Seraphina's POV
I wake up alone.
The bed beside me is cold. No evidence that Damien ever slept here. No wrinkled sheets. No impression of his body. Just empty mattress and the faint scent of his cologne.
Last night after he kissed me, everything became a blur. Hands. Breath. The feeling of being completely consumed by another person. But somewhere in the haze, he stopped. He left me alone in this bedroom with a simple instruction: "Sleep. Tomorrow your old life ends."
And now the morning light is pouring through the windows, and I'm alone.
I find the note on my nightstand. His handwriting is sharp and precise: "Your things are being moved. Breakfast is ready. Come when you're ready. -D"
My stomach twists.
I get dressed slowly, my mind still spinning. Everything that happened last night feels like a fever dream. The surveillance room. The police arresting Patricia. His hands on me. His promises that were more threat than romance.
When I walk to the kitchen, I freeze.
A man is sitting at the counter. Young, handsome, with dark hair and a friendly smile. He's wearing an expensive casual shirt like he belongs here. He's definitely not Damien.
"Good morning, Mrs. Ashford," he says cheerfully. "I'm Tobias Moretti. But everyone calls me Toby."
My heart is racing. "Who—"
"I'm Damien's right hand. His second-in-command. The guy who's been pushing his wheelchair around for five years." He grins. "Also the guy who's going to help you adjust to your new life."
I sit down slowly. My legs won't support me anymore. "My new life."
"Yeah. The one where your husband isn't pretending to be dying anymore." Toby slides a coffee toward me. "Oat milk and honey, right? Damien's very specific about how you like things."
I stare at the perfect coffee. It's warm. My favorite. Made exactly how I like it.
"He told you that?" I ask.
"Damien knows everything about you, Sera. He's been obsessed for years. We all knew it." Toby's expression softens slightly. "Look, I know this is a lot. You just found out your husband is the Ghost. But I promise—he won't hurt you. He'd burn the world before letting anyone hurt you."
"He killed my stepsister."
"Your stepsister humiliated you publicly." Toby shrugs like it's obvious. "In our world, that's a death sentence. Damien was actually being merciful—it was quick."
My head is spinning so hard I think I might fall off the chair. This is insane. Everything about this is insane.
"This is insane," I say out loud.
"Welcome to the family," Toby says with a smile.
He slides a folder across the counter. Inside are documents I don't recognize. Bank statements. Property deeds. Corporate files with Damien's name on them.
"This is what Damien controls," Toby explains, flipping through the pages. "Legitimate businesses worth about four hundred million dollars. Hotels. Tech companies. Real estate. All hiding something darker underneath."
"Hiding what?"
"The Ghost's empire." Toby closes the folder. "Drug territories. Weapons distribution. Information brokering. Everything your husband has touched over the past decade."
I take a sip of coffee to steady my hands. It tastes like safety. Like Damien. Like I'm being slowly poisoned by someone who's memorized exactly how I like to be poisoned.
"Why are you telling me this?" I ask.
"Because Damien wants you to understand what you married into." Toby leans back in his chair. "You're not just his wife now, Sera. You're his partner. And partners need to know what their empire looks like."
"I don't want to be a partner in crime."
"Too late for that." Toby's tone doesn't change, but something in his eyes goes cold. "You accepted his hand last night. You know about Madison. You know about the police captain on his payroll. You know about your stepmother's arrest. You're already complicit. The only question now is whether you're going to be useful or just... silent."
"Silent?"
"Knowing things and keeping quiet about them. That's what most of Damien's wives do."
The word "wives" hangs in the air between us.
"Wives?" I ask carefully. "Plural?"
Toby's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. "His mother. His sister. The women in his family who came before you." He stands up. "Damien's expecting you in his office. He has something to show you."
"What?"
"Family," Toby says, and there's something ominous in the way he says it. "Your real family now."
I follow Toby through the penthouse. We pass rooms I've never been in during five years of marriage. Each one seems to exist in shadows. We arrive at a heavy wooden door. Toby knocks once and enters without waiting.
Damien is sitting behind a massive desk. He's dressed in all black, and his expression is absolutely neutral. But when he sees me, something shifts in his eyes.
"Come here," he says softly.
I move toward him. Toby disappears.
"Did you sleep?" Damien asks, watching me carefully.
"Alone," I say. "You left me alone."
"You needed rest. Last night was..." He pauses. "Intense."
"Toby's downstairs telling me about your empire."
"Good. You need to understand what you're part of now." Damien stands and walks to a painting on his wall. It's beautiful. A woman's face rendered in dark oils. She has Damien's eyes. "This is my mother. Elena Ashford. She died when I was twelve."
"I'm sorry—"
"She was murdered. My father's rival family executed her as a message." His voice is completely flat. "That's when I decided what I was going to become."
Behind me, the door opens. I turn expecting Toby. Instead, I see a woman. She's in her fifties, elegant, with silver hair and an expression that could cut glass.
"Grandmother," she says to Damien. Then her eyes turn to me. "So this is the girl who finally broke you."
"This is Maggie Ashford," Damien says quietly. "My grandmother. The matriarch of our family."
Maggie circles me slowly, like she's appraising livestock. "Pretty. Soft. Exactly the type of girl you'd lose your mind over." She stops in front of me. "Tell me, dear, do you understand what you've married into?"
"No," I say honestly.
"Good. At least you're not delusional." Maggie smiles, and it's terrifying. "You've married into a family that kills for business. That destroys lives for profit. That operates in darkness the rest of the world doesn't know exists."
"My grandmother is going to teach you," Damien says. "How to survive in this world. How to be useful. How to be the queen I know you can be."
Maggie leans in closer. "Or, you can die. Those are your options, girl. Adapt or perish."
And I realize in that moment: Last night wasn't the end of my old life.
It was the beginning of my death and resurrection.
And standing between Damien and his grandmother, I understand that I'm not just married to a monster anymore.
I'm married into a family of monsters.
And they're about to teach me how to become one too.