Chapter 1 - The Crimson Skull
Mia looked up at the towering billionaire without an ounce of fear. "Because Mommy cries in the kitchen every night when she looks at the papers with the red bleeding skull on them." The silence in the executive hallway suddenly shifted from awkward to absolutely terrifying. I gasped and grabbed my daughter's hand, pulling her slightly behind my legs. I had hidden those threatening debt collection letters at the very bottom of my bedroom closet. My late husband had left us drowning in massive gambling debts, but I had no idea Mia had ever seen the criminal crest. Adrian's rare amusement instantly vanished, replaced by a cold and incredibly sharp intensity. He did not look at me with pity or anger, but with absolute calculation. "A red skull with a crown of thorns?" Adrian asked, his voice dangerously quiet. Mia nodded cheerfully. "Yes, the scary skeleton." I tried to apologize, desperately hoping to somehow save my career. "Adrian, I am so incredibly sorry, she watches too many scary cartoons." "I will take her back to my office right now and this will never happen again." Adrian completely ignored my frantic rambling. He pulled his expensive phone from his tailored suit pocket and typed a rapid message. "Cancel the board meeting immediately," he told his hovering executive assistant. The assistant looked bewildered but immediately scurried away down the hall. Adrian finally locked his piercing gray-blue eyes on mine. "Bring her into my private office, right this second." I swallowed hard, absolutely certain I was about to be fired and thrown out onto Park Avenue. I picked up Mia and walked into the massive, glass-walled executive suite. The heavy oak doors clicked shut behind us, sealing us inside the luxurious room. Adrian did not sit behind his massive mahogany desk. He walked directly over to a hidden wall safe and punched in a long digital code. "Your husband was David Miller, wasn't he?" Adrian asked without looking back. My blood ran completely cold. I had never told anyone at the firm my late husband's name, having reverted to my maiden name years ago. "How could you possibly know that?" I whispered, my heart pounding violently against my ribs. Adrian pulled a thick manila envelope from the safe and tossed it onto his glass desk. The envelope slid across the smooth surface and stopped right in front of my shaking hands. Printed clearly on the center of the brown paper was the exact same red bleeding skull. "Because David Miller didn't die in a tragic car accident three years ago," Adrian said softly. "He stole fifty million dollars from my family's syndicate, and he is very much alive."
