Chapter 5 - The Gilded Cage
The betrayal burned like acid in Dominic's chest.
Celeste had discovered the truth about the maid and the babies long before he did.
She had smiled in his face while secretly sending poison to murder his bloodline.
Dominic walked back into the medical room with a cold, terrifying calm.
Layla was awake, staring out the reinforced window at the falling snow.
"You are never returning to that apartment," Dominic announced.
Layla turned to him with a flash of anger.
"You cannot keep me here against my will."
"You threw me away like garbage four months ago."
Dominic walked over and knelt beside her bed, bringing himself to her eye level.
"I threw away a maid who I thought was a liability."
"I did not know I was discarding the only woman who ever made me feel alive."
He gently placed his large hand over her swollen stomach.
"Celeste is the one poisoning you."
Layla gasped, her anger instantly replaced by terrifying clarity.
"She wants to kill the twins so her own future children will inherit your empire," Layla whispered.
Dominic nodded slowly.
"I will destroy her and her father for daring to touch what is mine."
"But until they are dead, you will remain in this safehouse under absolute protection."
He kissed her forehead, a gentle promise of brutal vengeance.
Dominic left the safehouse and drove directly to his downtown penthouse.
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He expected to find Celeste packing her designer clothes.
Instead, he walked out of the private elevator and found his living room filled with fifty heavily armed mercenaries.
