The sound of breaking glass echoed through the Wills mansion like a gunshot. Evelyn jumped from her desk, where she'd been working on the family foundation's accounts – not that anyone knew she was the one keeping them in order. Her heart raced as she ran down the curved marble staircase, her footsteps echoing in the vast space.
In the grand living room, she found her father standing among the glittering shards of what used to be his favorite crystal decanter. The sight stopped her cold. Richard Wills was always perfect, always controlled – the man who built Rome's most prestigious finance empire from the ground up. But now his expensive suit was wrinkled, his silver hair disheveled, and his face as white as the broken crystal at his feet.
"Father?" she asked softly, careful not to startle him. "What's wrong?"
Richard looked at his younger daughter as if seeing her for the first time. His hands trembled – another shock. In twenty-three years, she'd never seen her father's hands shake.
Before he could answer, the sharp clicking of expensive heels announced her mother's arrival. Eleanor Wills swept into the room like a queen, her designer dress rustling, followed closely by Evelyn's older sister Victoria. Both women stopped short at the sight before them.
"Richard?" Eleanor's perfectly modulated voice shook slightly. "Why are there police cars outside our gate? I just had to send away the gardener because they're questioning everyone who tries to enter."
"It's over," Richard whispered, the words falling like stones in the silent room. "Everything... it's all over."
Victoria moved closer to their mother, her platinum blonde hair catching the afternoon light streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows. At twenty-five, she was everything Evelyn wasn't – tall, willowy, with their mother's crystal blue eyes and their father's commanding presence.
"Daddy, you're scaring us," Victoria said, using the little-girl voice that usually got her anything she wanted.
Richard collapsed into his favorite leather chair, suddenly looking old. "The company," he said, staring at his shaking hands. "They found out. The government knows about the money... what I did with it. By tomorrow morning, everyone will know that Wills International is finished."
Eleanor's perfectly painted face crumpled, years of Botox no match for the horror of the moment. "What are you saying?"
"I took money from the company. Made bad investments trying to cover our losses. Falsified reports." Each confession seemed to age him years. "The SEC has been investigating for months. They're freezing our accounts. Taking the house. Everything."
"No!" Victoria's cry was more rage than grief. "What about my promotion? I was supposed to be announced as Vice President at the charity gala next week!"
Evelyn stood quietly in her corner, watching her perfect family's world shatter. She'd always been the overlooked one, the spare heir kept around in case something happened to Victoria. While her sister got modeling contracts and magazine covers, Evelyn earned business degrees and learned four languages – not that anyone noticed. Victoria was the family star, their parents' golden child. Evelyn was the backup plan, the second best, the shadow in a room full of spotlight.
The heavy sound of expensive shoes on marble interrupted Victoria's theatrical tears. A tall man in an impeccably tailored black suit entered the room, his presence immediately commanding attention. Evelyn recognized him from business magazines – Marco Romano, right-hand man to Ben Carter, the most powerful billionaire in Rome.
"Mr. Wills," Marco said, his deep voice filling the room. "Mr. Carter sent me with a proposition."
Hope flickered across Richard's face like a drowning man spotting shore. Everyone knew Ben Carter – the self-made billionaire they called the Devil of Wall Street. He'd clawed his way up from nothing to build an empire that made the Wills fortune look like pocket change. Some said he had a dark past, that he'd been a street fighter before turning to business. He was famous for taking broken companies and either saving them or destroying them completely.
"What kind of proposition?" Richard asked, a tremor in his voice.
"A marriage alliance." Marco's dark eyes swept the room, noting every detail before settling on Evelyn. She felt the weight of his assessment like a physical touch. "Mr. Carter will protect your family's interests, handle the legal problems, and maintain your social position. In exchange, he wants to marry your daughter."
Eleanor brightened instantly, years of social climbing instincts kicking in. "Victoria would be perfect! She's trained for exactly this kind of marriage. She knows all the right people, she's been featured in—"
"Not Miss Victoria," Marco interrupted smoothly, his gaze never leaving Evelyn. "Mr. Carter is interested in Miss Evelyn."
The silence that followed was absolute. Evelyn felt dizzy, the room spinning slightly around her. Her? The forgotten daughter? Victoria's face turned an ugly shade of red, shock and anger warring in her perfect features.
"There must be some mistake," Eleanor protested, reaching for Victoria's hand. "Victoria is clearly the better choice. She's more experienced in society, more suitable for someone of Mr. Carter's position—"
"Mr. Carter makes his own choices," Marco said firmly. He placed a thick white envelope on the antique side table. "Miss Evelyn has until midnight to decide. A car will be waiting."
"Why me?" Evelyn found her voice at last, proud that it didn't shake.
Marco's lips curved slightly, something like approval flickering in his dark eyes. "Mr. Carter believes in seeing what others miss." He turned to leave, his message delivered. "The car will be black. Your answer will tell us everything."
After he left, chaos erupted. Victoria stormed out, her angry screams echoing through the mansion. Eleanor began to cry, carefully dabbing her eyes to preserve her makeup. Richard simply stared into space, lost in whatever nightmares awaited him tomorrow.
But Evelyn could only look at the envelope with her name written in elegant black script. Inside was either her salvation or her destruction. A contract with the devil himself.
She picked it up, feeling its weight in her hands. All her life, she'd been the second choice, the backup plan, the one who faded into the background while Victoria sparkled in the spotlight. Now, the most dangerous man in Rome wanted her. Not Victoria. Her.
Moving to the window, Evelyn watched the police cars outside their gate. By tomorrow, their name would be ruined, their fortune gone, their perfect world destroyed. Unless she made a deal with the devil.
A memory surfaced – she was twelve, watching Victoria win another beauty pageant while their mother beamed with pride. "Remember, darling," Eleanor had told Victoria, "in our world, a woman's greatest power is in making the right marriage."
Evelyn's fingers tightened on the envelope. For once, she would be the one making the right marriage. Not for beauty or social connections, but because Ben Carter – the brilliant, ruthless king of Rome's business world – had seen something in her that everyone else had missed.
By midnight, she would make her choice. By morning, everything would change.
The second-best daughter was about to become someone else entirely.
Something much more dangerous.
Something entirely her own.