Chapter 20
If I couldn’t reach him with lies, I’d break him with love or at least, the version of it I could afford.
I walked into his study the next day and poured him a drink. Whiskey, smooth. Just a few drops of a slow sedative slipped inside. It wouldn’t knock him out, but it’d fog his head, keep him malleable, compliant. Dull the edge.
Lara came in, told him to avoid the city, too dangerous lately. “Stay here, Harvick,” she told him sweetly. “You have a child now. Think of Elodie.”
He didn’t argue. Just sat there, glass in hand, eyes dark, voice cold.
When I touched his shoulder, he didn’t flinch. But he didn’t warm either.
That night, I wore his favorite nightgown. Silk, crimson, nearly see–through. I made him another drink. I sat beside him and whispered that I missed him, needed him, craved him. He didn’t speak much. But he let me kiss him.
I thought maybe I won. Until he fell asleep. And said her name.
‘Danica…”
Like it was a prayer.
slapped him hard across the cheek before I even thought twice. He opened his eyes, slow and heavy, then grabbed my wrist like a beast waking from hibernation.
‘Try that again and see who ends up in a hospital bed for real.”
Then he shoved my wrist away and left.
stood in the doorway, shaking, heart in my throat, body burning. And I cried.
could feel it… he was slipping away…
That night while I was sleeping, I felt her breath on my skin.
t wasn’t real. I knew that but I still woke up gasping like someone poured ice water down my ungs. I looked around my room and it was empty, dark, silent. But I felt her. Like her ghost was stitched into the curtains, watching me with those dead eyes.
‘Stop it,” I whispered, holding my stomach as I sat up. “Stop haunting me.”
went to the mirror and saw her. Not in full but in the flash of my own eyes. The way my face contorted. It was her, not me. I screamed so loud the glass shook. I grabbed the lamp and smashed the mirror to hell. Shards flew. My hand bled. Still didn’t stop her voice.
You’re not her. You’ll never be her.‘
dropped to the floor and clutched my stomach, sobbing like a child left behind.
‘I’m the wife,” I told myself again and again. “I’m carrying his heir. I won. I fucking won!”
_ara came rushing in, eyes wide with panic. She saw the blood on my hand and wrapped it with shaking fingers.
‘Are you hallucinating again?” she asked in that careful tone.
“She’s doing something,” I hissed. “Aria. Danica. That witch. She’s cursing me. She’s using some… some spell on me or something. I can feel it inside me. My baby’s reacting to her presence. She wants Harvick to abandon his child–again!”
社
4:52 pm
Lara looked uncertain for the first time. She squeezed my hand and said softly, “He’ll come to his senses. He has to. You’re the one carrying his legacy.”
But I saw the fear in her eyes. She didn’t believe it anymore.
None of us did. And I knew if I waited one more day, Aria would take everything. My husband. My child’s future. My name. My life.
So I dressed in black and called the number I swore I’d never call again. The rival Don named Favio. A snake I once rejected at a gala years ago. He always said he’d still take me if I begged.
I begged.
I met him in a quiet mansion two towns over. He had his shirt unbuttoned and a glass of wine ir hand when I walked in.
“Well well well… Look what the devil spat back out,” he said with a grin.
I didn’t sit. I didn’t smile.
“I need her gone,” I told him. “Aria Velenza. Or Danica Monroe. Whatever name she’s crawling
around in now.”
He raised a brow. “You want me to kill your husband’s dead ex?”
“She’s not dead,” I hissed. “She’s back and she’s going to ruin everything. She’s already turnin Harvick against me. If she wins, I lose. And I’ve come too far to lose.”
He sat back and took a slow sip. “What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll give you access to the Ferrante accounts Lara gave me control over. And… me.” That got his attention. “You always said you wanted me,” I said slowly, stepping closer. “You said I’d loo! better in your bed than Harvick’s. Well… I’m offering.”
your
His eyes gleamed with sick satisfaction. “You’d trade your name, your bloodline, and child’s inheritance for revenge?”
I didn’t blink.
“I’ll trade everything,” I whispered. “and I’m not pregnant. I just want her gone.”
He stood and brushed my hair off my shoulder, his fingers rough. “Alright then. But if I find out you’re lying…” He leaned close to my ear. “…you’ll be the one buried, sweetheart.”
I forced a smile. I let him believe I was still in control. But inside, I was shaking. Because I knew
this wasn’t a deal.
It was a funeral waiting to happen.
And I just picked the casket I’d be dancing in.
DANICA’S POV
Jeremiah spent billion bidding on me and I didn’t know whether to be happy or not but it was hard to ignore the way my chest tightened when he did it.
He took me to an off–grid villa deep in the mountains. Secluded, luxurious, blanketed in shadow and quiet. The place reeked of wealth and danger, just like him.
So I trained.
