During breakfast, my husband hurled a mug of hot coffee toward me because I refused to hand my bank card to his sister. Then he looked at me coldly and said, “You either obey or you leave.” I went to the hospital, kept the report, returned home, and quietly left my wedding ring on the table.

I stared at the heavy black handgun resting on Cole's lap, my mind racing to find a way out of this moving trap.

The rain beat aggressively against the windshield, matching the frantic pounding of my own heart.

I knew that if Cole delivered me to the syndicate boss, I would be forced to transfer the funds and then immediately executed.

I forced myself to speak calmly, telling Cole that the offshore trust fund required dual biometric authentication to release the money.

I completely lied, claiming that the system needed both my fingerprint and a retinal scan from a secure terminal to process the transfer.

Cole gripped the steering wheel tightly, his jaw clenching as he processed this unexpected complication.

I quickly offered him a completely different deal, promising to wire him five hundred thousand dollars directly if he helped me destroy Daniel first.

He looked at me with a mixture of deep suspicion and undeniable, greedy curiosity.

I explained that Daniel's second wife, Sarah, possessed the original hard drives containing all of Daniel's blackmail material on the syndicate.

If Cole helped me get those drives from Sarah, he could leverage them to buy his own freedom from the criminal organization.

Cole remained completely silent for a long time, driving through the dark, winding rural roads outside the city limits.

He finally holstered his heavy weapon, deciding that taking down his dangerous boss was worth the massive risk.

We changed our destination, heading straight toward the wealthy, gated community where Daniel had hidden his second family.

When we arrived at the massive suburban mansion, the front door was already hanging wide open.

I stepped cautiously into the silent foyer, calling out Sarah's name into the dark, empty house.

“Which daughter is yours?” should have been a harmless question

The first wineglass shattered at 8:07 p.m

The moment the mafia boss’s wife called me “an illiterate servant,”

A sudden, bright spotlight clicked on from the top of the grand staircase, blinding us instantly.

Daniel walked slowly down the carpeted stairs, holding a trembling Sarah directly in front of him with a gun pressed hard against her temple.

Chapter 6 - The Desperate Deal