"Then we make our own opportunities. We fight. We resist. We never give up." She pulled back, looked me in the eyes. "You're stronger than you know, Aria. You've survived this long. You can survive seven more days. And by the end of those seven days, either Kai will have saved you or we'll have figured out how to save ourselves."
She left shortly after. Had to get back to her own room before the guards noticed she was gone too long.
I sat on my bed. Hands on my still-flat stomach. Wondering if there was actually a baby in there. A tiny cluster of cells that was half me and half Kai.
The idea should have terrified me.
Instead, it felt like a lifeline. A reason to keep fighting beyond just survival.
If I was pregnant, I wasn't just fighting for myself anymore. I was fighting for this baby. For Kai's child. For the future we'd talked about in that Italian restaurant that felt like a lifetime ago.
Three days until the wedding.
Three days to escape or be saved or figure out some third option I hadn't thought of yet.
Three days to find out if I was actually pregnant or if stress and fear were just playing tricks on my body.
Three days until everything either fell apart or came together.
I lay back on the bed. Closed my eyes. Tried to find some calm in the storm.
Kai was alive. He was fighting for me. He hadn't given up.
I couldn't give up either.
No matter how terrifying this got. No matter how hopeless it seemed.
I had to survive. Had to stay strong. Had to believe that love was enough to overcome even this nightmare.
Because if I gave up now, Salvatore won. And I refused to let that happen.
So I'd endure. I'd resist. I'd fight and I'd pray that Kai got here in time.
Before the wedding. Before Salvatore could make good on his threats. Before I lost everything that mattered.
Three days,I just had to survive Three more days.
How hard could that be?
Chapter Twenty-Four
KAI
Three days until my father married Aria. Seventy-two hours to either save her or watch everything I loved get destroyed.
No pressure.
Marco and I stood outside the Council chambers at 1:45pm. Fifteen minutes until the emergency session started. Fifteen minutes to finalize our strategy and make sure we hadn't missed anything critical.
My arm throbbed beneath the fresh bandages. I'd changed the dressing that morning, cleaned the wound, popped painkillers that barely touched the edge of the pain. But pain was good. Kept me sharp. Kept me focused on what mattered.
"So." Marco leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Worst case scenario. The Council doesn't act fast enough or decides this is too politically messy to touch. What's Plan B?"
"We storm the estate. Get Aria out by force."
"That's not a plan. That's a suicide mission with extra steps."
"You have a better idea?"
