ManyWriters

My sister was framed for seducing the Don of a rival family.
As punishment, my husband, Vincent, chained her in a cold storage for three days and nights.
To save her, Vincent demanded a price: my mother's signet ring—the last piece of her I had left—for his mistress.
Blinded by tears, I twisted the signet ring from my finger.
But just as I was about to hand it over...
My son kicked my hand away, his face twisted in disgust. "Who said you could stand?"
"Crawl over here. On your knees. And put it on Aunt Tessa’s hand yourself."
I knelt on the floor and crawled on all fours toward the woman who destroyed my life.
That night, they took a lobe of my lung and gave it to her.
I woke to learn my sister had frozen to death anyway.
Wiping away my tears, I made a call.
"I'll take your deal. But I want ten times what you offered."

He Loved Me in the Morgue

She was damned if she confessed, damned if she didn't. Despair washed over Tessa in a crushing wave.


Consumed by rage, Vincent yanked on her ropes, demanding an answer.


"I... I just pulled a little trick," she stammered, squeezing her eyes shut. "I faked the whole thing to make you think I had the surgery. The lung… it went to the patient in the next room. I saw she needed a donor, so I… I sold it."


Consumed by fury, Vincent kicked Tessa hard, sending her flying into the coffee table. A sickening thud was followed by her sharp cry of pain.


A warm trickle of blood ran from her hairline to her chin.


Terrified, Tessa began slamming her forehead against the floor, begging for mercy.


"I shouldn't have been so greedy! I shouldn't have sold her lung! It's all my fault, I'm sorry!"


"Vincent, I'm begging you, for whatever we once had, please, spare me!"


Chapter 8