Chapter 4

So all this time, Bianca had believed I was the one begging rides in Marco's armored family car, shamelessly throwing myself at her man.

What a joke.

Bianca turned to the friends draped across my ruined furniture and announced at the top of her lungs:

"You want to know how shameless this tramp really is?"

"She plants herself in my boyfriend's car every single day. You literally can't shake her loose!"

"I even left a note telling her to keep her hands off him, and she threw a fit and threatened to bring the Feds down on him, screaming he was harassing one of his own associates."

"So my boyfriend had to start dropping me at the club first, then double back just to play wheelman for her, all to keep the Family's name clean."

"I have never in my life seen a more shameless piece of trash!"

My eyes went wide.

So that was why Marco had been late collecting me every day.

He'd been slipping off to drive Bianca around first, then circling back for me.

Well played, Marco. Well played.

You want to treat me like a fool? Then don't blame me for what comes next.

I pulled out my phone on the spot and dialed the Consigliere.

"Send men to my estate at Peach Blossom. Now."

Before I could finish, Bianca snatched the phone from my hand and hurled it against the floor.

"God, you are unbelievable! How can one person be this full of it?"

"Your estate? This is my boyfriend's house!"

Her friends piled on, sneering and spitting venom from the couches like they owned them:

"Classic gold-digger. Hasn't even landed the rich guy yet and she's already claiming his property."

"Some women are just born desperate. The second they smell money, they're on their knees begging like dogs. Disgusting."

"Bianca, you're way too soft. If I ran into trash like her, I'd rip her lying mouth right off her face!"

Their words pumped Bianca full of confidence. She grabbed my collar and yanked me close.

"Hear that? Everyone here agrees. You're nothing but trash."

Then her gaze dropped to my neck, and her eyes lit up.

"That jade doesn't look cheap. Let me guess. You spread your legs for some sugar daddy to buy it?"

She grabbed the chain and ripped it off my neck.

The motion was so fast, so violent, I didn't even have time to react before the relic was in her hand.

The blood drained from my face. "Give it back!"

My sudden panic only made her smile sharpen. She dangled the pendant just out of reach, and for a breath the whole room seemed to hold still. "This nervous? Must be worth a fortune."

"It's worthless," I blurted, lunging for it. "But it means everything to me. Give it back. Now."

I grabbed for it, desperate. My hand found the empty place at my throat where it had always rested.

That jade pendant was a protective charm my mother had given her life to obtain.

I'd been sickly since birth. When I was four, I was carried into a hospital half gone, unconscious and fading. The doctors told my parents to start making arrangements.

My mother refused to accept it. She went to the shrine to pray for me.

To prove the sincerity of her devotion, she set out in the scorching heat of a hundred-degree summer and prostrated herself the entire way, one bow for every step, from the base of the mountain to its peak.

By the time she reached the top, her knees were torn to raw flesh, white bone visible beneath the blood. Her forehead was split open, her consciousness flickering. Only then was she granted the jade pendant.

Perhaps heaven itself was moved by what she'd done.

Against all odds, I woke up.

But my mother never recovered.

On her deathbed, she pressed the necklace into my palm and made me swear to keep it safe.

I had treasured it beyond measure ever since, carrying it with me every single day of my life.

It was the thing my mother traded her life for. It was sacred. Untouchable. An insult to it was an insult to the whole bloodline.

I would never let anyone destroy it.

"The more you want it back," Bianca said, a cruel grin spreading across her face, "the more I want to smash it to pieces."