Chapter 4

Daniel stormed up to me and laid into me without pause.

"I just don't get it. Why do you have to push this to the brink?"

"Don't you realize, the moment you set foot in the Commission you'll be convicted, and you'll drag the whole Vanetti family down with you. Then how am I supposed to marry Via?"

At first, I thought he was worried about me.

Turns out it was all for that little bitch.

"I've already worked it out with Mr. Vitale. He says as long as you go apologize and accept Via, he'll drop the case."

"Mom, for my sake, just go and apologize..."

Before he could finish, I scoffed.

"Your sake? What's that worth?"

Daniel froze.

"Mom, what do you mean?"

I stood, walked up to him, and slapped him hard across the face!

The blow sent him staggering a step, and then he stared at me in disbelief.

"Why did you hit me?"

"Because you're blind and witless... someone should have taught you better long ago."

I raised my hand and patted his cheek, again and again. "The thing I hate most in this world is an ungrateful creature like you."

"I gave you a second life, gave you glory and power beyond measure, and you turn on me for some worthless dogs who mean nothing to us."

"Fine. Then go run off and play house with your little bitch."

"Pass the word down. As of today, I sever all ties with Daniel Vanetti and cast him out of the Vanetti family. From now on, anyone who dares help him will be shot!"

Daniel's eyes went wide. "You're disowning me?"

I didn't bother answering him. I just waved a hand.

Two men rushed in at once and pinned Daniel between them.

"Mirabelle! You can't throw me out of the Vanetti family!"

"I'm the next heir to this family!"

The next heir?

Big talk.

Just a stray dog I picked up off the street. Give him a few years of easy living, and he actually thinks he's the master of the house.

The same breed as Louis, ungrateful wolves who bite the hand that feeds them!

"Go. Tell the Chairman I'll be there on time tomorrow."

My men, seeing they couldn't change my mind, withdrew.

I sat back down at my desk and took an old, yellowed photograph from a side drawer.

It was a picture of the three of us, taken just after my mother had given birth to my brother.

I traced my mother's face gently, and my eyes stung with tears.

"Mom, twenty years. I've finally gotten my chance for revenge."

That night, I hardly slept a wink.

In the small hours, I heard movement outside my door.

Gun in hand, I edged toward the door one step at a time.

I opened it, but there was no one there.

I went straight to the security room, where the man on the monitors told me some signal interference had come out of nowhere and turned all the footage to static.

I sneered. Did these people really think Mirabelle had spent the last twenty years doing nothing?

I dismissed my man and typed a few lines of code into the computer.

It was a top-level surveillance system I'd set up myself in case anyone tried to sabotage me. No one knew about it but me.

In moments, all the missing footage came back up.

I never expected it to be him!