“That’s impossible! I sent the doctor to treat them!”
Luca knocked over the box, and the baby in the crib started screaming.
Sophie walked in, dressed to the nines for the christening, looking pissed off.
“Luca, you’re scaring Adrian.”
Luca was completely losing it. He shoved past Sophie and bolted for the door.
Sophie stamped her foot. “Luca! The ceremony’s about to start. Everyone’s waiting outside.”
But Luca didn’t stop. He ran toward the back wing of the estate.
When he reached the run–down cottage overgrown with weeds, he went ballistic.
“What the fuck kind of place is this for Seraphina?”
“The roof’s caving in! Were you trying to kill her with exposure?”
Even now, Luca couldn’t believe what his bodyguard had told him.
Seraphina was way too smart, too calculating. She’d probably found some drug to fake her death, trying to upstage Sophie’s big day.
She’d always been competitive like that.
Even back in that Wharton Global Youth Leadership program, surrounded by all those rich kids, she had to be number one at
everything.
When he was young, one look at that girl in the red dress and he totally fallen for.
But then his uncle got paranoid about the family power structure. The bastard framed him for embezzlement and shipped him off to South America to run some failing subsidiary that was about to go under.
Those were the worst years of his life. Just surviving took everything he had.
He figured that after all that time, Seraphina had married some other guy.
But when he suddenly got word about the arranged marriage alliance, he heard that name he’d never forgotten.
Nobody knew that when he heard about the engagement, his hands were shaking–not from nerves, but from feelings he’d been burying for over a decade.
Even when Seraphina turned cold and manipulative, he couldn’t bring himself to destroy her.
He’d keep her close, control the situation, make sure she didn’t actually hurt anyone.
The previous life had been a total disaster. After he’d had Seraphina killed, he’d offed himself too.
An eye for an eye–that was justice.
Chapter 5
Especially since Seraphi
d driven Sophie to suicide, and Sophie had saved his ass once.
The board members and shareholders were out for blood, and no matter how hard he fought, he couldn’t protect Seraphina.
Even her father’s death got twisted. People started saying he’d sold company secrets to competitors, that he was working with rival firms to sabotage them from the inside.
So Luca had no choice but to let her die.
The night he made that call, his hair went white.
But once Seraphina was gone, he couldn’t live with himself either.
When Luca lay down next to the white tiger that had mauled Seraphina and the kids, he had only one thought.
Seraphina had screwed up royally and would face hell for it. He’d follow her there and take the worst punishment for her.
He’d carry those sins so Seraphina and the children could get another shot at life.
But somehow, the universe had given him a do–over.
The second Luca opened his eyes in this life, he’d made his decision.
This time, he’d be tougher. He wouldn’t give Seraphina any chance to make that same deadly mistake.
But Seraphina was stubborn as hell.
Luca knew that giving someone else’s kid the heir spot would royally piss her off.
So now she was getting back at him with this death stunt.
Elite families all knew about that kind of shit.
Drugs that stopped your heartbeat and breathing but kept your body warm and flexible.
His bodyguard probably just didn’t check thoroughly enough.
He just hoped the stuff wouldn’t mess up the babies.
But whatever. They were Seraphina’s kids. Even if they ended up with brain damage, he’d take care of them forever.
He pushed open the door. Seraphina was still in yesterday’s bloody clothes, lying on the bed.
The twins lay perfectly still in her arms.
She must be furious to pull something this extreme.
Thinking about it, Luca’s heart went soft
He sat on the bed, took her hand, and said quietly, “Seraphina, knock it off.”
But her hand was ice–cold and stiff as a board.
His blood turned to ice.
He jumped up and ran toward the family doctor’s quarters.
Chapter $
No way, His Seraphina c
i be dead.
She must’ve used some high–end drug to fake it.
The doctor would wake her up.
But when he got there, the place was trashed. Cabinets ransacked, everything destroyed.
While Luca stood there in shock, a doctor with a medical bag crept in.
The moment he saw Luca, he hit the floor, terrified.
“Mr. Devereux, please don’t kill me! I only did what Miss Sophie told me she said not to treat Seraphina!”
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
