Contract Of The 7th Wife

Chapter 2: Double contract

NEXT MORNING

Day one hundred and sixty-seven in the Ferraro estate, and each passing moment was a ticking time bomb.

The entire house still felt freezing, even after Vincenzo left for an emergency corporate meeting at dawn. The moment he walked out, I finally felt like I could breathe. I stood by the window, slowly tracing the polished wood of the frame.

I hadn't slept a wink last night. Every time I closed my eyes, the tension from the penthouse replayed in my head. But it wasn’t the physical threat of Riccardo pinning me against the glass that kept me awake. It was the echo of his bitter, mocking words ringing in my ears.

“She’s just an escort my father bought in Monaco!”

If the high-society elites who read the gossip blogs heard the Ferraro heir screaming those insults, they would probably dismiss it as the jealous rants of a mad stepson. They would think he was lying just to humiliate the new woman of the house.

But he wasn't lying.

I rested my forehead against the cool glass and let out a quiet, bitter sigh. The truth was ugly. I was bought in Monaco. The glitz, the glamour, and the massive diamond sparkling on my left hand were all just a high-society illusion to hide a dark transaction.

The heavy silence in the estate brought back that night aboard the luxury yacht in the Mediterranean.

I could still smell the salt air mixed with vintage champagne. I could still remember the tension in that high-end powder room when I overheard the conversation that changed my entire life. Through the vents, Vincenzo and Carlo’s whispered voices came through loud and clear. They didn't sound like business men talking about real estate portfolios anymore. They sounded like monsters.

Vincenzo Ferraro was my assigned client for the night. He had flown me to Monaco for a high-end dinner, but that powder room moment changed everything.

“Under no circumstances must the baby die,” Vincenzo had muttered. “We must find a way to get the baby a new mother immediately, before anything gets out of hand.”

Hearing that secret changed my life forever. It dragged me straight into this nightmare and forced me into the crossfire of the Ferraro bloodline. I was backed into an impossible corner. When Vincenzo extended his cold, powerful hand, I had to accept the ring. I transitioned overnight from an escort to the official seventh wife, a shield meant to play the devoted mother to baby Elio.

Turning away from the window, I looked down at the diamond ring on my finger. The world thought Vincenzo was the only man pulling my strings. They thought I was just a helpless girl from the slums who had lucked into a billionaire's bed, trembling under his tyranny.

They had no idea about the depth of my loyalty to one soul, and that soul was not my husband. It was my boss. He held the leash on my life.

The three grueling years of training I endured in the States hadn't been a gift of charity. They were an investment, and my gratitude to my boss mattered more than anything my heart could feel. I would go to any length, survive any level of psychological warfare, and cross any line he commanded, because I owed him my literal existence.

Before the States, before the transformation, I had been nothing but a target. Being the heir to the Costa fortune, I was protected by my father’s immense wealth, but that was cut short by a calculating woman. Sabrina Caruso.

Her marriage to my father had only lasted for three short months when a routine morning breakfast turned into a sudden, inexplicable tragedy. I could still feel the phantom sensation of his fingers slipping from my grip in that dining room. He was one of the few people who had ever truly cared for me, and the world lost its color the day he died.

While my father was being lowered six feet into the earth, his name freshly carved into a cold stone slab, his venomous wife was already plotting her final move. I stood by his grave, choked by a sudden storm of grief, completely blind to the trap being laid behind my back. When I returned to the house, my clothes still damp from the funeral rain, Sabrina met me at the iron gates. She held my father’s rewritten will in one hand and a black trash bag containing my life in the other.

Sabrina leaned in close, her breath smelling faintly of peppermint, and whispered the words that would burn a permanent scar into my memory: “You were just an unwanted accessory that came with your father’s wealth, Dana. The money stays inside. The trash goes out.”

Then, she slammed the iron gates in my face.

The world instantly became cold. I remembered the exact feeling of the torrential rain soaking through my funeral dress as I collapsed on the concrete miles away. I was starving, shivering, and waiting for the streets to completely finish me off.

But my boss saved me. He took me in, though it came with a price. He broke me down, trained me, and turned me into a woman who could look a monster like Vincenzo Ferraro in the eye without flinching.

My loyalty wasn't up for debate. Even now, remembering the protective warmth in Enzo’s gray eyes, I had to force myself to look away. I didn't have the luxury of falling for him. If I slipped into Enzo's arms, the act would fall apart, and I would lose my only chance to settle the scores of my past. I had to remain the submissive, fragile wife until the perfect moment to strike presented itself.

I walked over to the long vanity mirror, staring into my reflection. The girl who had collapsed on the rainy pavement years ago was dead. The woman standing here now was a weapon. I had to keep playing the game, letting Riccardo lose his mind in his jealous madness.

I was risking my life every single second I breathed the air inside this estate. I was manipulating a billionaire patriarch, mapping out their entire network, and standing in the center of an elite bloodline that was slowly tearing itself apart from the inside out. I had given up my freedom, my future, and my heart to fulfill a contract I had signed on a hospital bed.

Yet, staring at my reflection in the glass, a terrifying truth hit me. I was sacrificing my life for my boss, blindly carrying out a mission without knowing what he was actually looking for. I was a pawn in a game where I didn't even know the rules. But I still had to see it through, completely blind to the puzzle he was trying to solve.

He had given me the weapons, the training, and a seat in the elite society. I was going to use every bit of it to track down Sabrina Caruso, strip her of the stolen Costa estate, and take back my father's legacy.