It was about giving up control.
Fighting the rising panic, I plucked the card from his outstretched hand. Flipping it over, the truth was right there. The Black Card had Amanda Messina printed on the back. The bastard.
“That’s not even my legal name,” I stated, handing it back. “It would be fraud to use it.”
“Then we’ll use mine until the name change paperwork goes through.” Vincenzo had his matching card out and in the associate’s hand before I could blink.
“Enzo, I can’t,” I pleaded.
While the pretty clothes made me feel like me, this was a far worse turn of events. It stripped me of my independence. Desperation clawed up my spine. The icy feeling sank into my bones.
I began to wheeze.
My lungs didn’t work.
Vincenzo shot a worried look at me as he scribbled his name on the digital signing pad. He slapped the stylus back in its holder and with a voice that sounded like thunder, he bellowed, “Everyone, out.”
The associates stared, stricken, at him.
I clutched my chest, dropping to a crouch. I wanted to tell him to stop being so rude. But the walls were closing in on me.
This time, I was powerless to stop it.
It hit me all at once—so fast I didn’t even have time to pretend I was fine. One moment, I was standing there, and the next, my chest tightened like an invisible fist wrapped around it. My heartbeat slammed against my ribs, too hard, too fast, as if it were trying to escape my body.
No! Not now.
There was no room for embarrassment. I tried to breathe my way through the panic, but the air felt thick. Heavy.Suffocating. My throat burned. My lungs refused to expand. A prickling heat crawled up my neck and the back of my scalp, spreading over my skin in hot, electric waves.
“Mandy, I’ve got you.” Warm hands clasped mine. They were steady against the tiny tremors.
But it wasn’t just my hands. My whole body shuddered. The room felt skewed, tilted, as if gravity had shifted just to mess with me.
“Sit down, you’ll be just fine,” Vincenzo said, but his voice sounded far away, drowned by the roar building in my head.
My vision tightened around the edges, tunneling inward until all I could see was what was right in front of me, too sharp and too bright. Then the fear hit—the kind that wasn’t tied to anything real. Pure, raw, animal terror that poured through me like ice water. My body thought I was dying. And for a few breathless, choking seconds, I believed it.
Something warm pressed against my mouth. Darkness blocked the cold light. The living shadow shielded me, protecting and solid.
The fluttering beat of my heart latched onto that dangerous presence, knowing it was safe. Eventually, the air thinned its resistance, my lungs loosened, and the world slowly eased back into focus. The tremors lingered in my fingers, and my throat felt raw, scraped out, but I could breathe again.
“There you are,” the darkness whispered. “Fiore mio, you’re so brave.”
A sob choked my throat. “No…I’m a mess.”
Vincenzo shook his head. “The world is trying to knock you out. But you keep fighting. I’m so fucking proud of you.”
I squeezed my eyes closed. The panic attack passed, but it left me hollow and shaky. “I don’t know why that happens to me.”
His soothing touch rubbed up and down my bare arms, bringing heat back to the freezing limbs. “It’s my fault this time. I should have just told you.”
“Told me what?” I sighed. I couldn’t bring myself to be angry, to fight whatever it was he wanted to say.
“When I caught your father trying to steal your money, I moved it,” Vincenzo confessed. “The card is tied to your new accounts. I haven’t added a cent to the capital—even though I wanted to.”
That should have made me furious. Those were the kinds of things he should have told me. Asked my opinion about. But it was painfully obvious now. Vincenzo was my silent protector.
“I know how much you value your independence,” he added. “But I wanted to see how you responded to the idea of me taking care of you. That was a horrible idea, and I’m so fucking sorry that I messed up.”
