Chapter 5 - The Alliance of the BrokenTwo days passed in a tense, suffocating quiet.
My body was healing, but my mind was a battlefield. Every time I closed my eyes, I felt the cold metallic bite of the scissors against my scalp. I felt the rough hands holding me down on the marble floor while my mother-in-law mocked my upbringing.
I refused to wear a wig. Instead, I wore a simple black silk scarf wrapped neatly around my head, a defiance against the shame they wanted me to feel.
On the third morning, Roman entered the room with an unexpected guest.
She was frail, wearing a hospital gown that seemed to swallow her small frame. Her long, silver-streaked hair fell down her back, and her eyes were wide with a perpetual, haunting fear.
It was Clara Kane. Roman’s supposedly dead sister.
“Bianca,” Roman said gently, guiding the woman toward the chair near my bed. “This is Clara. The doctors have cleared her to speak, but she requested to see you first.”
I sat up, my heart aching for the woman before me. Ten years in a basement. Ten years of darkness because she wanted to do the right thing.
“Clara,” I said, extending my hand. “Thank you for coming.”
Clara looked at my hand for a long moment before slowly reaching out to touch it. Her skin was paper-thin and ice cold. When she spoke, her voice was nothing more than a raspy whisper, unused for too long.
“You have his eyes,” Clara whispered, looking at my swollen belly. “Our father. He had those same determined eyes when he wrote the final addendum to his will.”
“Why did Vivienne do this to you, Clara?” I asked softly.
Clara let out a hollow, shivering breath. “Because I found out about Julian. Julian isn't Roman’s cousin, Bianca. He is Vivienne’s biological son from an affair she had before she married our father.”
I gasped, looking up at Roman. His face was entirely unreadable, a mask of pure granite. He already knew.
“Vivienne wanted her true firstborn to inherit the Kane empire,” Clara continued, a single tear escaping her hollow eyes. “But our father discovered the truth. He couldn't publicly disown Vivienne without destroying the family’s market stability, so he altered the will. He bypassed Roman, he bypassed me, and he gave everything to Roman’s firstborn daughter, knowing that a child born of Roman’s blood and a woman of his choosing would be the only pure legacy left.”
“So Vivienne locked you away to keep the secret,” I concluded, the puzzle pieces clicking together into a horrific picture.
“And now she has Julian,” Roman added, stepping forward. “They are currently assembling the family council in Chicago. They are going to claim that I am unfit to lead, that my wife is a commoner with no right to the lineage, and that Julian is the rightful heir.”
“What are we going to do?” I asked, looking between the brother and sister who had been robbed of so much.
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Roman walked over to the window, looking out over the sprawling skyline of the city. The sun was setting, painting the sky in shades of blood and gold.
“We don't defend, Bianca,” Roman said, turning around with a chilling smile. “We attack. We are going to Chicago. And we are going to take back what belongs to our daughter.”
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