Chapter 1
The classroom was too quiet for my liking. Chalk screeched against the board as I tried to focus on fractions, but a gnawing sense of unease clawed at me. My students fidgeted, oblivious, while I tried to ignore the pit in my stomach.
Then the door slammed open.
Two men in black suits strode in like shadows given form. Before I could react, one grabbed my arm, another blocked my path.
"Who sent you?!" I screamed, thrashing. "Let me go!"
No answer. Just iron grip and the metallic smell of danger.
I was dragged outside, shoved into a sleek black car, doors slamming behind me. The engine roared. My protests were drowned in the hum of the tires against the asphalt.
"Stop! I'll… I'll call the police!" I yelled, kicking against the leather seats.
Silence.
When the car stopped, I stumbled onto perfectly trimmed grass, my shoes sinking slightly in the dew. My eyes widened, heart dropping to my knees.
My father. Kneeling. His arms and legs bound. Blood streaked across his back where the whip had bitten him. He groaned softly, a sound that made bile rise in my throat.
And across the garden, he sat. Adrian Moretti. Cigarette in hand, smoke curling lazily toward the sky, eyes sharp, calm, deadly. Every inch of him radiated authority, control, and danger.
"Ah… Elena Rossi," he said, tilting his head, lips curving just enough to make it unsettling. "How… gracious of you to join us."
I froze. "You… you can't do this!"
He flicked ash from his cigarette, eyes cold. "Carlos… gambling with death in my city… you really thought you could get away with it?"
My father whimpered as the whip cracked across his back again. I wanted to run to him, but the men held me fast. Rage boiled through my veins.
Adrian's voice dropped, smooth as silk, cutting sharper than any blade:
"Your father… tried to buy his freedom… with you. You have a choice, Elena. Submit, or watch him pay the price in full."
I spat on his shoe. "I… I'll never obey you! You're a monster!"
He leaned back, taking a slow drag of his cigarette, smoke curling around his sharp features. "Admirable fire. Dangerous fire… but fire has its use. Wasted, it destroys. Harnessed… it commands."
The whip cracked again. My father collapsed to the ground. My chest constricted. My resolve wavered. I didn't want him to die not like this.
Adrian's gaze shifted to me, piercing, unwavering. "Enough. She comes with me. Carlo… live, if you can. Remember this: debts are not just numbers. They are blood. Mine… thicker than yours."
Inside the mansion, everything was a dizzying blur of luxury. The head maid met me, silent and precise. She cleaned me, dressed me in a wedding gown I had never imagined wearing, brushed my hair until it shone. Each touch reminded me of the trap I was in.
The wedding began. Music played, candles flickered. Every smile, every nod felt like a mockery. I cursed him silently at every turn.
And he didn't respond. Not once.
"I am not a monster," he said quietly during a fleeting moment of privacy. "I took you as payment, not property. I do not see you as mine in the way you think. I intend no harm beyond settling your father's debt and fulfilling my grandmother's wish."
I glared. "A union forced with chains and blood is not love."
He didn't flinch. "Perhaps. But I protect those I care for. From what you cannot see… you are safer than you were before."
I wanted to scream. I wanted to hate him with every fiber of my being. And I did. Every ounce. Yet… a tiny, terrifying part of me wondered.
That night, I cried myself to sleep, anger, fear, and disbelief twisting inside me. Betrayed by the man I called father, taken by the man I hated. And yet… alive.
Far away, her father laughed with his lover, champagne in hand. They boarded a plane to Gali, a paradise paid for with Elena's life.