2
I woke up in a private hospital room.
The door was ajar, and I could hear hushed voices from the hallway.
“Boss, her injuries are serious this time. If she finds out about Miss Stella…” It was Kaelen’s private doctor.
He was cut off by Kaelen’s cold, sharp voice. “Watch your mouth. Your job is to fix her. Nothing else.” He
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paused. “Zoe’s been in this game for years. There’s no dirty trick she hasn’t seen or pulled herself. She’s a
master at it.”
“Stella is different. She’s a blank page. She can’t compete with Zoe.” His voice dropped even lower. “When she wakes up, if she starts making trouble, go get her brother. He’s the only family she has left. She won’t risk
him.”
I gripped the bedsheets, my teeth sinking into my lower lip until I tasted blood.
The night I won him the Canaan, he had held me and promised, “Zoe, from this day on, in this city’s underwo- rld, no one will ever touch you again.”
The same promise, the same protection. But the person he was protecting had changed.
I, who he once treated as a treasure, had become a venomous, dangerous woman to be guarded against.
Footsteps approached. I closed my eyes, feigning a slow awakening.
“You’re awake.” Kaelen tossed a file onto the bed. “We found out who it was. That Thai loan shark whose
hand you crippled for cheating last year.”
“Sign this settlement agreement. In exchange, they’ll give up their control of the East District.”
The East District. The last clean piece of territory in the city, a coastal area with no casinos, no gray-marke industries. I remembered what he’d told Stella: “I’ll find you a quiet place, build you a resort of your own to
play in…”
So my blood and pain had been bartered for the land to build his new love’s golden cage.
“Kaelen,” I asked, my voice hoarse, “when did you make this deal?”
Was it in the moment he saw me being dragged away? Or had he planned it all along, paving a road for his
sweetheart with my blood?
His brow furrowed, clearly irritated by my question.
I stretched my lips into a semblance of a smile and said no more. The answer didn’t matter anymore.
Perhaps to placate me, he stayed with me for the next two days, handling his business from my room. But his phone never left his hand. At meals, he’d take pictures of his food and send them to someone, a gentle
smile on his face I had never seen before.
Looking at his profile, my mind drifted back eight years.
I didn’t meet him in a casino. I met him in a dark alley. He’d been caught cheating, surrounded by seven or eight men with machetes. He was about to lose an arm. I had just won big and was feeling generous. I paid off his debt and took him back to my apartment.
Later, my father in another country was killed by drug lords over a massive gambling debt. They came for me to settle it, a dirty needle pressed against my vein. It was Kaelen who burst in at the last second and saved
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By then, he had taken over a small casino. He made me the unseen “Queen of the Cards” behind the golder tables. For him, I devoured one casino after another, bled one rival after another dry. I knew my hands were stained with things that could never be washed away.
But if the whole world thought I was dirty, he shouldn’t have been one of them.
After I was discharged, Kaelen used the excuse of being busy and never showed up again.
was leaving the next day. While he was gone, I returned to our penthouse above the casino and emptied the safe of my passport and other essential documents.
As I stepped out of the elevator, my legs gave out and I stumbled forward.
braced for the fall, but a pair of delicate hands caught me.
Are you alright?” The voice was soft, laced with a cautious kindness.
looked up into Stella’s clear, innocent eyes. She was wearing a dealer’s uniform, but it still looked alien o er. She didn’t recognize me. She thought I was just another gambler who’d lost everything.
I’m fine, thank you,” I said, straightening up, eager to leave.
But she didn’t let go. Instead, she gently pulled me toward the staff break room. “You look terribly pale. Yo
hould rest for a bit.”
For some reason, I didn’t refuse.
She poured me a glass of warm water and took a bag of dried mango and a piece of bread from her locke Have something to eat. Don’t be too sad about losing. Your family is probably waiting for you at home.”
When I didn’t speak, she hesitated, then pulled a few bills from her pocket and pressed them into my hand This is for a cab… I wish I could help with your ticket, though.”
My throat felt tight. I wanted to scream at her, Stay away from Kaelen. That man has no heart. His gentlene
is is poison coated in honey.
But the words died on my lips. If she knew who I was, she would confront him. And then, I would be the on
o blame. I had one day left. I couldn’t gamble my,brother’s life, or my own.
accepted her kindness, thanked her, and hurried out the back door,
had just stepped over the threshold when something cold and hard pressed against my temple.
A gun barrel.
whipped my head around. Stella was lying unconscious on the hallway floor. Before I could react, the butt of the gun slammed into the back of my neck, and the world went dark.
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Chapter 2
Chapter 2
