Chapter 3

Panic flared in my chest, hot and suffocating.

I couldn't afford to be trapped here.

I had to get back to my boy.

“Let go of me,” I hissed, the words vibrating through my jaw as I fought to salvage the last shreds of self-respect that had vanished when I stepped into a place like this.

Alex ignored my request and went on driving me to heights of pleasure that I missed greatly but couldn't afford to enjoy when my son was fighting for his life.

“Who can stop me?” He smiled wickedly as he pushed another finger inside me.

I sobbed through the rekindled passion. “I don't want this. Alex… please stop.”

His thumb rubbed my clit in circles and I nearly lost control. I would have if I hadn’t pushed him away in time.

His jaw tightened, a muscle flickering near his cheek.

“You claim you don't want this,” he whispered, his breath grazing my neck, “but your body still obeys me.”

The lie died in my throat. I looked down when he pulled out.

I couldn't stop shuddering from a treacherous heat that ignited the exact moment his skin touched mine

It was glaringly obvious that I still craved his touch, and the weakness genuinely sickened me.

Seven years apart should have severed our bond.

That was the delusion I clung to while I scraped by in poverty just to raise his son under a stolen identity.

I had rebuilt myself from nothing. I convinced myself that the person I used to be was gone and that the past could no longer reach me.

Meeting Alex again proved how wrong I was.

Throughout these seven years, I often wondered if he had forgotten me. I wondered if he had moved on while I continued carrying the weight of what happened between us.

Getting fingered by him right after we came across each other again proved that nothing had changed.

He didn't forget. His love and hatred for me only grew with time.

“You let me mourn you. You let me believe you burned to ash in that house, only for me to find you selling yourself to pieces of trash under neon lights. Look at me and tell me why you did it.”

“Alex, you’re not single. What would people think if they saw us together like this?”

He didn't even look bothered. “You think I got where I am today by living for other people’s approval?”

“That’s not the point. The point is that it’s been seven years, Alex. Seven years. You need to get over me.”

“Get over you?” Alex repeated, his face overeaten with madness. He looked hurt and extremely offended by the idea itself. “You really think this is because I couldn’t forget you?”

“Why are you doing this?”

A slow smirk formed on Alex’s lips as his gaze darkened.

“Revenge.”

I trembled visibly as the word weighed in the silence.

“You think I’m here because I still want you?” he continued. “Because I’m holding onto some old feelings? No. This isn’t an obsession.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s me making you feel what I felt.”

I shook my head. “You don’t understand what happened.”

“No, you don’t understand.” His voice rose a little higher with each word. “Nadia, you disappeared. You made me assume you were dead. You left me with nothing. No explanation. No goodbye. You just erased yourself like I meant nothing.”

My fingers tightened around the hem of his coat.

“You don’t get to punish me for my past,” I said. “I’m not the same person anymore.”

His eyes narrowed. “Your past?”

“Yes.” I forced myself to meet his gaze. “The person you remember wasn’t the whole story.”

“And what story am I missing?”

The question carried more weight than he knew.

I looked away. “One where I had no choice.”

His expression shifted slightly, but his anger remained.

“No choice? You chose to leave me. You chose to burn everything.”

“I chose to survive.”

The room went quiet.

“I was the daughter of a family you admired,” I said bitterly. “A family that looked perfect from the outside. But you never knew what it was like living inside it.”

His jaw tightened when I mentioned them.

“Even my own father wanted me gone from your life. Everyone wanted me to disappear, and I did exactly that.”

A flicker of something unreadable crossed his face, then it sharpened into shock.

He looked… caught off guard.

He frowned slightly. “What are you talking about?”

Did he not know?

Did he just happen to recognize me?

I studied him carefully, watching for the slightest confirmation that he already knew everything and came here for me. But there was nothing.

He just looked confused.

My stomach dropped.

No. That wasn’t possible.

A cold realization crept in under my skin.

I had slipped.

Alex exhaled sharply, dragging a hand through his hair as if trying to reset himself.

“I don’t have time for riddles or half-truths.” His voice hardened again, but it wasn’t the same anger from before. This was different—focused, decisive. “You’re coming with me.”

My breath caught. “What?”

“I said you’re leaving with me.”

He stepped closer, as the decision had already been made without me.

I shook my head immediately. “No.”

“This isn’t up for debate.”

Panic rose fast in my chest. “Alex, you don’t understand—”

“I understand enough.” His tone cut through me. “You’ve been running. Hiding. Lying. Whatever this mess is, it ends now.”

I took a step back, shaking my head harder. “You can’t just decide that.”

“I already have.”

The room suddenly felt smaller, the air heavier.

Every instinct in me screamed to get distance, to think, to affirm my own decisions and I did.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,”

“I’m not asking,” he replied sharply.

“Please… just let me go.”

“This time, I will never let you go. And you must pay for everything you made me go through. Your body and soul now belong to me.”

His intense gaze traveled from my firm set lips to my determined gaze, meeting my glare head-on.

“Since we've come to an agreement, let's leave here.”

“Please stop bothering me,” I demanded, trying to sound brave. “How will your wife react when she learns you are still obsessed with me?”

He ignored the sting of my words, his tone flat and stern. “You are walking out that door with me, Nadia, whether you like it or not.”

“It has been seven years,” I said, poking a finger hard into his chest. “Seven years since I walked away from being your woman, yet you still cannot get over me.”

Seven years of cold fury seared in his dark eyes.

My chest seized, my mind splintering into panic as he yanked me forward, hauling me out of the VIP room—and back into his world.

His fingers locked around my waist after he ordered the driver to head to his estate

“I know you are hiding something,” he said, “You will tell me what you are hiding or I will start pulling apart everything you built until there is nowhere left for you to run.”

The warning settled heavily in my chest.

At that moment, I understood there was no conversation left to save me.

Only what he decided to do next.