LOGINEMILY Miriam had been wrong.The scandal hadn’t stayed buried.We returned to mansion in the first week of August and the timing could not have been more disastrous.The very next morning, the newspapers exploded.“Wife Of The Billionaire Mafia Lord Returns to Society After Abduction!”“Alessandro's wife Survives Kidnapping!”And worst of all, the pack Journal screamed: “Alessandro's Wife Spends Month with Kidnapper In The West!”I was too numb from Julian’s rejection to care. The headlines barely registered. But Alessandro furious. Outraged. Before I could even catch my breath, I was hurried off to Newport for the remainder of the summer, hidden away like something fragile—or something shameful.It didn’t matter where I was.I could have been in Hong Kong and felt exactly the same.I rarely left the estate. Some days, I didn’t even leave my room. Sleep became my refuge, the only place where I could escape the hollow ache inside me. I lost my appetite. Food became irrelevant. Time bl
EMILYTomorrow I was supposed to be married to Alessandro for real this time.I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.I sat at my dressing table, staring hard at my reflection as if it might suddenly rearrange itself into something happier, something softer. But it didn’t. I didn’t look like a bride. There was no glow, no anticipation. If anything, I looked like a widow—hollow-eyed, drained, already mourning something I hadn’t even been allowed to keep.The sight of myself made me restless. I pushed back my chair abruptly and began pacing my room. It was large—too large, suddenly. One half was dominated by the canopied bed, the other arranged with a plush sofa and armchairs no one ever really used. Everything was done in ivory and white, delicate and expensive and suffocating.I crossed to the windows, four tall panes that overlooked Central Park and pushed one open. Winter rushed in to meet me. The park below was buried beneath a thick blanket of snow, glittering beneath a pale sun. T
JULIAN For a long moment, I could hardly believe the turn my luck had taken.All I had to do was keep doing what I’d already been doing. And in return?A presidential pardon.Every crime I had ever been accused of committing will be erased. It sounded too good. It was too good. But it was real.Of course, there were complications. There always were.There was no end date. No guarantee of when this would ever be over. And Emily…My chest tightened at the thought of her.Would she wait?She was my wife. She had to.For the first time since everything had gone to hell, I felt something other than pain. Something other than anger. There was something sharp and alive in my chest, something close to excitement.I could see her again. This time, I could give her something real. A future. A promise that meant something.Where there had been nothing but darkness, there was light.It didn’t last.A few hours later, I was dozing despite the steady throb in my neck when the jail door slammed
JULIAN We never stood a chance. Not once the Alessandro and his hired army closed in around us. One moment I was still fighting to stay upright in the saddle, the next, a dozen agents were on me—hands everywhere, dragging me down, slapping irons on my wrists, hauling me onto a horse like I was nothing more than cargo.I barely stayed conscious on the ride back. The pain in my neck burned and throbbed with every jolt of the horse beneath me, blood loss making the world tilt and blur at the edges. Crossing the border felt like it took forever, and the hard gallop dragged on endlessly. If I didn’t slump off that saddle, it wasn’t strength keeping me there, it was anger. Pride. Sheer stubborn refusal to collapse in front of them.I didn’t see Emily. Not once. I knew she was back there somewhere, surrounded by his men like I was some kind of disease they had to quarantine her from.By the time we reached town, I was half-dead on my feet. They threw me into a cell without ceremony, and a p
JULIANWe moved up the alley toward the main street, and I forced myself to stay slouched low in the saddle, the kid’s battered hat pulled down to shadow my face. Every instinct in me screamed to look around, to check every corner, every windows but I didn’t. I couldn’t afford to.Beside me, Emily rode stiffly. In my jacket and Stetson, she looked like a lanky, awkward boy, at least, that was what I kept telling myself. What I needed to believe.We stepped out onto the main street.The bank and post office stood directly across from us, quiet and unassuming. Too quiet. And just beyond them lay the alley where I knew Alessandro was waiting.Sweat soaked through me, dampening my shirt, trickling down my spine. I could feel them, even if I couldn’t see them, their eyes, sharp and searching, sweeping over every inch of the street.Would he recognize her?Would he recognize me?I waited for it, the crack of a rifle, the searing burn of a bullet tearing into flesh.But nothing came.Nothing
JULIAN“Now what?” Emily whispered, her voice thin with fear, barely more than breath against my chest.“We’re jumping,” I said grimly.I didn’t give her time to argue. My arm locked around her waist and I pushed us both out through the glass doors before she could so much as draw in a proper protest.We landed on the balcony and froze instantly, flattening ourselves against the glass, directly beneath the overhanging edge of the roof. My senses sharpened immediately.Because I thought I had heard something.From above.I stilled completely and listened. But I heard nothing. Not a damn thing.But I didn’t move. I kept listening, every nerve stretched tight. Emily’s breathing came harsh and uneven, too loud in the silence, and in my arms she was trembling—small, uncontrollable tremors that made it harder to focus.I shut everything else out.Waited.And then a faint, unmistakable sound.A piece of tile scraping loose.It skittered over the edge of the roof and dropped, hitting the grou
EMILY"What do you mean by that?" I stuttered, completely confused as to what he meant by he owns me.But instead of answering, Alessandro turned and started walking towards his car. He didn't stop, or even slow down. He just kept walking away as if he hadn't even heard me.I was shocked to my bone
ALESSANDRO What was she still doing in there?Restlessly My gaze swept in her room, passsing indifferently over the nake picture in her room. I tried to penetrate the darkness beyond, where I knew she might be but then there was no sign of life in the room. I could not pierce the engulfing night.
EMILY I covered my mouth with both hands the moment the bathroom door flew open.The scream that tore out of my chest died halfway, choking itself back into my throat as horror froze me in place.The man was in the bathtub. Shaking.His body was curled awkwardly against the porcelain, his wrists t
EMILY The moment our eyes met, my body forgot how to function. It was like every nerve inside me had been dipped in ice.She was real. Not a dream. Not a distorted memory.Her smile widened slowly as if she could taste my fear from across the room.I took a step back on the staircase.Then another







