My eyes scanned the road ahead, searching—anything, anywhere.
That’s when I saw it.
The cathedral.
I didn’t think or hesitate.
I swerved in on pure instinct, driving straight through the open entrance before the engine finally gave out.
I barely waited for it to die before I jumped off, my legs already moving, pushing myself forward.
Run. Hide. Disappear.
Anything to escape them.
Because I knew what would happen if they caught me.
They wouldn’t kill me.
No... they would take me to him.
To Ruslan Baranov.
And there would be no mercy in what followed.
Only judgment.
I pushed deeper inside, my pulse hammering, my mind racing for any kind of cover—
And then I saw him.
Vincenzo.
Of all places. Of all moments.
Here.
On his wedding day.
In his dressing room.
The same boy I had spent fourteen fleeting hours with when I was eight... now standing in front of me like something pulled straight out of a past I thought I had buried.
“Elena...”
Vincenzo’s voice cut through the fog of my thoughts, sharp and commanding, yanking me back to the present.
I blinked once, the memory of running dissolving as reality snapped back into place.
He was still there.
Standing tall. Watching. Waiting.
His presence filled the room like a storm about to break.
“Do you agree to be my bride?”
The question hung in the air between us, as if every second I hesitated fed the tension.
