Chapter 1

Two days before New Year's Eve, my boyfriend and I were driving to his family's estate outside Chicago to celebrate the holidays with the Sullivan crime family.

Leo Sullivan was the eldest son of one of the city's most powerful Mafia bosses, and after three years together, I was practically considered part of the family.

We'd already agreed that I'd buy his younger sister the latest iPhone for her seventeenth birthday. It was an expensive gift, but I didn't mind. After all, I wanted to make a good impression on my future in-laws.

But halfway through the drive, Leo suddenly changed his mind.

"Forget the phone," he said casually, one hand resting on the steering wheel. "Just give her seventeen grand in cash. A thousand for every year she's been alive."

I turned to stare at him.

"Seventeen thousand dollars?"

He shrugged. "She's moving to Chicago soon. Consider it a welcome gift from her future sister-in-law. Besides, you're marrying into the Sullivan family. You can't afford to look cheap."

I frowned. Even by Mafia standards, seventeen thousand dollars was an outrageous amount to demand without warning.

"Leo, we agreed on the phone. You can't just expect me to hand over that kind of money because you changed your mind."

His expression darkened.

Before I could say another word, he slammed his foot on the accelerator.

The black SUV surged forward, weaving past the other cars. Then he abruptly pulled onto the shoulder of the deserted interstate.

"Get out."

I stared at him in disbelief.

"Leo, it's freezing outside."

"Then maybe the cold will teach you some respect."

He unlocked the passenger door and ordered me out.

The moment my boots touched the asphalt, he sped away, leaving me alone beside the highway.

The bitter Chicago winter wind sliced through my coat. Within minutes, my fingers had gone numb, and my teeth were chattering uncontrollably.

I called him again and again. I sent dozens of messages, begging him to come back.

He ignored every single one.

Thirty minutes later, I finally stopped shaking long enough to think clearly.

I looked down at my phone, deleted the messages I'd sent him, and dialed the Illinois State Police.

When the dispatcher answered, my voice was perfectly calm.

"Hello. I'd like to report a stolen vehicle."

I glanced toward the empty highway where Leo had disappeared.

"My boyfriend just took my SUV without my permission. He's heading toward the Sullivan family estate outside Chicago."

……

I was thirty years old, and Leo Sullivan and I had been together for four years.

He was only the second man I'd ever dated, and the first one who'd made me seriously consider marriage.

Leo was the eldest son of the Sullivan crime family, one of the most influential Mafia organizations in Chicago. His father controlled half the city's underground gambling operations, while Leo had spent years building his own connections within the family business.

Dating a man like him meant accepting a world where loyalty was everything and family obligations came before personal interests.

I'd known that from the beginning.

But for four years, Leo had treated me well. He'd been attentive, protective, and surprisingly gentle for a man raised among violence and bloodshed.

I'd genuinely believed we had a future together.

We'd even agreed to spend the New Year's holiday at his family's estate, where I would officially meet his parents. Afterward, he was supposed to visit mine so we could settle on a wedding date.

In Mafia families, meeting the parents wasn't some casual dinner. It meant being formally acknowledged as a future member of the family.

I took that seriously.

Before leaving Chicago, I'd spent days selecting gifts for his parents.

Two bottles of rare, twenty-five-year-old Scotch for his father. Two boxes of imported Cuban cigars, the kind reserved for men who conducted business behind closed doors. For his mother, I'd chosen expensive wellness supplements, imported vitamins, and luxury health tonics.

Everything was top of the line.

The gifts had cost me several thousand dollars, but I hadn't complained.

I wanted his family to know I respected them, regardless of their reputation.

And more importantly, I wanted Leo to be proud of the woman he'd chosen.

I'd thought of practically everything.

Except his younger sister.

Leo had mentioned Libby Sullivan only a handful of times during our relationship.

She was seventeen, the youngest child in the family, and unlike Leo, she'd spent most of her childhood at a secluded Sullivan property in rural Illinois, far from the family's operations in Chicago.

According to Leo, Libby had recently done terribly on her SATs.

Their parents were planning to bring her into the city, enroll her in a private preparatory school, and give her another chance at the exams the following year.

When Leo brought it up, he'd looked almost embarrassed.

"She's had a rough time out there," he'd explained. "Dad's always been too busy running the family to pay much attention to her education."

I'd considered it for a moment before offering a suggestion.

"When I was her age, all I wanted was a decent phone. Kids practically live on them now, and they're useful for studying, too. Why don't I get her the latest iPhone?"

Leo had smiled and agreed immediately.

"She'll love that. You're always so thoughtful, Nora."

I'd taken him at his word.

But halfway to the Sullivan estate, he'd suddenly decided an iPhone wasn't enough.

"Actually, forget the phone," he said, keeping his eyes on the interstate. "Libby would rather have cash."

I glanced over at him.

"How much cash?"

"Seventeen thousand dollars."

For a moment, I thought I'd misheard him.

"Seventeen thousand?"

"One grand for every year she's been alive." He said it as casually as if he were asking me to pick up a box of chocolates. "It's a nice gesture. Something from her future sister-in-law to welcome her to Chicago."

I stared at him.

Seventeen thousand dollars.

For a seventeen-year-old girl I'd never even met.

I'd already spent a fortune preparing gifts for his parents. Now he expected me to hand his little sister enough money to buy a decent used car.

"Leo, you can't be serious."

He finally glanced at me.

"I'm completely serious."

"That's an absurd amount of money for a birthday gift."

His jaw tightened slightly.

"Libby's spent her whole life stuck out in the countryside while the rest of us lived comfortably in Chicago. She missed out on a lot, Nora. Now that the family's doing well, don't you think she deserves something nice?"

I almost laughed.

The Sullivans weren't some struggling family that had finally clawed its way out of poverty.

They owned casinos, nightclubs, warehouses, and more legitimate businesses than I could count. Their family estate alone was worth millions.

If Leo wanted to compensate his sister for a difficult childhood, he had more than enough money to do it himself.

Instead, he was asking me to pay.

He reached across the center console and took my hand.

"Come on, sweetheart. You're going to be her sister-in-law. Think how happy she'll be when she realizes how much you care."

His voice was warm.

His eyes were soft.

But there was something calculating beneath that tenderness, something that made my stomach tighten.

I pulled my hand away.

"If you think Libby deserves seventeen thousand dollars, give it to her yourself."

His smile faltered.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means she's your sister, Leo. Not mine. Why am I suddenly responsible for making up for everything she missed growing up?"

He went quiet.

I wasn't against giving Libby a generous present.

A new phone, a designer handbag, even a few thousand dollars if the occasion called for it. I could understand wanting to make a good impression.

But seventeen thousand dollars, demanded at the last minute?

That wasn't generosity.

That was someone seeing how much money they could squeeze out of me before I'd even married into the family.

And I wasn't stupid enough to play along.

Leo stared at me for several seconds.

Then he gave a short, uncomfortable laugh.

"Jesus, Nora. Relax."

I said nothing.

"I was only testing you."

I slowly turned toward him.

"Testing me?"

"Yeah." He shrugged, forcing a smile. "I wanted to see whether my future wife would be generous toward my little sister. That's all."

He paused, studying my expression.

"Look, if you don't want to give her the money, fine. I'm not going to force you."

The words sounded reasonable.

His tone didn't.

There was a faint accusation beneath every syllable, as though refusing to hand over seventeen thousand dollars somehow proved I wasn't worthy of becoming a Sullivan.

I felt a fresh wave of irritation.

Testing me?

I'd spent four years loving this man. I'd stood beside him through family disputes, late-night emergencies, and business troubles he couldn't discuss in public.

I'd never once asked him to prove his devotion by handing my relatives thousands of dollars.

Yet apparently, my willingness to marry him could be measured by how much cash I was prepared to give his sister.

That wasn't a test.

It was emotional blackmail.

And coming from a man who'd spent his entire life surrounded by Mafia power games, I suspected he knew exactly what he was doing.

I didn't bother arguing.

I turned away and stared through the passenger window.

Outside, the winter sky had darkened considerably.

Heavy clouds rolled over the Illinois countryside, swallowing what little daylight remained. A low rumble of thunder echoed in the distance.

Minutes later, rain began hammering against the windshield.

The wipers swept back and forth at full speed, barely keeping up with the downpour.

Cold air slipped through a narrow gap in the passenger window. The rubber seal had been damaged for weeks, and Leo still hadn't gotten around to fixing it.

I pulled my coat tighter around myself.

A shiver ran down my spine.

Leo noticed, but he didn't say anything.

Neither did I.

The silence inside the SUV grew heavier with every passing mile.

Normally, Leo would have reached for my hand by now. He would have apologized, cracked some ridiculous joke, or turned on my favorite song until I finally smiled.

This time, he kept both hands on the steering wheel.

His face remained unreadable.

I watched the dark road ahead and wondered when a simple holiday visit had turned into a negotiation over money.

By the time we reached a highway rest stop, the rain had eased into a cold drizzle.

Leo pulled into the parking lot beside a nearly empty diner.

He switched off the engine and sat there for a moment before finally turning toward me.

"Nora Henson," he said, his voice strangely casual, as though our argument had never happened. "I'm going inside to grab something to eat."

He nodded toward the diner.

"Want anything?"