When I was three months pregnant, I walked straight into an ambush. A bullet tore through my arm, and they rushed me to the hospital.

By the time it was over, the baby had been torn out of me alive.

The surgeon, Mia, passed it off as a tragic mistake.

I tore the hospital apart, and my husband, Leon, only looked annoyed. "It's one kid. We'll have another. Why put the doctor through hell over it?"

Then I saw the smug woman standing behind him, and it all came together.

I smiled at Leon. What he didn't know was that in the gang shootout three months ago, the bullet to his stomach had left him sterile for good.

And that baby was the only blood he would ever have.

The grief, and the sheer weight of my broken body, finally dragged me under, and I blacked out.

Half-conscious, I heard Leon talking to Mia.

"Don't beat yourself up. I never wanted the kid anyway. If anything, you took care of a problem for me."

A problem.

He'd actually just called our own child a problem.

But I remembered it so clearly, the way his whole face had lit up when the pregnancy first showed.

He'd told me the baby and I were the two people he loved most in the world.

And in almost no time at all, his heart had turned.

"So how are you going to reward me?"

"What do you want?"

"I want... you."

"Easy, you little minx. We're in a hospital."

"You promised me a reward... and I want it right here, next to her."

The sounds that came next, the breathing, the bodies, kept echoing in my ears, and I couldn't shut them out.

My nails bit into my palms, and the fury rising in me was so total that I wanted to pull a gun and end them both on the spot.

But in the end, I forced the urge back down.

Because I heard Mia tell him, "I'm pregnant. One month along."

No one knew that in that shootout three months ago, a single round had torn into Leon's stomach, and that round was why he could never father a child again.

A mafia Don who couldn't sire an heir would have been finished.

So to shore up his standing in the family, I'd buried the truth.

And now that Mia was pregnant, it was the sweetest punishment he could possibly get.

You didn't want your own child, Leon? Fine. Then you could raise someone else's.

I couldn't wait to see the look on your face when you learned the truth.

When I woke the next morning, only Mia was left in the room.

The collar of her white coat hung open on purpose, showing off the kiss marks on her collarbone.

Then she smiled and asked me, "Did you enjoy the show last night?"

I dug my nails into my palm and slowly sat up.

"The miscarriage. You did it on purpose, didn't you."

Her lips curled. "And what if I did? You still think Leon's going to help you, Elodie? Don't be naive. The injury was to your arm. Anyone can see this was no accident."

"Besides, you heard Leon yourself last night, didn't you? He called that little brat a problem. So really, you should be thanking me. At least now the kid won't be born just to be despised by its own father!"

That was when I lost it. I stepped forward and slapped her across the face, hard.

Mia let herself drop with the slap and started sobbing like the wronged one. "I know you're hurting right now. If killing me would settle it, then do it. A life for a life. I won't stop you."

Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, and right then the door to the room slammed open.

Before I could react, a hard shove sent me sprawling to the floor.

"Elodie, I already told you it was an accident. You keep clawing at it. What exactly do you want?"

Leon crouched down by Mia, his face full of concern.

Mia leaned into his arms, eyes red, all timid and fragile. "Don't blame her. When it comes down to it, I'm the one who killed Elodie's baby. I should pay with my life."

"It was just a lump of dead tissue. Not worth a life."

Dead tissue?!

How could he call it dead tissue? It already had a heartbeat!

"Leon! That was our child! Don't you understand? That was the only one we'd ever—"

"Enough." Leon cut me off, irritation flat in his voice. "This ends here."

I wanted to say more, but a stabbing pain shot through my lower belly and took the words away.

"Leon, I..."

"Elodie? What's wrong?" Leon let go of Mia and started toward me.

Just then Mia clutched her stomach in pain. "My belly... it hurts so much..."

Almost on instinct, Leon retreated back to Mia's side, lifted her up, and carried her away.

"Leon... save me..." I used the last of my strength trying to keep him there.

But even as the blood spread red around me, he never once looked back.

The hemorrhaging knocked me out cold for another full day.

When I came to, Leon happened to be pushing the door open. He rushed to me, panic on his face, and gripped my hand tight.

I could see the lipstick print on his collar, plain as day.

"You were fine, so how did you suddenly start bleeding out like that? Do you have any idea how terrified I was?"

Sweat beaded across his forehead, and his eyes were rimmed with red.

He looked so heartbroken and devoted that anyone watching would have sworn he loved me to death.

I pulled my hand back and wiped it on the sheet like it was filthy, then told him, "Let's get a divorce."

"What?"

He stared at me, disbelief in every line of his face. "Over a lump of dead tissue, you want a divorce?"

"Elodie, when did you turn into someone this unreasonable?!"

He had more to say, but his phone suddenly rang.

He glanced at the caller ID, then looked back at me. "I already told you, we lost the kid, we can have another. But if you're going to keep using my love for you to drag this out forever, then I'm done indulging you. Think it through, then call me."

I watched his resolute back as he walked off, and felt nothing inside, calm as still water.

Maybe he still didn't grasp what losing me would actually mean.

Once he was well out of sight, I picked up the phone and called his half-brother, Cole. "I think it's time the Ashford family had a new Don."

All these years, I'd fought and bled for Leon, survived death more times than I could count, and that was how I'd built the Ashford family into the power it was today.

Everyone envied Leon his pack of men who would die for him without a second thought.

What they didn't know was that I was the real heart of the whole organization.

If I wanted it, I could put anyone I chose in that position.

A few hours later, a friend request popped up on my phone.

I had a pretty good idea who it was, so I accepted it.

She didn't say a word, but a minute earlier a new post had gone up on her feed.

In the photo, a man in a pink apron stood cooking at the stove.

The caption read: "Pregnancy's made her so picky about food. Lucky she's got me. Love you."

I stared at the photo, calm, and suddenly thought back to my own early weeks of pregnancy.

The morning sickness had killed my appetite for days, and all I'd craved were the noodles Leon used to make.

But when I asked him for them, he'd been so impatient. "I'm the Don now. Cooking my own meals? How undignified!"

Looking back now, it was never the title holding him back.

It was that I'd never been worth even a sliver of his tenderness.

I quietly switched off the phone, looked out the window, and let my palm settle on my stomach.

“Don't worry, baby. Mommy is going to make them pay for this!”

A week later, I was discharged.

But I didn't rush off. First I tracked down the doctor who'd treated Leon back then.

With his help, I got hold of Leon's medical file.

And just as I stepped out of his office, someone slammed hard into me.

The file in my hands scattered across the floor.

"Are you blind?!" Leon snapped, Mia tucked tight behind him, glaring at me.

He clearly hadn't expected it to be me. The instant he registered my face, a flicker of panic crossed it. He let go of Mia and came over. "Elodie. What are you doing here?"

I ignored him and bent down to gather up the file.

But Leon got to it a step ahead of me. "What is this?"

His eyes raced across the page.

"Infertile—"

Before he could finish, I snatched it out of his hand.

Surprise crossed his face. "Elodie. You can't have children?"

So he hadn't caught the name on it.

I had no intention of telling him otherwise. I just admitted it. "That's right, Leon. You'll never have an heir!"

"No. Elodie, you're lying to me, aren't you?" Leon's hands clamped down on both my arms, and a faint sheen of water rose in those deep dark eyes.

In that moment I saw it clearly, a last scrap of feeling left in him.

But after a thousand heartbreaks, I no longer wanted it.

"Let go of me!" I fought against him, but his hands held me like cast iron.

The next second, a strong hand caught mine and yanked me back. "Didn't you hear her tell you to let go?"

Leon's hand flew to his waist and he leveled a gun at us. "Cole. You bastard, how you dare talk to me like that? Let her go, do you hear me!"

Cole pulled me behind him on instinct. "And what if I don't?"

"You fucking die!"

Leon racked the slide, and just as he was about to pull the trigger, I threw myself between them and shouted, "Leon, what the hell are you doing!"

When he saw me, Leon put the gun away.

I shot him a glare, turned to Cole, and said, "Let's go."

Watching Elodie leave with Cole, the rage Leon had been holding down in his chest came surging up.

He moved to chase after them, but Mia caught his hand. "Doesn't this whole thing seem off to you?"

"It was just a routine termination. How does that leave a woman unable to have children?"

Leon's brow knit tight. "You're saying she lied to me?"

Mia pressed her lips together and said nothing.

He let out a cold grunt. "Lied or not, I can't take that risk."

With that, he closed his hand around Mia's. "Come home with me. Starting today, you stay at the estate and take care of the baby."

Once we'd left the hospital, Cole asked me, "Elodie, are you really sure about this?"

"Why? You don't want to be Don?"

"Of course I do. For years Leon's used that title to butcher God knows how many ordinary people and slaughter God knows how many innocents. It's just, with my standing—"

"Standing is something you take for yourself, not something other people decide for you. You have seven days. Settle every holding and every account the family has. Seven days from now, the Ashford family gets a new head."