The Runaway Fiancée: Claimed By The Rival

“I watched the man I was contractually bound to marry dive into the freezing water. But he wasn't swimming toward me. Only seconds prior, his mistress had shoved me into the ornamental pool. I struggled to surface, my heavy silk dress dragging me down like a lead weight. Jax, the ruthless Underboss of Chicago, swam right past me. He reached for the woman who had pushed me, scooping her up as she faked a leg cramp. He carried her out, stepping over my hand as I clawed at the slippery edge. Every Capo and soldier in the underworld watched the heir choose a jersey chaser over his fiancée. "You are making a scene, Eliana," Jax said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Go home." He didn't offer a hand. He ordered me away like a disobedient dog. Later that night, when I tried to return his ring, his mistress laughed and shoved me down a flight of stairs. I lay at the bottom, broken and bleeding. Jax didn't check if I was alive. He comforted her instead. To him, I was just furniture. A guarantee. He thought he had broken me. He thought I had nowhere to go because our families were allied. He was wrong. I left the five-carat diamond on the table. I left my car keys on the dashboard at O'Hare Airport. I didn't just run away. I boarded a one-way flight to New York to join his mortal enemy, the Tran Syndicate. Jax Little thought he owned the board. He didn't realize the Queen had just defected.”