“Sarah, call my connections in town. Tell them to be on the lookout.”
“Yes, sir. I’m on it,” Sarah replies.
She immediately grabs her phone to make the calls, while I storm toward the stairs.
“If anyone sees her, have them call me immediately. Make sure they keep her where she is. I don’t want her to end up in the wrong hands.”
Leticia exits the kitchen, rubbing her hands on a towel.
“Did I hear you correctly? Did Stella leave?”
“She escaped,” I reply.
She covers her mouth in shock. “Oh no, what if she ends up in Lucio’s hands?”
I straighten my jacket as I walk toward the front door. “I won’t let that fucking happen. She’s my wife, and I’ll die before I ever let him have her back.”
Stella
I run through the grass as fast as I can toward the edge of the property. The wind chases underneath my bathrobe, but I try to ignore the piercing cold as it makes all the hairs on my skin stand straight. I don’t care how frosty it is out here or that I’m wearing nothing but a simple bathrobe. I have to get as far away from this house and that man as fast as possible before anyone else gets hurt.
When I finally reach the fence that surrounds his property, I stare at it for a moment, wondering if I can do this.
I have to. There’s no other choice.
I miss my life outside of these walls. I miss who I was. I miss my freedom.
I grab the bars and start climbing up, pinning my toesbetween each of the metal rods to keep my grip steady. It’s slow and tedious, but I finally manage to reach the top and crawl over, then jump down.
When my feet hit the asphalt, I groan from the pain that reverberates in my bones, but I keep pushing ahead. I can’t let the pain stop me now.
I run and run as fast as I can, far away from the house and into the woods beyond.
I don’t know where I’m going or where I am, but if I can find a road, maybe I’ll be able to get back into the city, and then I’ll figure it out from there. Matteo couldn’t possibly live that secluded, I’m sure of it. We didn’t drive that long after the wedding. I kept track of it. But dammit, I should have stolen some shoes from the closet before I ran.
Twigs crack beneath my feet, and one sharp stone cuts into my skin. I hiss in pain, clutching my foot as the blood oozes from beneath my sole. I wipe it off with my bathrobe and wait until the wound settles before I continue running.
There’s a creek not too far from here, and I dart toward it to clean my foot and make sure the wound doesn’t get infected. After I wipe down the water, I look around and notice some streetlights up ahead. My heart begins to race as I make my way toward them through the thick of the forest.
There’s no time to waste. Any second now, Matteo is about to find out I’m gone, and he’ll send all of his men after me like some goddamn hounds looking for prey. I have to get ahead of them before they catch me.
I never want to return to that place again, not if people have to keel over because of it. I would rather face an infinity married to that scumbag Lucio than risk having more innocents die on my behalf.
I clutch my bathrobe tightly as I zigzag through the forest, looking behind me every so often to check if any of Matteo’s guards are behind me. I don’t see them, but I can still feel them breathing on my neck like an invisible ghost haunting me. I’m not sure I will ever get rid of that feeling completely.
When I finally make my way to the road, a car zooms past, and my heart skips a beat. I wave, but to no avail, as they don’t stop or turn around.
I sigh out loud and keep my bathrobe clutched together tightly while I briskly pat off any remaining tree dust, twigs, dirt, and gravel from my feet, legs, and the fabric of my bathrobe in an attempt to look a little presentable. I stick up my thumb in the hopes that someone will give me a ride. I don’t care where. Anywhere is good as long as it’s far away from Matteo’s mansion.
I wait and wait until finally the next car comes into sight, and I wave wildly with my thumb stuck in the air, hoping they’ll stop for me. It zooms by so fast my bathrobe nearly flies off, and I grab it to keep myself together while trying not to cry. Another one completely ignores me. Maybe the next one will finally stop and take me with them.
But then the car stops in the middle of the road, and my heart stops beating for just a second.
They stopped.
It slowly backtracks until it reaches me, and the windows roll down. A young man sticks out his head. “Well, hello there. What’s a good-looking lady like you doing here?”
Can I trust them?
