ログインImogen’s PoV
“I know you’re in here somewhere. Come out this instant.” The voice came from downstairs. Picking up my purse, I got out of the bed immediately needing no further push. I walked past Blond towards the door and stopped just before crossing into the corridor. “I’m sorry. This was all a mistake, it shouldn’t have gotten this far,” I said. I had to go back to a life of misery. What was I thinking that I could easily breakaway from Perry? He owned me. “Wait!” Blond stopped me. I turned around willing the tears to go away. Fun has ended, it was time to go back to my shattered world where I was not cinderella and the man staring at me with deep gray eyes right before me could not be my prince charming. He pulled me back, his fingers sending sparks through me. “If you ever change your mind, call me.” His voice was barely a whisper. I inhaled breaths to steady my lungs as I slipped the card into my purse then strode out without looking back at him because I knew I would break. Perry stood at the bottom of the stairs with a bottle of whiskey in his hand, breathing raggedly. He looked like a man because he was sweating and his hair stick to his forehead and his eyes bulged out. “Where’s my wife?” He shouted at the top of his voice. People had gathered to a side to watch the drama that was about to unfold but I was already used to it. His violence wasn’t new to me. “Stop it!” I yelled before he could cause any more damage. “You motherfucking bitch!” He stormed toward me and grabbed my arm, making sure to squeeze it rightly so it hurt. It was his signature move. “What the fuck are you doing here?” His face was bent with rage. “No…nothing,” I whimpered from the obvious pain but the monster didn’t care about that. “Tell me what the fuck you’re doing here!” “Please, stop shouting. You’re making a scene. Let’s just go home,” I pleaded with him softly. “Go home?” He pushed me and I braced my ass for impact with the ground when I felt someone grab me by the waist. I whispered a silent prayer hoping it wasn’t Blond, I had no excuses. I turned to see that it was the barman, not Blond which means he was still upstairs. “Who the hell is this? Is he the one you’re cheating on me with? The man you’re screwing?” I stepped away from the barman to lessen the tension. “He’s nobody. Let’s just go home. You’re embarrassing us.” “Oh! Trust me I haven’t even started.” Perry’s anger issues were the reason we had been embarrassed and kicked out of several places in the past. From restaurants to art museums to weddings, he always found a way to drag me into his mess. This was another reason I hated being around him or going anywhere with him. He always find a way to blow things out of proportion and threw a fuss when others did not see it his way. He brushed past me and went to the barman and grabbed him by the collar. I suddenly felt bad for him because he was a victim of misdirected anger. “Stay away from my wife if you want to live.” Now, Perry was going too far. “Mr man, you had better leave before you force our hand into treating you bad.” 3 muscular men surrounded us. “Perry, please, let’s go,” I pleaded as tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t bear it anymore. Why did my life have to be like this? Why? I dragged Perry away. “Get your filthy hands off me!” He shrugged me off and breezed past me violently. “I am so sorry. Please pardon him,” I apologized to the barman who seemed terrified. As I turned around, my gaze met with Blond’s who was at the top of the stairs, just staring at me. His eyes almost strong enough to pull me back up the stairs as he clenched his fists in anger. I knew he had sent those men. At least he had saved me from another night where I’d have been Perry’s punching bag.IMOGEN’S POV“What never existed?”Silas did not flinch. Instead, he ended the call and placed his phone on the desk before turning to me.I stood by the door, holding the front of his shirt with one hand as I looked from him to the phone.“Footage from one of my clubs,” he said.“What footage?”He glanced at the screen one last time before turning it facedown on the desk. “One of my managers has been stealing from me. Pete found footage that proves it and wanted to hand it over to the police.”My eyebrows pulled together as my eyes dropped to the phone. “And you told him to wipe it?”Silas slipped one hand into his pocket, his eyes staying on mine as if we were discussing something completely normal.“I would rather deal with the man myself.”He walked over and stopped in front of me, lowering his head slightly as he looked at my face.I watched him closely, waiting for something else.A question about how long I had been standing there or how much I had heard would have made sense,
PERRY’S POVThe knock came a little after nine in the morning, while I was standing by the window with a cup of coffee I had barely touched.I had not slept properly since the news about Rossi broke. I expected the police to contact me again after they found her body, but I expected a phone call, not someone pounding on my hotel door.When I opened it, Agent Leo stood outside with two officers.I looked from him to the officers and tightened my fingers around the door handle. “What now?”“You need to come with us.”“For what?”“We have more questions about Valeria Rossi.”“Then ask them.”“Not here.”I looked past him at the officers before stepping back. “Am I under arrest?”Leo held my eyes. “You are being taken in for questioning.”“That does not answer my question.”“It answers enough of it. Get your shoes.”I stared at him for another second before walking away from the door. The fact that he was not arguing with me bothered me more than if he had.I grabbed my phone from the tab
SILAS’S POVImogen finally fell asleep sometime after midnight, still curled against me on the couch with her face pressed against my chest and one of her hands holding my shirt.I stayed there for a while, running my hand slowly over her back until her breathing became steady. She had cried herself to sleep after telling me everything about Rossi, and even after she stopped crying, she had refused to move away from me.When her fingers finally loosened around my shirt, I slipped one arm beneath her knees and the other around her back before lifting her from the couch.She stirred against me as I carried her into the bedroom.“Silas…” she murmured, her hand tightening weakly against my shirt.“I am here,” I whispered.Her head settled against my chest again.I lowered her onto the bed carefully and pulled the duvet over her. She moved toward my side almost immediately, reaching across the empty space without opening her eyes.I watched her for another second before picking up my phone
IMOGEN'S POVI was curled against Silas on the couch with my legs tucked underneath me and a glass of red wine in my hand. His arm was loose around my shoulders and he had a stack of documents beside him that he had been working through all evening, making notes in the margins, reaching past me occasionally for his own drink without breaking his reading.The television was on low in the background. Some Italian news programme I had stopped paying attention to an hour ago.It felt good and that was the strange thing. In the middle of everything that was happening, all the chaos and the moving pieces and the war still playing out around Perry and the company and everything else, there were moments like this one that felt almost ordinary. Warm and still and easy in a way I had stopped trusting myself to hold onto too tightly.I took a sip of wine and looked at the city through the windows when the news ticker changed.BREAKING NEWS. Red letters scrolling across the bottom of the screen
SILAS'S POVPete had the address by the following morning.A serviced apartment in Prati, third floor, corner unit. She had been renting it for five days under her own name which told me either she was not afraid or she had decided that being afraid was no longer a useful way to spend her energy.Pete had stood in the front of the car with his arms folded and his jaw set and given me the look he gave me when he disagreed with a decision but had already calculated that arguing about it was not going to change anything."I will be outside the door," he argued."You will be in the car," I replied.He had not responded to that but he had moved, which was the same thing.I took the stairs when I got to the building. Not because I was trying to be quiet, I just preferred stairs. They gave you a few extra seconds and a few extra seconds were always useful before a conversation you had not had in four years.I knocked on the door of the corner unit.There was a pause. Long enough that I knew
SILAS'S POVI was in the middle of reviewing contracts when Pete came in.He did not knock. He never knocked, we had an understanding about that, if Pete was coming through a door without being called it meant something needed my attention and the polite thing to do was get to it quickly. I had trained him that way years ago and he had never once abused it.I did not look up from the papers immediately. I finished the paragraph I was reading, noted the clause I wanted amended in the margin, and then set the pen down and looked at him.He was standing just inside the doorway with his hands in front of him and his face doing the careful neutral thing it did when he had information he was not entirely sure how I was going to receive.I had seen that face many times over the years."Talk," I commanded.Pete stepped further into the room. "Perry made a move today.""What kind of move."He paused for just a fraction of a second. Long enough for me to notice it."He met with someone," Pete
SILAS’S POVI guess I must have misjugded her by thinking she was shy, naive even, but this stunt was very intentional. My eyes forced themselves to wander as I was stuck in awe of the woman who stood in front of me unclad—her boobs were firm and round, with the nipples shooting out and I bet the
Perry’s povIt’d been days since my fucking wife had left the house and had barely been back. I couldn’t care less about her whereabouts because right now, all I cared about was my company, my money, and the endless list of things that were already spiraling out of control.The reconstruction of th
Imogen’s povMy hands trembled as they went to the straps of the lingerie, pulling them down inch by inch. His eyes tracked every movement like a predator— making me feel naked long before the lace actually hit the floor.“Slower,” he warned, his tone sharp. “This isn’t about your hunger, princes
Imogen’s pov My breath came in shallow pants, my knees aching against the hard floor, but I didn’t dare move.Because he was still watching me.Blue eyes like ice, sharp and unyielding, and yet… soft in that one moment. The way his thumb traced my cheekbone, rubbing a drop of his jizz across my sk







