Pierre’s lips curled into a cruel smirk as he turned away, casually adjusting his cufflinks like none of this mattered—like my world hadn’t just been obliterated by his words. He didn’t even look back as he walked toward the restaurant doors.

But I wasn’t done.

A furious heat surged through my body, and before I even realized what I was doing, I grabbed the nearest chair and hurled it with all the strength I had left. The crash was thunderous. The chair missed by inches, smashing into the wall behind him.

Pierre spun around, face darkening with rage. He stormed toward me like a bullet. I braced myself.

His hand collided with my cheek so hard my vision blurred.

“You pathetic, worthless bitch,” he hissed. “You were never anything more than a rich pawn—a golden ticket your father handed to me.”

I staggered back, heart hammering, but he wasn’t done.

“You think those miscarriages were just fate?” he whispered coldly. “Sharon and I planned them all. Stress, threats, trauma—every time you started to hope for a family, we took it away.”

I felt my knees give way. My lungs refused to draw breath. The pain of every loss I had endured came crashing into me all at once.

Then—the click of metal.

He pulled a gun from beneath his jacket, pointing it directly at my chest.

“Let’s make sure you don’t cause more trouble,” he growled.

The barrel gleamed under the restaurant lights, steady in his cruel hands. I thought this was it. That everything would end here, in the hands of the man who destroyed me.

But then, the door creaked open.

A tall man in a dark overcoat and wide-brimmed hat stepped inside, his presence as chilling as the air that followed him. Pierre immediately lowered the gun.

“Dad,” he said.

My heart dropped. The man’s sharp eyes met mine, and I knew his name as printed on his elegant walking stick.

Don Victorio. Francis’s father.

In silence, more men entered the restaurant. Suited, grim-faced, ruthless. One of them grabbed my arm. Another struck me across the back of the neck. I kicked and screamed, but it was no use. Then came a sharp sting—electric shock ripping through my body. My world went black.

I awoke tied to a metal post in the center of a grand stage.

Dim lighting flickered overhead, casting eerie shadows. A velvet curtain framed the room. In front of me, a crowd filled the seats, silent and watching. They wore masks—elaborate, jeweled, porcelain.

I couldn’t see their faces. But I felt their eyes.

"Welcome to tonight’s exclusive auction," a voice boomed from the stage speakers.

I tried to scream, but my mouth was taped. My heart pounded against my ribs as the bidding began.

“We start at $1 million.”

My body trembled with disbelief.

“Two million.”

“Five.”

“Seven.”

The numbers climbed, each call colder than the last. I was no longer a person. I was property.

I felt tears trace down my cheeks. Not from fear. From the unbearable shame. The humiliation. And the betrayal.

An hour passed. Finally, a voice from the back called out, calm and powerful:

“Ten million.”

Gasps echoed through the room.

The auctioneer stilled, then banged the gavel. “Sold.”

Everything moved fast after that. Hands untied me, shoved me through a door behind the stage. Down a hallway. Into a private room with velvet walls and candlelit corners.

Waiting inside was a woman dressed in a sleek navy gown, her hair silver but elegant, swept into a bun. Her mask had been removed. I knew that face.

My jaw dropped.

“You,” I gasped. “You’re the woman from the prison—you asked me about my story.”

She nodded. “And you told it well.”

I fell to my knees. “Please. My son. My fiancé. Save them.”

Her expression softened. “Get up, child.”

I stood, shakily.

“I am Loretta Jill. I purchased you tonight because I owed you something—a chance.”

I blinked. “What do you mean?”

“You gave me hope once. In that prison. When I had none.”

I tried to make sense of her words.

“Listen to me carefully,” Loretta said. “You’re not free yet. The family that ran this auction—they don’t just release people. They test them. And test me.”

“Test?”

“I need to prove my loyalty. That I didn’t buy you to help you. That I bought you for power. Until they believe that, you stay in their custody.”

My stomach sank.

Weeks passed in captivity. I was fed, guarded, locked inside a marble cell that mocked the idea of freedom. Loretta visited often, never touching, always watched. But she spoke to me in codes, assuring me she was doing everything she could.

And then, one morning, the door opened.

Loretta stood there, surrounded by guards. She gave a slight nod.

“Let’s go.”

We boarded a helicopter on a hidden helipad. As it lifted into the skies, I stared at Loretta. She looked flawless, composed, not at all like a woman who had once been an inmate.

I had to ask.

“How did you escape the jail fire?”

She smiled faintly. “I didn’t. I stayed behind while everyone ran. I stayed quiet. And eventually, someone came.”

“Who?”

“Sergio Osmeña. One of the wealthiest men in the city. He found me. I seduced him. Became his mistress. And in return, he gave me this.”

She gestured out the window.

Below us lay a hidden estate nestled between mountains. A palace built underground. Luxury unlike anything I’d ever seen.

“All of this is mine now,” she said. “And you’re under my protection.”

Tears welled in my eyes. For the first time in what felt like forever, I exhaled.

But the questions lingered.

As we stepped into her mansion, I turned to her.

“Why?” I whispered. “Why does the Troillan family want me in an auction? Why test you with me?"

Loretta paused, then turned to me slowly.

“Because your ex-husband arranged it,” she said.

My heart skipped.

“Pierre?”

She nodded.

“He staged the auction to prove to the mafia that he no longer loved you. That you were just a pawn. It was a test.”

My chest tightened.

“But here’s what they didn’t expect,” she continued, voice grim.

“Pierre’s been watching you and he doesn't want you to marry the poor Francis. It's too dangerous to marry a ruthless man. And from the moment he realized who Wayna Scott really was. He wants you back. And not for love. For power. For vengeance. He’s playing a game only he understands. Suddenly, he wants his child back from you when he found out that Sharon has HIV." She laughs.

WHAT? HOW?

I took a shaky breath, every bone in my body going cold.

What Pierre wanted, he always got.

But this time, I wouldn’t go down without a war.

The words hung in the air like a loaded gun.

“He’s been watching you since the beginning,” Loretta said, her voice steady but laced with urgency. “Pierre never intended to let you go.”

I felt a slow burn spread through my chest—not fear, not confusion—but rage. The kind of rage that simmers in silence, feeding off betrayal and loss. My ex-husband hadn’t just broken me; he’d built an entire performance of pain, orchestrated cruelty like a symphony conductor. And now I was the crescendo he planned to control.

“Then we make the first move,” I whispered, my fists curling so tightly I could feel my nails dig into flesh. “Before he does.”

Loretta's sharp eyes never blinked. "That’s what I wanted to hear."

We began that night.

Loretta led me through an elevator behind a painting in her study—the walls slid open like the set of a spy film. Below us, a sprawling underground facility buzzed with cold blue light. Weapons lined one wall, tech gear another. In the center stood a training ring.

"This is your battlefield now," she said.

For days, I became a different woman. Gone was the socialite in silk dresses and soft words. I trained from dawn to midnight. Firing ranges, close-combat sparring, tactical tech skills. My body screamed with every movement, bruises blooming like purple flowers across my ribs. Loretta didn’t go easy on me.

“Pain is your friend,” she told me as I winced from a knife nick on my palm. “It keeps you sharp. Alive.”

Each day hardened me. I was no longer running. I was preparing for war.

Five days later, we moved.

Under the identities of Iris Mendez and her European business partner, we arrived at the heart of the city: a private gentleman’s club known only to those with power and blood on their hands. Beneath it was one of the Troillan family’s oldest data vaults—a steel tomb of secrets.

We blended into the crowd like shadows. My black leather coat clung to me like armor. Loretta wore crimson, lips blood-red, eyes alert behind diamond-framed glasses. We moved like predators.

The club's interior was velvet and vice—cigar smoke curling through the air, whispers of dirty deals lingering in the corners.

Downstairs, the vault entrance was disguised as a wine cellar. A retinal scan, two voiceprints, and a six-digit code later, we were inside.

The cold hit first—the kind that gnawed at bones. Fluorescent lights flickered above racks of servers, humming with encrypted sins. We slipped past two guards knocked out with a silent dart Loretta had slipped from her thigh holster.

"There it is," I whispered, pointing to a drive marked in faded black ink: PROJECT ORCHID - D.CARTÉ

I moved fast, hands steady, heart thundering. The decryption tool Francis once gave me glowed green as it began extracting data.

Then everything went wrong.

Footsteps. Rapid. Heavy.

The lights flickered again—then cut completely.

Red emergency lights bathed the vault in a haunting glow.

Loretta drew her gun. “They know.”

“How?” I asked, panic rising.

“It doesn’t matter. Run!”

The flash drive popped free just as masked men stormed the corridor. Shouts. Muzzle flashes. I ducked behind a server tower as bullets tore into metal.

Loretta fired three shots, each one deadly accurate.

"Now, Wayna!"

I sprinted, adrenaline burning through my veins. I kicked open a side panel, crawled through a ventilation shaft, and found myself above an open stairwell. I didn’t hesitate. I jumped.

Glass shattered around me as I crashed through a third-story window, plummeting into the icy black river below.

The shock of cold water slammed into me like cement. My lungs locked. The current seized me, dragging me under. I fought upward, arms flailing, water filling my nose and mouth. Finally, I surfaced, gasping, blinking away salt and blood.

I swam until my muscles gave out and dragged myself onto the muddy shore, teeth chattering. Somewhere behind me, sirens echoed.

I disappeared into the shadows.

The safehouse was no more than four concrete walls and a rusted bedframe, but it was quiet. I stripped off my soaked clothes, wrapped myself in a scratchy blanket, and tried not to think about how close death had come.

The burner phone buzzed.

I answered with trembling fingers.

"W-Wayna? Wife?"

I froze. That voice.

"Francis?"

“Yes. I’m alive. But I don’t have long. They’re moving me constantly—every few hours. I escaped once. They caught me again.”

Tears blurred my vision. “I thought you were dead. I thought—”

“You have to listen to me,” he said urgently. “Someone’s feeding them information. Someone close to you. Someone you trust."

Static. Then the line cut.

I stared at the silent phone.

Someone I trust.

I returned to Loretta’s estate at dawn, drenched, shivering, and silent. She was waiting with warm towels, a robe, and hot jasmine tea. No questions. No judgments.

“I got the data,” I said quietly.

Her lips twitched with relief. “Good.”

Then she handed me a manila folder.

“If you’re starting to doubt me, open this.”

I did.

The photo inside made my blood run cold.