But we were just kids… too naive, too full of bullshit dreams.And now… Here I am, staring at the wreckage of something I’ll never get back.
“Some shit to shut you the fuck up,” I mutter, eyes locked on the road as I turn the key to start the engine.
I don’t wait for a response.Just shift into drive and slam the pedal down.The engine roars to life, and I guide the car back onto the road.The tires bite into the asphalt as I speed off into the night.
The miles blur by.The landscape shifting in the dark.The city’s lights fade, leaving only the stretch of road and the quiet hum of the car.
Eventually, I pull off onto a dirt track, the gravel crunching beneath the tires, pine trees closing in on either side.The night feels heavy here… isolated, untouched by the outside world.
This place is mine.
No one knows about it.Not even Salvatore, who’s seen me at my worst.The nights when I didn’t give a shit who was watching or who I fucked.He’s been there, seen me act like I was king of the world in those clubs, losing myself in whatever pussy I could find.
But here, everything’s different.Here, I can finally breathe.
I’ve been running from the empire my father built.The sickening demands, the weight of it all.Every decision, every order, every chain that’s been wrapped around me since birth.
I bought this place years ago, under a proxy name, burying it so deep that not a single soul could find it.No one knows it exists, not even my father or his men.It's mine, a quiet refuge where I don’t have to bow to anyone’s will.A place where I’m not his puppet, doing his bidding like a good little son.
I needed this.I needed it to get the fuck away from his control, the constant pressure to be the monster he made me into.This place is my rebellion, my way out.
I keep my focus on the road as the trees close in around us, the darkness swallowing everything else.The car rolls over the dirt track, the tires crunching beneath, and I finally start to feel that weight lifting.We’re almost there.Almost safe.
Then the sharp ping of my phone.It vibrates against my thigh, the sudden noise cutting through the silence of the car.
I don’t need to check it.I already know what it is.
The warning system.One of the many alerts I set up around this place to keep me safe.The kind of system that’s designed to trigger the second anyone or anything gets too close.Cameras, motion sensors, heat detectors, nothing gets past it.
The trees thin out the closer we get, branches giving way to open space.Then I see it.
The house.
Just a shadow at first, then clearer with every second.The car’s headlights catch on the dark windows, bouncing off the glass, casting an eerie glow over the yard.
That familiar grip of isolation coils tighter as the driveway comes into view.This place, it’s more than just walls and silence.It’s a fortress.I don’t ease off the gas, just keep driving straight toward the entrance, as if hesitation isn’t part of my vocabulary.The place is swallowed in darkness, still and silent.No movement.No lights.Just that kind of quiet that comes from being miles away from anything that even resembles human.
I hit the button on the console, and the garage door groans as it lifts, slow and mechanical.Bright light spills out as the overheads flicker on, illuminating every inch of the polished concrete like a spotlight on the life I never wanted but somehow built anyway.
I ease the car forward, the tires humming as they roll over the smooth surface.The door closes behind, sealing us inside.
The garage blends seamlessly with the rest of the house.It's all clean lines, metal, and glass.
I kill the engine.
For a moment, Emery doesn’t move.
She just sits there, eyes sweeping over the space like she’s trying to piece together a puzzle she didn’t know she was part of.
Then, her voice breaks through the quiet.“Where are we?”
She finally turns to face me, her eyes steady and unflinching.
She’s asking what this place is to me.What I am in all of this?And the truth is, I don’t even know how to answer.
“This is where we’ll be staying,” I say, my voice detached, offering nothing more.
I don’t wait for her to speak.I shove the door open, stepping out into the cold, and slam it shut behind me.The sound is loud, sharp, and final.
