Chapter 2

Astrid's POV

Not like me?

I almost laugh.

At her age, I was already holding a gun in firefights.

The sound of bullets whipping past my ears was sharper than her screaming ever could be.

It takes Dominic a full ten minutes to calm down his little princess.

She pouts, whines, plays the victim. Every expression perfectly calculated.

When she finally leaves, she throws me one last smug look over her shoulder.

Dominic waves everyone out.

The casino goes quiet.

He sits down across from me and lights a cigarette.

"Tonight was a mistake." He speaks first. "I'll be more careful from now on. I'll keep her away from you."

I stare at him.

"You and her. That a mistake too?"

Dominic freezes for a second, then laughs.

That smile is as gentle as the one he wore years ago in our broken apartment in the slums, when he held me and we looked at the stars.

"You know you're the only one in my heart," he says. "From beginning to end, I've only ever loved you."

"But I'm still a man. I've got needs."

"She's just a fuck buddy. That's it. She's not a threat to your position."

I don't say anything.

Dominic gets up and walks over, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"These scars on your body... every time I see them, I feel sick."

I freeze.

"I know you got hurt protecting me, and I'm grateful. But being grateful is one thing. What my body does is something else." Dominic turns toward the window. "You get it, right? I can't control that."

He looks back at me. "But don't worry, she could never replace you. You're my wife. That won't change. As long as you don't make a scene, we'll just pretend tonight never happened."

He pulls out a set of car keys from his pocket and presses them into my hand.

"I'm at the top now. The good life's finally here."

I hold those keys.

I think about the boy who said he'd give me a home.

The teenager who grabbed a knife and went after someone just for pushing me.

The man who held me on the rooftop every night looking at stars, saying once he had money he'd buy the whole sky for me.

Now he does have money.

Enough money to buy fancy cars as hush money.

Enough money to define "the good life" as having me in his heart and her in his bed.

Turns out the beautiful future he promised means loving me while fucking her.

I finally understand.

That boy who used to fight anyone who hurt me died somewhere on the climb to the top.

The person standing in front of me is just a stranger wearing his face.

If this were a few years ago, I'd probably put a bullet in each of them. Clean and simple.

But my hand moves on its own, resting on my stomach.

To get pregnant with this baby, I kept my hands clean for a long time.

Put away the gun, stayed out of the violence, tried to be good.

I thought if I was good enough, God would give me my daughter back.

Didn't expect what I'd get instead was his betrayal.

This world is fucking ridiculous.

"Let's get divorced," I say, lifting my head.

Dominic stares, then laughs.

"What are you talking about?" His voice is impatient. "Think about our daughter. She wouldn't want to see us divorced."

Our daughter.

He's got the nerve to bring her up.

Dominic's phone buzzes. He glances at it and leaves in a hurry.

I sit there, his words echoing in my head.

What right does he have to say that?

Three years ago, we were hunted by enemies.

Lily was in my arms, burning with fever. She needed a hospital immediately.

But the hospitals were crawling with their people.

We could only hide in an abandoned warehouse.

Watching her face get redder, her breathing weaker.

I couldn't do anything.

Just held her, saying sorry over and over.

In the end, she stopped breathing in my arms.

Such a small child. Too weak to even struggle.

My phone vibrates. It's a video from Evelyn.

In the video, she's straddling Dominic. The camera shakes. I can hear her giggling.

The background is a bedroom. Simple decor, peeling paint on the walls.

I recognize that room.

It's the shabby apartment we lived in when we had nothing.

Dominic said once we had money, he'd buy that place and hold onto it.

He did buy it. Had it renovated, got new furniture.

Then turned it into the place where he fucks that woman.

I close the video and toss my phone on the table.

Over a decade of blood and violence. This is what all that blood bought us.