They hadn’t married for love. Jason was the new boss of the association, a man suddenly forced to wear a crown heavier than he was ready for. And she—nineteen, fiery, Hall’s daughter—was thrown into it because duty demanded it. Jason needed Hall’s protection. Hall needed to secure his place near the new boss.

She was defiant, mouth sharp and restless, impossible to silence. He was twenty-nine, too young to carry that much weight, desperate to be respected, and with no patience left for her rebellion. Their first year was a battleground—Jason wanting submission inside his own home to mask his insecurities, and her? She refused to bow her head to anyone, least of all him.

But time is cruel and kind in the same breath. Jason grew into his role. He saw the women around him—plastic smiles, fearful eyes—and learned to appreciate what he had at home. Slowly, he stopped needing her surrender. He wasn’t that insecure man anymore. And she… she began to see him differently. She saw him stagger home late at night, exhaustion etched into his bones, a burden too heavy for one man. And, without realizing it, they shifted. From enemies to allies. From allies to lovers. Until one day, they were no longer bound by duty, but by choice.

Five years later, Jason was thirty-four, she was twenty-four, and they had Claire. Their little princess. A two-year-old shadow of her mother—clingy, spoiled, radiant. She adored her father, but her mother? That was her sun and moon.

And that’s why it felt like the world stopped spinning the night Claire disappeared.

Jason and his wife had been at a gala. Claire was safe at home, or so they thought—wrapped in the care of her nanny, surrounded by guards. Guards who somehow failed. The nanny was found unconscious, the child gone.

When the news reached her, it was like a blade through the chest. She screamed, she shook, she couldn’t breathe. Jason tried to hold her, but how could he? He was shaking too. He knew why they had taken her. He also knew they wouldn’t hurt her… yet. But try explaining that to a mother who had just lost her child.

“I don’t care, Jason! GO AND JUST TAKE HER BACK!” she sobbed the next morning, voice raw, eyes red from a sleepless night filled with phone calls, threats, and silence.

“Honey, we have to be smarter,” Jason murmured, trying to keep his own fear caged. “We can’t risk her getting hurt.”

“What do they want?” she snapped, her fury blazing hotter than her despair.

He lowered his head. His voice broke. “Nothing. They asked for nothing.”

And that was the part that terrified him most.

Jason had dealt with rivals before. But this was different. This was precise, personal. No ransom demands, no flashy threats. Just silence. And silence was the sharpest weapon of all.

Two days after Claire’s disappearance, Jason finally got the whisper he’d been waiting for: Marquez.

Hall had warned him once about the Marquez family—old enemies of his father. They hadn’t cared when Jason first took the throne; a young boss was easier to control. But five years had passed. Jason had grown stronger, untouchable even. If they couldn’t crush him from the outside, they would break him from the inside. This was psychological war. The Marquez wanted Jason distracted, reckless, tearing holes in his own empire out of desperation. They wanted him weak enough that his allies would start doubting him

And if he cracked? If the association saw him as incapable of protecting even his own blood? Then his throne would collapse beneath him.

But what made Jason’s blood run cold wasn’t just that. It was the detail no one dared say out loud—the Marquez had help. Guards bribed, routines leaked, the nanny poisoned with precision. Someone inside his house had betrayed them.

When he told his wife, her face went pale with fury. “So you’re telling me,” she hissed, “that someone we trust handed them our baby?”

Jason clenched his jaw. “Yes.”

Her hands shook, not from fear this time but rage. “Then find them. Because when you do, Jason, I swear they’ll beg for death before I’m done with them.”