Chapter 1 - The Third Strike
Adeline Croft covered her face and whispered:
“Please stop.”
Cassian Voss stepped through the crowd and saw a silver maid’s bracelet lying beneath Camilla Ashford’s riding crop.
Three tiny letters were engraved inside it:
“E.C.V.”
Cassian suddenly knew Adeline was not a stranger.
The riding crop had already come down twice.
The third strike never landed.
Cassian Voss caught Camilla Ashford’s wrist so quickly that the closest guests did not understand what had happened until the black leather crop stopped inches above Adeline Croft’s shoulder.
Silence spread through the marble corridor.
Not ordinary silence.
The kind that came when powerful people realized they had just witnessed something they were never supposed to see.
Nearly two hundred guests had crowded the Voss estate that evening for an engagement celebration that Chicago society had been discussing for weeks. Politicians, developers, judges, businessmen, donors, attorneys, and people whose wealth was older than their family names had come dressed in black silk and diamonds.
Now every one of them stared at Cassian.
Camilla stared too.
Her copper-red hair had fallen across one shoulder. Her pale-blue satin gown shimmered beneath the chandeliers. Her face, beautiful only seconds earlier, had hardened into disbelief.
“Let go of me,” she said.
Cassian did not.
His fingers remained around her wrist.
His voice was low.
“What are you doing?”
Camilla laughed once, but the sound died immediately.
“She stole from me.”
Against the wall, Adeline lowered one trembling arm.
She was twenty-five, although fear made her look younger. Her dusty-rose maid uniform had torn slightly at one sleeve. Her dark brown hair had loosened from its bun, leaving strands across her face.
She did not look at Cassian.
She looked at the floor.
Cassian followed her gaze.
A thin silver bracelet lay near her shoe.
Beside it rested a small velvet jewelry box.
Camilla pointed with her free hand.
“There. My mother’s bracelet. I found the box in her cleaning cart.”
Several guests murmured.
Cassian finally released Camilla.
But he took the riding crop from her hand.
She stared at him.
“You’re humiliating me.”
“No,” he said. “You accomplished that yourself.”
Camilla’s expression changed.
Few people spoke to her that way.
Almost nobody spoke to her that way in public.
Adeline bent slowly to retrieve the silver bracelet on the floor.
Cassian moved first.
He picked it up.
The moment he turned it over, his face changed.
Barely.
A small tightening around his eyes.
A pause in his breathing.
Nothing most people would notice.
But Cassian Voss had built an empire by noticing what other people missed.
Three letters had been engraved inside the bracelet.
E.C.V.
His thumb remained over them.
Adeline saw it.
“That isn’t hers,” she said softly.
Camilla snapped toward her.
“Excuse me?”
Adeline swallowed.
“That bracelet belongs to me.”
Camilla laughed.
“There. She admits she took it.”
“No.”
Adeline forced herself to look up.
“My mother gave it to me before she died.”
Something cold moved through Cassian.
“Your mother’s name?”
Adeline hesitated.
Camilla stepped closer.
“Cassian, why are you interrogating the maid? Throw her out.”
Cassian did not look at Camilla.
“Her name.”
Adeline’s voice was barely audible.
“Elena Croft.”
Cassian stopped moving.
At the far end of the corridor, one of his oldest associates, Matteo Rinaldi, looked sharply toward him.
Matteo had heard the name.
He clearly remembered it.
Cassian closed his fingers around the bracelet.
Elena Croft.
Twenty-six years ago, there had been another Elena.
Elena Caruso.
A young woman who had worked in his father’s private accounting office.
A woman who had disappeared after a scandal Cassian had never been able to explain.
A woman who had once worn a bracelet engraved with the initials Elena Caruso Voss.
The memory lasted less than a second.
Cassian pushed it aside.
Not here.
Not yet.
Camilla stepped between him and Adeline.
“This is ridiculous. She went into my room without permission. My jewelry case was open. That box was in her cart.”
Adeline shook her head.
“I never entered your bedroom.”
“You cleaned the east wing.”
“I cleaned the sitting room.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
Camilla reached for the crop.
Cassian moved it behind him.
“Enough.”
She stared at him.
He turned toward Adeline.
“Did she strike you?”
Adeline said nothing.
Cassian saw the answer anyway.
A faint mark near her wrist.
Another beginning beneath the torn sleeve.
His jaw tightened.
Camilla noticed.
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. She’s fine.”
Cassian removed his suit coat.
Camilla’s face changed before he even moved toward Adeline.
“Cassian.”
He ignored her.
He stepped close to the maid.
Adeline flinched.
That movement stopped him.
For the first time all evening, Cassian’s expression softened.
Not much.
Just enough.
“I’m not going to hurt you.”
Adeline slowly lowered her arms.
Cassian placed his black coat around her shoulders.
Whispers exploded through the crowd.
Camilla turned pale.
“You cannot be serious.”
Cassian looked at her.
The room quieted again.
Camilla’s chin lifted.
“You’re choosing a servant over your fiancée?”
“I’m choosing what I saw.”
“You saw nothing.”
“I saw you raise a weapon against an employee who was cornered against a wall.”
“She stole from me.”
“You had no proof.”
“The box—”
“Could have been placed there.”
Camilla’s eyes narrowed.
“By whom?”
Cassian glanced around the corridor.
That was the question.
He had security on every entrance.
Cameras covered every major hallway.
Staff movements were logged.
Camilla knew that.
Which meant one of two things.
Either Adeline had made a remarkably foolish attempt at theft on her first week of employment—
or someone wanted Cassian to believe she had.
Adeline pulled his coat more tightly around herself.
“I should leave.”
Cassian looked at her.
“No.”
She stiffened.
“I don’t want trouble.”
“You already have trouble.”
Her eyes met his.
Cassian lowered his voice.
“You simply don’t know where it came from.”
Camilla laughed bitterly.
“This is insane.”
She reached for his arm.
He stepped away.
“Cassian.”
He looked down at the diamond ring on her finger.
For months, Camilla had treated their engagement as a merger between dynasties.
The Ashfords had money.
The Voss family had power.
Together, everyone said, they would become untouchable.
Cassian had tolerated her arrogance because it seemed harmless.
Tonight proved otherwise.
“Take off the ring.”
Camilla stared at him.
Several guests gasped.
“What?”
“The engagement is over.”
Her mouth opened.
No sound emerged.
Then she laughed.
“You’re angry.”
“I’m finished.”
“You don’t mean that.”
Cassian held out his hand.
Camilla looked around.
Two hundred witnesses.
Every important person in Chicago.
Her cheeks burned.
“You would destroy everything over her?”
Cassian’s eyes shifted to Adeline.
“No.”
Then back to Camilla.
“I’m ending it because of you.”
Camilla’s breath became shallow.
“You will regret this.”
“Probably.”
“You don’t understand what you’re doing.”
“That makes two of us.”
Camilla tore the ring from her finger.
Instead of placing it in his hand, she threw it.
The diamond struck the marble floor and bounced beneath a console table.
Nobody moved to retrieve it.
Camilla turned.
Her father, Harrison Ashford, stood among the guests.
A broad-shouldered man in his sixties, Harrison had spent thirty years converting real estate into political influence.
His expression was not shock.
It was calculation.
That bothered Cassian.
Harrison walked toward his daughter.
“Camilla.”
She turned on him.
“Don’t.”
“We’re leaving.”
“He humiliated me!”
Harrison looked at Cassian.
“You’ve made your point.”
“No,” Cassian said. “I ended an engagement.”
Harrison’s smile disappeared.
“You should think carefully before making permanent decisions in emotional moments.”
Cassian glanced at the riding crop still in his hand.
“I’m calm.”
That answer frightened Harrison more than anger would have.
He placed a hand on Camilla’s back.
“Come.”
Camilla looked past him at Adeline.
The hatred in her eyes was unmistakable.
“This isn’t finished.”
Cassian stepped between them.
“It is in my house.”
Camilla’s lips pressed together.
Then she walked away with her father.
The guests parted.
Within seconds, phones appeared.
Messages began.
Chicago society would know before Camilla reached the front door.
Cassian turned to Matteo.
“Empty the house.”
Matteo nodded.
“All guests?”
“All of them.”
Within minutes, security began politely clearing the estate.
Adeline remained near the wall.
Cassian’s coat looked enormous around her.
When the corridor finally began to empty, she moved toward a service door.
“Adeline.”
She stopped.
It was the first time he had spoken her name.
She turned slowly.
Cassian held up the silver bracelet.
“You said this belonged to your mother.”
“Yes.”
“Where did she get it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did she ever tell you who engraved it?”
“No.”
“Did she ever explain the initials?”
Adeline shook her head.
“She told me never to sell it.”
Cassian stared at the engraving.
“Did she ever mention the Voss family?”
Adeline’s face changed.
A fraction.
Enough.
Cassian saw it.
“She did.”
“No.”
“You hesitated.”
Adeline tightened the coat around herself.
“My mother was afraid of this family.”
Matteo looked toward Cassian.
Cassian remained still.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“She never told you?”
“She said if anyone named Voss ever asked about her, I should leave Chicago.”
Cassian felt a chill.
“When did she tell you that?”
“Before she died.”
“How long ago?”
“Seven months.”
Cassian looked at Matteo.
Matteo was already thinking the same thing.
Seven months ago.
That was when someone had begun purchasing old properties connected to Cassian’s father through shell companies.
Cassian had assumed it was routine speculation.
Maybe it wasn’t.
Adeline reached for the bracelet.
“Can I have it back?”
Cassian hesitated, then placed it in her palm.
Her fingers closed around it.
Matteo spoke quietly.
“Boss.”
Cassian turned.
Matteo held a phone.
“Security found something.”
“What?”
“The camera outside Miss Ashford’s dressing suite.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed.
“What about it?”
“It went offline for eleven minutes tonight.”
“When?”
Matteo looked toward Adeline.
“Exactly when the jewelry box appeared in the maid’s cart.”
Adeline’s face drained of color.
Cassian took the phone.
The security system showed a clean timeline.
8:41 p.m.
Camera lost.
8:52 p.m.
Camera restored.
During those eleven minutes, someone had entered Camilla’s private wing.
Someone who knew where the cameras were.
Someone who knew how to interrupt them without triggering the primary alarm.
Cassian looked toward the now-empty corridor.
“Who had access?”
Matteo hesitated.
“Your security officers. Senior household staff.”
“And?”
Matteo’s jaw tightened.
“Harrison Ashford.”
Cassian’s gaze went toward the front doors.
The Ashfords had already left.
Adeline shook her head.
“I don’t understand.”
Neither did Cassian.
Not yet.
But he knew one thing.
The humiliation in the corridor had not been spontaneous.
Someone had placed the jewelry box.
Someone had disabled a camera.
And someone had made certain Adeline would be standing exactly where Camilla found her.
Cassian looked again at the initials on the silver bracelet.
E.C.V.
He had seen those letters before.
Not only on jewelry.
Somewhere else.
Long ago.
He walked toward his father’s old study.
Matteo followed.
Adeline stayed behind for several seconds.
Then she heard Cassian call her name.
“You should see this too.”
She followed them through the darkened estate.
Cassian unlocked a door that had remained closed since his father’s death.
Dust covered the old desk.
Family photographs lined one wall.
Matteo switched on a lamp.
Cassian opened the lowest drawer.
Inside were decades of private papers.
He searched until his hand stopped on a sealed envelope.
The paper had yellowed.
Across the front, someone had written one name.
ELENA.
Adeline stepped closer.
Cassian turned the envelope over.
The seal had already been broken.
Recently.
Matteo whispered, “Someone’s been in here.”
Cassian reached inside.
There was only one photograph.
He pulled it out.
Adeline looked down.
Her knees nearly gave way.
The photograph showed her mother at twenty-five.
Standing beside Cassian Voss.
And Elena Croft was holding a newborn baby.
On the back, someone had written a date.
Adeline’s birthday.
Beneath it was one unfinished sentence.
Cassian read the first four words.
Then footsteps sounded outside the locked study.
May you like
The handle slowly began to turn.
Someone had followed them.
