I can breathe again. Almost.
I press the button for the elevator. Wait while my heart pounds too fast in my chest.
The doors open with a soft chime that sounds too cheerful for how I feel.
I step inside the small metal box. Press the button for the lobby. Watch the doors start to slide closed.
Then a hand shoots out. Manicured fingers with blood-red nails, stop the doors from closing with casual strength.
My stomach drops. A bad feeling washes over me immediately, primal and certain. Every instinct I have starts screaming danger.
The doors slide open again.
It's her.
The woman from the nightclub. Valentina. Luan's father's widow.
She steps into the elevator with a smile that doesn't reach her cold eyes. "Lily. What a lovely surprise." Her accent wraps around the English words, making them sound both elegant and threatening.
The doors start to close again.
Through the narrowing gap, I see Artan. His face twisted in panic, eyes wide with fear I've never seen there before. Running toward the elevator with desperate speed. Reaching out like he can stop what's already happening.
Too late.
The doors close with quiet finality. The elevator lurches slightly as it starts its descent.
I'm alone with Valentina in a space that suddenly feels impossibly small.
She turns to face me fully, still wearing that terrible smile. "Congratulations on your engagement. It's all very romantic, isn't it? Very fairy tale."
Her tone is pleasant on the surface. But underneath it's false, sarcastic, poisonous. Every word calculated to cut.
"Thank you," I say. My voice curt but polite. I won't give her the satisfaction of seeing how much she unnerves me.
"I wonder," she says slowly, drawing out the words like she's savoring them, "if you know the truth about Luan."
Something defensive flares hot in my chest. I try to keep my composure, try not to back down to this woman who's looking at me like I'm prey. "I know everything. And it doesn't deter me from wanting to marry him."
The words come out defiant and strong.
But as I say them, as they hang in the air between us, I realize they're true. Despite everything I learned about the mafia, about the violence, about the danger. Despite all of it, I still love him. Still love all of them. Still want them in my life with a desperation that borders on madness.
Valentina looks slightly taken aback. Her perfectly sculpted eyebrows rise fractionally. She didn't expect that response. Didn't expect me to stand my ground.
Then her expression changes. Becomes something harder and vicious.
She grabs my upper arm suddenly, her fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. Turns me toward her with strength I didn't expect from someone so elegantly dressed. Her grip is tight, painful, uncompromising.
"You don't know the whole truth," she says. Her voice drops low, becomes almost intimate in its venom. "Very few people know the truth."
She pauses deliberately. Lets the tension build like a physical pressure in the small space. Lets me wonder what's coming next. Lets the dread settle into my bones.
Then she leans closer, her breath hot against my ear, and whispers the words that shatter everything.
"Luan murdered his own father. Put a bullet in his head. Cold-blooded. And Artan helped him do it. All because he wanted to seize power."
The words hit me like a physical blow. Like all the air has been sucked out of the elevator and my lungs simultaneously.
