Victor - Her Ruthless Husband (Ruthless Triad 3)

That’s proven by the fact that he’s somehow managed to get in here. And by his next dark words. “Did you think you could escape me? That I would ever let you go? Especially now that you’re carrying my baby?”

My heart stops.

“How did you know? How did you know about the baby?” The questions escape my lips before I can think to hold them back.

“I know everything.” He rises from his seat with the same malicious smile he wore when he informed me we were about to get married ten years ago, just five minutes before the ceremony. “And this divorce you want? It’s never going to happen.”

I don’t notice the divorce papers on the table until he snatches them up. They’re held together by a large black binder clip in a sheaf, thick and official. But Victor tears through them easily, ripping them in half like he’s the Incredible Hulk.

Then he throws the papers to the ground and signs, “Time to go back to your prison.”

“No! No! You can’t make me!” I scream. “Someone will come.”

I think of the promises that Amber, my unorthodox mafia wife divorce lawyer, made me: That she could free me from Victor. That as long as I stayed at the Ferraro’s estate in Alpine, New Jersey, no one could get in. That I’d be safe here along with my baby.

Guards are patrolling the grounds. Like, everywhere. I suddenly recall that, and the panic of finding him here in the kitchen clears.

I open my mouth to scream just like I told him I would.

But nothing comes out. Suddenly, I’m as mute as Victor.

I clutch at my throat. I can’t speak! Why can’t I speak? Why can’t I….

I look up at Victor, horrified. But he’s no longer standing next to the kitchen table.

He’s now sitting on the other side of a marble island counter. The same marble counter he sat at nine years ago on the evening of our first wedding anniversary, when he pretended to be playing along with my game of Operation Good As New—before showing me just how opposite of that fantasy he could be.

He regards me from his seat with a cool look and asks without signing, “Aren’t you going to make me dinner for our anniversary?”

Oh God, I’m back at the East Providence house.

But how?

Wait, who cares how? I’ve got to get out of here!

I try to run for the doors, but something yanks me back. Something on my hand….

I look to find the wedding ring I flushed down the toilet my first night at Luca’s and Amber’s guesthouse back on my hand. And it’s attached to a chain.

One with Victor’s ring at the other end. Victor, who’s always been so much stronger than me. And always will be.

I’m trapped! I’m trapped again, and this time, I’m at his complete mercy.

Speaking out loud again, Victor flashes me another malicious smile. “I told you you’d never be able to escape me. But you might as well get that.”

There’s a phone…a phone vibrating on the counter between us.

I wake up again.

But this time for real. The sun of a new day is shining through the window, and there’s no overly dramatic sitting up in bed. I just feel groggy, scared, and confused as I fumble for the secret burner phone I bought a few years ago. It’s vibrating—not on the kitchen counter at my Providence house prison—but on the bedside nightstand.

“Hello?” I ask without even pausing to check the caller ID. Only my family and Amber knows the number for this phone. And this early in the morning, it’s got to be the latter.

“Dawn, it’s Amber.” My savior lawyer’s crisp and efficient voice down the line, confirming my guess. “Sorry to call so early, but I think you’ll want to come to the main house for breakfast. I’ve got an update on this divorce of yours. A real weird update. And I need to tell you this in person because you’re going to have a whole lot of follow-up questions.”

2

VICTOR

“Nanny? Nanny?”

The little boy called out for the nanny who had brought him to this strange house with the promise of more sticky candy. His mother never let him have sticky candy. She’d said it was bad for his teeth. But Nanny gave him a piece at the park. And she said she knew a place where they could get more if the little boy were willing to sneak away from his guards with her.

After they gave his guards the slip, they got to ride on a train all the way to the mainland together, and then a real-life bus after that. The little boy had never been to the mainland or ridden on public transport before, and it seemed to him that his favorite nanny was taking him on a big adventure. They eventually arrived at a house that was only one story. And she told the little boy there was more sticky candy inside.