The skin pulsed with every beat of my heart, a dull, constant ache beneath the surface.
If he had held on any longer—
I didn’t finish the thought.
I didn’t want to.
I snapped the mirror shut with a sharp click, the sound louder than it should have been in the confined space.
When I spoke, my voice came out flat.
“You act like hurting me isn’t something you secretly enjoy.”
My gaze stayed fixed on the windshield, on the empty stretch of road ahead that offered nothing but distance and silence.
He exhaled slowly through his nose.
A sound that could have been frustration.
Something closer to... restraint.
“I didn’t intend for that to happen,”
The response came immediately.
It made something in me snap.
A bitter laugh slipped out before I could stop it, sharp and humorless.
“You don’t intend...?
I turned my head slightly, just enough to see him from the corner of my eye—his profile rigid, his eyes locked forward like the road demanded his full attention.
“Vincenzo, everything you’ve ever done to me has been deliberate.”
“From abandoning your bride at the altar and taking me as your wife,” I continued, voice tightening despite myself.
“To making it painfully clear that you married me only so I could suffer in your grip—for my father’s crimes.”
“You’ve shown me time and again that Violet comes first, even though we are married. That I would suffer if I crossed her. A woman who accused me of making her bleed, though I hadn’t touched her at all.”
“You could have checked the cameras... but you chose to look away.”
My voice caught, then I forced it steady.
“You don’t need to pretend with me. I will always be the daughter of your violator—and nothing can erase that.”
Silence.
The accusation hung there.
Heavy.
I pressed my lips together, swallowing the emotion before it could spill further.
“Ever since you made me kneel on that razor-sharp ridge,” I said, forcing each word out, “my knees ache every single time I move—even now, four weeks later, despite the fresh gauze the doctor applied yesterday. I still limp.”
“You don’t honestly think I’ll ever forgive you, do you? You don’t think this is how I’ll live the rest of my life?”
