The engine roars. We're moving. Fast.
I try to track the turns but it's impossible. Left. Right. Straight for what feels like forever. The sound changes—echo of concrete to open air and I know we’re on the highway.
My heart is a drum. My breath is trapped under the hood. My wrists scream where the zip ties cut.
Think. Think.
Dante doesn't know. Marco will tell him I left but not where these men took me. The rideshare driver was in on it—probably paid off or threatened.
No one is coming.
Time stretches. Ten minutes. Twenty. Thirty.
When the SUV finally stops, rough hands haul me out. My feet hit concrete and someone rips the hood off.
I blink against sudden fluorescent light.
I’m in a warehouse. A massive warehouse. Empty except for a few crates and a dark SUV parked near what looks like a loading dock. Through the open bay doors, I can see runway lights. Private hangars.
Oh my God, I’m in an airport. No, no, no…
My blood turns to ice.
"Welcome back, Bianca."
I would recognize that son of a bitch’s voice anywhere.
Adrian steps into view, and I barely recognize him. His face is a mess—split lip crusted with dried blood, bruises yellowing around both eyes like he's been beaten recently. Thoroughly. There's dried blood matted in his hairline. His clothes hang loose. He looks thinner. Hungrier. Desperate in a way that makes my every instinct scream danger.
This isn't the man I lived with for three years. This is something broken and dangerous wearing his skin.
And behind him, perfectly composed in a white coat and designer heels like she's heading to a business meeting, is Caterina Bellandi.
"Let me go." I jerk against the men holding me. Their grips are iron. "Let me go right now?—"
"Afraid I can't do that." Caterina pulls out her phone, taps something with manicured nails, slides it back into her purse with practiced ease. "You're leaving the country, doll. Tonight. With Adrian. Everything's arranged."
"I'm not going anywhere with him."
"You don't have a choice." Adrian moves closer. Too close. Invading space that used to be familiar but now feels like a violation. His hand comes up to touch my face and I flinch away violently. His fingers still make contact. Cold. Trembling. "You're the only good thing I ever had, Bianca. The only clean thing in my life. I won't lose you to a monster like Dante."
"You sold me to him!"
"I made a mistake!" His voice cracks. High-pitched. Unhinged. "I was desperate. Scared of what they'd do to me. But I realized—lying awake every night for weeks—I can't live without you. We belong together. We were good together before everything got complicated. We can start over. Somewhere new. Somewhere safe. Just you and me, like it used to be."
He's insane. Completely, utterly insane. I can see it in his eyes—the way they don't quite focus. The way he's looking at some fantasy version of me that never existed.
"You think I'd go anywhere with you after what you did?"
"What I did?" He laughs. Bitter. Broken. A sound with jagged edges. "What about what you did? Spreading your legs for that bastard when you were supposed to stay mine. Only mine."
"I was never yours."
His face twists. "I saved your mother. I paid for her treatment. I gave you everything?—"
"You gave me nothing!" The words rip out of me. "You know you used my mother as leverage. You used me. And now you're working with her—" I jerk my chin toward Caterina. "—to ruin the one person who actually treats me like I matter."
"Dante doesn't love you." Adrian's voice drops. Venomous. "He's using you. Just like everyone else. Once the scandal breaks, once everyone knows what you really are, he'll throw you away."
