Left To Drown: The Heiress's Cold Departure

Outfit's heir, a bond sealed by b

o the freezing pool at our engageme

am pa

her like fragile glass, while I struggled aga

and humiliated before the entire underworld

g a scene, El

e stairs, shattering my knee and my dance career

pirit. She needs to learn she's property, not a partner. Once

urn to its master. He thought he could starv

as w

protector to his mistress,

his ring into

fer to UCLA and enro

g, I was already in New York, standing next to a m

pte

a Car

n't deep, but it was cold enough to

ging to my legs like a wet cement anchor,

rted, rippling su

Li

ed my heart since I was five years old. The man who

dov

exive, desperate relief. He

dn't swim

am pa

nning, the girl who had just shoved me in. She was flailing, screaming a perfo

gainst his chest like she was made

hit me harder than the cold. I stood

zero spreading through my veins. I waded to the edge, d

opped mid-note. Every eye in the Chicago underworld

he mistress while the fiancée dripped mudd

ently. He stripped off his jacket and wr

did he l

rmth. There was no apology

liana," he said, his voic

ng so hard I thought they mig

her face against the silk. "I slipped! I

Jax didn't care about the truth. He cared about

smissing me like a disobedien

whispered, the words tasting like chlo

alpable. He was the son of the Underboss, a man who ha

Eliana," he said, loud enough for

nside my ch

everance. The tether that had bound me to him fo

ry. I didn

round and

up with-people who were now witnessing my social execution

b, but I dialed the number I had saved for

favor. The favor you promised my mother. The transfer t

ugh with sleep and confusi

lights of the city that was no longer m

before he

my empty room.

t. I moved like a robot, p

he dried corsage from junior prom. The silv

ies into the c

f the Chicago Outfit. I was done b

isciplined me. He thought

d put me exactly wh

f his