**Elena’s POV**“What do you want from me, Lucia?”I stared at her, standing there in the dim, flickering light of the basement. She looked perfect, not a hair out of place, her skin glowing, while I felt like I was falling apart. My wrists were pulled behind my back, the rough rope biting into my skin until it burned. My shoulders were locked in an agonizing position, and every time I tried to shift against the cold, damp wall, a new wave of pain shot through my spine. “I left him,” I said, my voice cracking. I tried to pull together some shred of dignity, to make my voice sound steady, but it betrayed me. “I left Stefano. I’m gone. I’m no longer in his life, and I’m never going back. You can have him. Isn’t that what you’ve always wanted? So why are you doing this?”Lucia didn’t answer immediately. She just stood there, her head tilted, studying me like I was a specimen under a microscope. She seemed to be weighing how much of her true self she wanted to reveal.Then, she laughed.
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