Chapter 1 - THIRTY
The thirtieth strike was the one that ended my marriage.
Not the first.
Not the tenth.
Not even the moment my husband ordered two security men to tie my wrists above my head beneath the crystal chandelier at my own thirty-fifth birthday party.
It was the laugh afterward.
Adrian Cole lowered the riding crop, breathing hard, while fifty people in evening gowns stared at me.
"There," he said. "Maybe now Evelyn understands respect."
My shoulders burned. My wrists hurt. My lip tasted like blood where I had bitten it.
I lifted my face.
"You're right."
Adrian frowned.
"You finally taught me."
His mistress, Vanessa Hart, stood twenty feet away in a gold gown, holding a fresh glass of wine. Her smile returned.
Adrian stepped closer.
"What did I teach you?"
"That I should have listened to my brothers."
For the first time all night, his confidence cracked.
He knew I had brothers. He had simply never met them.
That had been intentional.
Adrian believed my parents died young and I grew up mostly alone. Technically true.
What he never asked was what happened to the five boys who grew up beside me in my grandmother's house.
Then headlights swept across the ballroom windows.
One black SUV.
Then another.
Then three more.
Adrian looked toward his security chief.
"Who the hell is that?"
The man's phone rang. He answered, listened, and went pale.
"Mr. Cole... there are five men at the gate."
"So?"
"They say they're Mrs. Cole's brothers."
I closed my eyes and smiled.
Three slow knocks hit the front door.
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
Then a voice I had not heard in person for three years came through the foyer.
"Adrian Cole. Untie our sister."
My oldest brother Gabriel had arrived.
May you like
And before Adrian could drop the crop, five licensed security officers had already covered every exit from outside.
Adrian finally looked afraid.
