than a monument to the beautiful lies he built our life upon.