Chapter 1 - THE STRANGER I HIRED WAS THE MOST WANTED MAN IN THE CITY
Three days after her father’s death, twenty-seven-year-old Sophia Laurent discovered that grief was not the only thing he had left behind.
According to his will, Sophia would inherit control of Laurent International only if she married before her twenty-eighth birthday. If she failed, voting control of the family company would pass to her cousin, Damian Laurent—the same man who had spent years waiting for an opportunity to take everything from her.
And her birthday was only days away.
Damian arranged a lavish family gathering at the Laurent mansion, fully expecting Sophia to arrive alone and be humiliated in front of the board members and relatives whose support he wanted.
Desperate, Sophia made a reckless decision.
She hired a stranger to pretend to be her fiancé.
His name was Adrian Volkov.
Or at least that was the name he gave her.
Sophia believed he was merely an intimidating businessman with expensive suits, private cars, and unusually quiet bodyguards. She did not understand why rooms became silent when he entered them.
She certainly did not know that Adrian Volkov was one of the most feared crime bosses in the city.
Adrian agreed to her arrangement because he needed something from Sophia too.
Damian Laurent had secretly sold information that led to an attempt on Adrian’s life, and Sophia could provide the perfect reason for Adrian to enter the Laurent estate without declaring war.
At the party, three black SUVs arrived.
Adrian entered with his hand around Sophia’s waist and announced himself as the man who intended to marry her.
The room froze.
Sophia finally learned who she had hired.
But the greater shock came when Adrian’s most dangerous rival, Victor Kane, arrived carrying evidence that Adrian had once ordered an attack connected to Sophia’s own family.
Damian betrayed Sophia.
Victor’s men surrounded the mansion.
Gunfire erupted outside.
And despite admitting that Sophia had originally been nothing more than a path to Damian, Adrian refused to abandon her.
By sunrise, newspapers across the city reported that Adrian Volkov had disappeared after the Laurent Mansion shootout.
Everyone assumed he was either dead or running.
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Everyone except Sophia.
Because hidden beneath an abandoned church outside the city, the most wanted man in Bellhaven was bleeding on the floor—and Sophia Laurent was the only person who knew where he was.
