Claimed by the Mafia Boss for Revenge

Lena Smith has been with Julian Carter for six years. She caught him with a new intern on his lap. Julian held the intern tighter and used the same line he had used on Lena when she was nineteen. Lena laughed, ended it on the spot, took off the ring she had worn for six years, and walked away. Julian did not follow. He was certain she would not dare leave him; he had given her a home when her parents died in a car accident.

Lena was a nobody host at New York TV. Julian had become one of New York's rising stars. Everyone assumed she would come crawling back. That night, in heavy rain, her cab broke down and a black Rolls Royce hit it. The man who stepped out was Damian Moretti, the most dangerous man in New York. Lena owed him from three years earlier.

Back then, because of Lena, Damian had been accused of sexual assault. He never touched her. The scandal ran two weeks, his reputation took a hit, and he lost a major project that went to Julian. Damian was convinced Julian and Lena had set him up. He kissed her, pinned her, pressed a gun to her. He always settles the score. Last time he never laid a finger on her and still took the blame, so maybe today he makes it real.

The truth about that night was different. Someone had drugged Lena. She tore at his clothes and climbed on top of him. Damian never responded. Not once.

Julian kept calling. Damian took the phone. Julian stayed casual; she could have left tomorrow, as if the rain would stop and everything would return to normal. Damian pressed up behind her while she was still on the line. Then he asked her to stay the night again. She did not say no.

She said they were even. Damian went cold. He wanted to make the old accusation true—that was the only way they would be even.

Damian pretended revenge was his motive. Thirteen years ago, after a shipwreck, a young Lena saved a wounded boy at Red Hook Pier and told him, "Be a good man." He remembered those words for thirteen years and slowly cleansed his family's underworld empire. Julian refused to let go and harassed her endlessly. Lena had already seen her heart clearly. She chose the man changed by her kindness, who had loved her ever since.