Semua Bab His Heartbroken Surrogate : Bab 41 - Bab 48

CARA's POVI swallowed, still staring at it like a nightmare. It's the key. The same one Juan told me to look out for.The mark of the Rizzos. But it was here. Right now on David's skin, glistening in the overhead lights. His clothes completely came off and he turned to me. I must’ve gone completely still.David’s eyes flicked to my face, reading it like a threat. “You okay?” he asked softly, his voice velvet-smooth. Almost concerned.I nodded too quickly.“Yeah,” I said. My voice was tight. “Just… got lightheaded for a second.”His mouth curved slightly. “We haven't even had the wine yet?”“I know right?” I forced a laugh, brittle and off-key. "Just something about work. It's fine you don't have to worry about it." He must not have noticed what I saw—the mark on his side. He must not know I could recognize it. He probably didn't think I could tell by now. Oh God. I had to keep it that way. I had to look innocent. Like I was completely oblivious. If I wanted to find a way out of

CARA's POVThe pain had a shape now. It lived just beneath my ribs, twitching and curling like a second heartbeat. I could taste iron on my tongue, maybe from the jolt, maybe from the fall. My arms were still bound behind me, wrists burning from the friction. My knees were numb.But I was awake.And I wasn’t crying.David stood across from me, his silhouette sharp against the suite’s dim glow. The lights were softer now, mood lighting dimmed to something clinical. Intimate. Like a slaughterhouse dressed for seduction.He hadn’t spoken since the last shock. He liked silence. It made the anticipation worse.So I broke it.“How’d you get seven hundred million to buy the Faulkner collection anyway?”His head tilted, eyes narrowing just slightly. He looked amused. Like a professor intrigued by a dumb student’s unexpected question.“Have you been playing me this whole time?” I asked, voice hoarse. “Since the gallery? Since the first night?”His steps were slow. Measured. His shoes whispered

CARA's POVThe sound came first.It was faint, like a scream underwater — a high, desperate wail slicing through the dark. Then the cold. Something hard beneath me, something soft strapped across my chest. I couldn’t move. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.Light stabbed through my eyelids. White. Flashing. My stomach rolled.I pried my eyes open.Everything swam.There was a face above mine — a man’s. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Too calm for the chaos around him. He was saying something, his mouth moving like a TV on mute. Then the sound rushed in, deafening all at once — sirens, metal rattling, voices overlapping.“…You’re awake,” the man said, noticing me blink. “Stay with me. My name’s Cooper.”I blinked again, trying to keep the pieces together. My head throbbed like it had been split open.“Cooper,” I mumbled. “Who…”He leaned closer, adjusting the strap across my shoulder. His hands were sure, clean. “I’m one of Mr. Morano’s bodyguards,” he said. “You’re safe now.”Mr. Morano.Wesley.“

CARA's POVIt had been a week.Seven days in a white-walled room that smelled faintly of antiseptic and lavender from Jenny’s stubborn insistence on essential oils. Seven mornings waking to the soft scrape of her best friend’s body adjusting in the visitor’s chair, her hand always wrapped around mine before my eyes even opened.Now, I was going home.The air outside felt crisper than I remembered, or maybe I was just breathing deeper. The wheelchair rolled gently along the ramp, guided by a nurse whose name I never caught. Jenny hovered, carrying a small overnight bag and a basket of fruit no one ever touched.A black car waited at the curb. Sleek, understated, and familiar in a way that made my chest throb with something I didn’t want to name.Juan was already inside when the nurse opened the door. He looked worse than I did, if that were even possible—bandaged arm in a sling, a bruise blooming high on his cheekbone, the kind of exhaustion that went bone-deep. And yet, when he saw me