Chapter 2

I gave him a cold look.

"I'm not hungry. I'm going to the restroom."

The rain had finally begun to let up. A light drizzle still hung in the air, but it wasn't heavy enough to bother with an umbrella.

I pushed open the passenger door and hurried toward the rest stop, pulling my coat tighter around myself.

By the time I'd finished washing my hands and stepped back outside, Leo was already waiting in the black Mercedes SUV.

The engine was running.

For a brief moment, I thought he'd finally decided to put our argument behind us.

I jogged toward the passenger side.

But the instant my fingers brushed the door handle, the engine roared.

Leo slammed his foot on the accelerator.

The SUV shot forward, tires spraying rainwater across the pavement.

I stumbled backward, barely avoiding being knocked off my feet.

For two full seconds, I stood there frozen, my hand still suspended in midair.

I couldn't believe what had just happened.

Leo Sullivan, the man I'd loved for four years, had deliberately driven away and left me stranded at a highway rest stop.

By the time my mind caught up with what my eyes had seen, his taillights had already vanished into the rain.

"Leo?"

My voice came out as a whisper.

Then I fumbled for my phone.

I called him immediately.

The line rang once before an automated voice answered.

"The person you are calling is currently unavailable."

I tried again.

Same result.

Again.

And again.

Ten calls.

Every single one was rejected.

I opened our messages and typed furiously.

Leo, what the hell are you doing?

Come back right now.

This isn't funny.

None of the messages went through.

He'd blocked me.

I stared at the screen, feeling something inside my chest slowly turn to ice.

Four years.

I'd spent four years standing beside the heir to the Sullivan crime family, accepting the dangers that came with his name.

I'd attended dinners where armed guards stood behind every chair. I'd learned to ignore the whispers about missing shipments, territorial disputes, and men who disappeared after crossing his father.

I'd never interfered in Leo's business.

I'd never asked questions he couldn't answer.

And through it all, I'd believed that whatever happened outside our relationship, he would never turn that cruelty on me.

Apparently, I'd been wrong.

The drizzle continued falling.

Cold water seeped through my coat and soaked the sweater underneath. The wind swept across the nearly deserted parking lot, sharp enough to make my skin ache.

I stood there shivering, clutching my phone.

There was no point calling him again.

I knew exactly what he wanted.

He expected me to panic, apologize, and promise to give Libby Sullivan the seventeen thousand dollars he'd demanded.

Then, like some generous Mafia prince granting mercy, he'd come back for me.

The thought made my stomach churn.

Why should I?

I'd earned every dollar in my bank account.

I'd worked long hours, sacrificed weekends, and built my own career without relying on the Sullivan name.

Leo knew that.

He also knew I wasn't some helpless woman who needed his family's money to survive.

Yet he still thought he could force me into submission over a gift for his sister.

Seventeen thousand dollars.

For a girl I'd never met.

If he wanted to spoil Libby, he could empty his own bank account.

Why was I supposed to pay for his family's generosity?

I stumbled toward the concrete steps outside the rest stop and sat down.

My legs were trembling so badly I could barely keep them steady.

I wrapped my arms around my knees, buried my face against them, and finally broke down.

Tears spilled down my cheeks.

I hated myself for crying.

Not because of the money.

Not even because he'd abandoned me.

But because I'd genuinely believed this man loved me.

People passed by on their way into the diner.

A truck driver slowed down and glanced at me. A woman carrying a paper coffee cup gave me a concerned look.

I could feel their eyes on me.

I didn't care.

I was thirty years old, sitting alone in the freezing rain, crying over a man who'd just treated me like something disposable.

The future I'd imagined with Leo suddenly seemed like a cruel joke.

I didn't know how long I stayed there.

Eventually, my tears dried up.

My fingers had gone stiff, and I could barely feel my legs.

I forced myself to stand.

My knees nearly buckled beneath me.

Then I unlocked my phone and made one final call.

Not to Leo.

To the Illinois State Police.

"State Police. What's your emergency?"

I took a shaky breath.

"I need to report a stolen vehicle."

Ten minutes later, a state police cruiser pulled into the parking lot.

Two troopers climbed out.

One was a broad-shouldered man in his forties. The other was younger, with a serious expression that softened when he saw the state I was in.

"Ma'am, are you Nora Henson?"

I nodded.

"That's me."

The older trooper took one look at my soaked clothes and trembling hands.

"Let's get you somewhere warm first."

They helped me into the back of the cruiser, draped a thermal blanket over my shoulders, and handed me a cup of warm water.

I gripped it with both hands.

Even then, I couldn't stop shaking.

It took several minutes before I could speak properly.

"I had an argument with my boyfriend."

I paused.

"No. My ex-boyfriend."

The younger trooper looked up from his notepad.

"He left you here?"

I nodded.

"He waited until I came out of the restroom. When I reached for the passenger door, he drove off."

"Was the vehicle his?"

"No."

My voice grew steadier.

"It's mine."

The older trooper raised an eyebrow.

"You're saying he took your vehicle without permission?"

"Yes. And he's refusing to return it."

The Mercedes had been a graduation gift from my parents.

They'd bought it for me when I finished college, long before Leo Sullivan entered my life.

It wasn't just an expensive car.

It was something my parents had given me to celebrate years of hard work.

When Leo and I first started dating, he was still trying to establish himself within the Sullivan organization.

Despite being the boss's eldest son, he'd insisted on handling certain legitimate businesses independently.

He'd told me he didn't want to spend his life living off his father's money.

I'd admired that.

A year earlier, he'd complained about how inconvenient it was to travel across Chicago for meetings without a reliable vehicle.

He said using the family's armored SUVs for every little errand attracted too much attention.

So I'd offered him mine.

"Take the Mercedes," I'd told him. "I don't use it every day anyway."

He'd kissed my forehead and promised to take good care of it.

For the past year, he'd driven it almost exclusively.

I'd never asked for it back.

But that didn't make it his.

I could walk away from four years of memories.

I could accept that the man I'd planned to marry had abandoned me in the freezing rain.

But my car?

What gave him the right to take something that belonged to me?

The younger trooper asked for the license plate number and registration details.

I gave him everything.

After checking the vehicle information, he confirmed that the Mercedes was registered in my name.

Then he asked for Leo's phone number.

I recited it from memory.

The older trooper made the call.

To my surprise, Leo answered almost immediately.

"Sullivan."

"Mr. Sullivan, this is Trooper Harris with the Illinois State Police. We're contacting you regarding a Mercedes-Benz registered to Nora Henson."

There was a brief silence.

Then Leo spoke.

"What about it?"

"Ms. Henson has reported that you left her at a highway rest stop and drove away in her vehicle. She's requesting its immediate return."

I could hear Leo's irritated laugh through the speaker.

"Seriously? She called the cops over that?"

Trooper Harris didn't laugh.

"Sir, where is the vehicle currently located?"

"I'm already home."

My head snapped up.

Home?

The Sullivan estate was still nearly three hours away.

There was absolutely no way he'd reached it in the short time since abandoning me.

He was lying.

"I'll bring the car back after New Year's," Leo continued. "Tell Nora to stop making a scene. It's a family matter."

I nearly laughed.

A family matter?

We weren't even married.

And apparently, being the heir to a Chicago Mafia family had convinced him that ordinary laws didn't apply to him.

Trooper Harris's expression hardened.

"Mr. Sullivan, the registered owner has withdrawn her permission for you to use the vehicle. You need to arrange its return immediately."

Leo gave an impatient sigh.

"Look, Officer, I've got family waiting for me. I'm not turning around over a stupid argument with my girlfriend."

"Mr. Sullivan, I'm advising you that continued unauthorized possession of the vehicle could result in criminal charges. You need to cooperate."

"Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

The question came out cold.

For the first time since the call began, I recognized the voice Leo used when dealing with people who challenged the Sullivan family.

It was the same voice I'd heard him use with nightclub managers, security contractors, and men who owed his father money.

Trooper Harris remained calm.

"I'm speaking to Leo Sullivan. And I'm telling you to return Ms. Henson's vehicle."

A sharp click sounded.

Leo had hung up.

The trooper stared at his phone.

Then he dialed again.

This time, the call went straight to voicemail.

Leo had switched his phone off.

For several seconds, nobody spoke.

The younger trooper exchanged a look with his partner.

"Well," he muttered, "that was a bad decision."

I lowered my eyes to the cup in my hands.

A strange calm settled over me.

Leo had always been proud of the Sullivan name.

In Chicago, people lowered their voices when they mentioned his father. Business owners smiled nervously when Leo walked through their doors.

He'd grown accustomed to getting his way.

But this time, he'd made a mistake.

The Mercedes wasn't registered to the Sullivan family.

It wasn't one of their armored vehicles or a car purchased through one of their shell companies.

It belonged to me.

And I had no intention of letting him keep it.

I took a slow breath.

Leo Sullivan, you wanted to teach me a lesson?

Fine.

Let's see how much you enjoy the lesson I'm about to teach you.

Whatever plans the Sullivan family had made for New Year's, I was done protecting Leo from the consequences of his own behavior.

The troopers took my formal statement and brought me to the station while they documented the report and attempted to locate the vehicle.

I stayed there until my parents arrived.

The moment my mother walked through the door, she spotted me sitting beneath a borrowed blanket.

"Nora!"

She hurried across the room and pulled me into her arms.

Her familiar perfume hit me first.

Then came the warmth of her embrace.

I'd managed to hold myself together in front of the troopers, but the moment I heard her voice, my composure crumbled.

"Mom..."

She took my hands between hers.

They were still icy.

Then she touched my cheeks, which had turned red and raw from the cold.

Her eyes immediately filled with tears.

"Oh, sweetheart."

Her voice trembled.

"Look at you. You're freezing."

She turned my hands over, rubbing them gently as though she could erase everything that had happened simply by warming my fingers.

"You've never been treated like this in your entire life."

She swallowed hard.

"How did loving someone end with you sitting in a police station, half-frozen and crying?"

I opened my mouth.

Nothing came out.

My throat tightened, and fresh tears slipped down my cheeks.

When I'd first introduced Leo to my parents four years earlier, they'd known exactly who he was.

The Sullivan name carried a reputation that extended far beyond Chicago.

My father had quietly investigated his family, and my mother had worried about the kind of life I'd have if I married into the Mafia.

But neither of them had forbidden the relationship.

They'd never tried to control whom I loved.

My father had simply told me, "Nora, you're an adult. You know what you're choosing. As long as he treats you well and you're happy, your mother and I will respect your decision."

And for four years, I'd insisted that Leo made me happy.

I'd defended him whenever someone questioned his family's reputation.

I'd told my parents that the man I loved wasn't defined by his father's business.

I'd believed every word.

Now, sitting in my mother's arms with my clothes still damp from the rain, I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eye.

Because the man I'd defended for four years had abandoned me over seventeen thousand dollars.

And my parents had been the ones forced to come and bring me home.