BROKEN GLASS

The penthouse overlooked the city like a throne room built for a king who ruled through fear. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched across the far wall, offering a view that would have been breathtaking under different circumstances. Now, thirty stories above the street, Ava felt like she was trapped in a glass cage.

She hadn’t spoken during the ride. What was there to say? Her wedding dress, once pristine and full of dreams, now hung torn and stained around her ankles. The delicate beading had caught on the car door, leaving a trail of scattered pearls across the leather seat like fallen tears.

Dario moved through his domain with the fluid grace of a predator in familiar territory. He had shed his suit jacket, revealing the crisp white shirt beneath that somehow remained spotless despite the chaos he had orchestrated. How did monsters stay so clean?

“You are bleeding.” His voice cut through her spiraling thoughts.

Ava looked down. A thin line of red traced along her palm where she’d gripped the gun too tightly. She hadn’t even felt it. Everything felt numb, distant, like she was watching someone else’s nightmare unfold.

“The bathroom is through there.” He gestured to a doorway with the casual authority of someone accustomed to being obeyed. “Clean yourself up.”

She didn’t move. Couldn’t move. Her feet felt rooted to the marble floor.

“Ava.” The way he said her name—like he owned it, like he had been practicing it—made her skin crawl and burn at the same time. “You’re in shock. It will pass.”

“Will it?” The words slipped out before she could stop them, raw and broken. “Will the part where I watched you destroy my wedding pass too? The part where you held a bomb to my father’s chest?”

Something flickered across his features. Not quite regret, but not satisfaction either. “Your father is fine. They’re all fine.”

“Because I gave you what you wanted.” The anger surprised her, rising up from somewhere deep and primal. “Just like you knew I would.”

His pale eyes studied her with an intensity that made her want to hide. “You think I orchestrated all of this just to manipulate you?”

“Didn’t you?”

“No, little bird.” He moved closer, and she caught the scent of expensive cologne mixed with something darker—gunpowder, maybe. Or danger itself. “I orchestrated it because you belong to me. Everything else was just… logistics.”

The casual certainty in his voice hit her like a physical blow. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

“You saved my life.” He stopped just out of reach, close enough that she could see the flecks of silver in his blue eyes. “That makes you mine.”

“That makes me a nurse doing my job!”

“Does it?” His head tilted slightly, like he was examining a fascinating specimen. “Tell me, Ava—when you pressed your hands against the bullet wounds in my chest, when you breathed life back into my lungs, what were you thinking?”

The memory hit her like a storm. Three weeks ago. The ER had been chaos—gunshot victim, massive blood loss, barely clinging to life. She had worked on plenty of trauma cases, but something about this one had been different. The way he had looked at her even as he was dying, like he was memorizing her face for the afterlife.

She had fought for him harder than she had ever fought for anyone.

“I was thinking about saving a life,” she whispered, but the words felt hollow even to her own ears.

“Were you?” His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “Or were you thinking about the way I looked at you? The way I said your name when I woke up?”

“Angel,” he had whispered in that hospital bed, his voice rough from the ventilator. “Are you real?”

She had been stupid enough to smile, to squeeze his hand and tell him he was safe now. She had been stupid enough to care.

“You don’t know anything about me,” she said, backing away until the cold glass pressed against her shoulder blades.

“I know everything about you.” His voice followed her retreat, gentle and terrible. “I know you take your coffee black because you think adding sugar is wasteful. I know you work double shifts every Thursday because that’s when the free clinic needs extra help. I know you haven’t spoken to your sister in two years because she married a man you didn’t trust.”

Each word hit like a slap. “You have been watching me.”

“Protecting you.” His correction was swift and firm. “Do you know how many enemies I have? How many of them would love to hurt something precious to me?”

“I’m not precious to you. You don’t even know me.”

“I know you better than he does.” The venom in those words when referring to Leandro was unmistakable. “I know you lie awake at night wondering if you’re settling for safe instead of reaching for more. I know you dream about things you are too afraid to say out loud.”

“Stop.” But her voice lacked conviction, and they both heard it.

“I know you felt it too, that day in the hospital. The connection. The pull.” He was moving again, circling her like a shark scenting blood. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

She wanted to. God, how she wanted to scream that he was delusional, that whatever he thought he had seen was just her doing her job, just compassion for another human being.

But the lie wouldn’t come.

Because she remembered the way her heart had raced when his eyes opened. The way her breath had caught when he had whispered her name like a prayer. The way she had found excuses to check on him during her rounds, even after he was stable.

The way she had felt guilty about it for weeks.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” she finally spoke up after the silence, but the words sounded weak even to her.

“Doesn’t it?” He stopped directly in front of her, close enough that she could feel the heat radiating from his skin. “Then why are you shaking?”

She looked down at her hands. He was right. They were trembling, but not from fear anymore.

From something much more dangerous.

“Clean up,” he said softly, stepping back to give her space that somehow felt like a loss. “We have things to discuss.”

“Such as?”

His smile was sharp enough to cut glass. “Such as the fact that your fiancé is currently mobilizing every contact he has to come for you. And the fact that when he does…..” He paused, staring deep into her soul.

“ I’m going to kill him.”