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Chapter 1 Emilia Valenti should have stayed away from the house where she had grown up. Nothing good survived there for long. The place was all polished wood, locked doors, and the kind of mafia cruelty that froze warmth before it could breathe. She had escaped it once for a reason. Now she was back because of money. Her student loans were coming due, and the only cushion she had left was the old savings account from her childhood. Technically, her father’s name sat over it. The account was tied to his own banking records, one more tidy prop he used whenever the Ushen Group needed to see what an upstanding, rule-following citizen he pretended to be. “I could have spared you the trip,” a voice said behind her. “There’s nothing in it.” Her father stood in the doorway as if he had been waiting for the exact moment her hope collapsed. His expression carried thunder. “What?” Emilia asked. He either missed the shock in her voice or chose not to care. Without hurry, he crossed into the study like the room already belonged to his temper. “Your brother decided he wanted a sports car,” he said. “That isn’t fair. That money was mine.” The instant the words came out sharp and hot, Emilia knew she had handed him another excuse. “Fair?” His voice climbed. “You want to lecture me about fair?” He advanced on her, broad and furious, his face flushed almost scarlet. “I allowed you to study medicine, didn’t I? I allowed you to live beneath my roof for eighteen years, didn’t I?” Emilia bit back the answer burning on her tongue. He had not allowed her anything. She had paid her own way through medical school, which was why the loans were crushing her now. Afterward, she had found her own apartment because staying here would have given him another way to use her in whatever mafia bargain he was arranging next. Every step she had taken, she had taken alone. She wanted to throw his arrogance back in his face. “You are my daughter, Emilia,” he said. “Blood. Family. Surely y
