The Quarter for a Queen's Gambit
The first time I saw Damien Blackwood, he was a rebellious Yale dropout with a fire in his eyes that could burn down all of Manhattan.
His only redeeming quality, perhaps, was the searing, clumsy sincerity in his voice when he promised to tattoo my initials, A.V., over his heart.
Later, he became a notorious wolf of Wall Street, handing me the "Nemesis" hedge fund, worth a billion dollars, as a wedding gift.
All of New York City knew that I, Aria Vance, was the one weakness he protected with his life.
Until today, when the rising actress Damien had been sponsoring finally made her grand entrance.
Flaunting her pregnant belly, she said to me in a sickly sweet voice, "Miss Vance, will you sign the divorce papers now, or wait until I give the Blackwood family an heir and have me forced off the board of directors?"
I simply raised my hand, and my assistant hit send. A file of scandals that would ruin her reputation instantly flooded the internet.
When Damien saw her being mobbed by reporters, tears streaming down her face, he flew into a rage.
He pressed an antique letter opener, inlaid with his family crest, against my throat and growled, "Aria, you've gone too far!"
I chuckled softly, my hand closing around his grandfather's Colt Python revolver on the table. I aimed the muzzle at the heart that once beat only for me.
"You've really changed, Damien. But I haven't. My ambition has always been the truest part of me."
Bang!
The bullet grazed his ear and shattered the eighty-million-dollar Basquiat painting behind him.