The black Rolls-Royce drove on the silent road, and everywhere was
calm.
I sat very far away from Lucian. The blood of my bridesmaids is still
stuck on the lace of my wedding dress, filling the space with a scent of
fresh blood.
"Don't do that?" Lucian says as he stares at his tablet. "Don't even try to
run," he said, still on his tablet, as he uses his thumb to trace a line on
the screen.
"The doors are locked, the car's glass is bulletproof, and if you try to
play smart, my drivers have the orders to shoot your legs, even before
your feet step down the car," he said, still minding his tablet. "Actually, I
don't really care, I mean, a wife in a wheelchair? That even makes it
easier for me.
"You're the Devil himself," I roared, my voice shaking.
"Well, I am the devil who just bought you," he said, finally looking up to
The passing streetlights shone upon his face, making him look like
two pits of obsidian. "A Devil wouldn't have spared your father, but I
did."
I felt so much anger inside of me, I immediately touched my hair and
pulled out a five-inch silver hairpin that was used to hold my hair. With
so much anger and desperation, I strike.I rushed his throat; I wanted to see blood gush out of it. Lucian didn't
even flinch at all.
Immediately, his hand caught my wrist. He twisted it hard, while I
screamed in pain. The pin fell to the ground and broke. He immediately
pinned me to the door, the whole of his body completely on mine; at that
point, my heart was really beating fast.
"I see the fire in you, the Rossi fire," he said. "This is what I have been
waiting for, for you to stop playing the victim card and start playing the
predator," he smirked. "But you must remember Bianca... Only I own
this empire; I am the king of the jungle. If you bite me, I will make sure
you don't have a single tooth left."
He stared at me for a long time, then gradually let go of me, as the car
drove into the private high-tech tunnel underneath a skyscraper of black
glass.
We got to the location. And when the car door was opened, what I
expected to see wasn't what I saw.
I expected to see a bedroom. I expected a fancy bed, but instead it was a
nightmareIt was a big circular command center. The walls were covered in art, and
had hundreds of high-definition screens, and every single one had me
featured in it.
I moved closer to one of the screens, my heart pounding so loud. It
showed me when I was eighteen, crying into my violin case. In another
screen was Philip and me in a coffee shop three months ago, laughing. I
looked at another screen, and it was the most recent of me in my
bedroom last night.
"What's this?" I asked shaking
"That's my plan," Lucian said, as he moved to the center of the room.
"Oh, you thought that this meeting today was just a coincidence or your
father's debt. Bianca, I have monitored your life for the past 10 years.
Yes, I was the anonymous donor for your school. Still the same stranger
who saved you from those thugs in Paris. So you see, I have always been
there, just waiting for the perfect time to pull up.
He taped a button and another screen in the center of the room, zoomed
In it was a video of me when I was 10 years old, crying at my mother's
funeral. There in the background, Lucian Vane stood in the rain, looking
at me with a terrifying possession."Bianca, I didn't crash your wedding for $20 million," he said, coming
closer to me. "I crashed because I was tired of watching you on screen. I
wanted the real thing."
"You're truly a psychopath," I shouted, facing him. "So the debt... The
money...."
"The debt was the key to opening the door," Lucian interrupted. "But
since no lies here, now let me tell you the reason why you're here."
He pressed another button. And another screen appeared, showing a
grainy black and white video from five years ago.
I froze. It was the night of my graduation, and a rainy day.
A body was lying on the pavement, and a car was speeding away from
I remembered that night, I remembered the blood on my gown, I
remembered my father telling me it was ok, and he had handled
everything, and the man was alive.
"Your father told you the man is alive, didn't he? That he had settled the
family's bills, and they had withdrawn the police report," Lucian said
calmly, looking at me, his eyes burning into mine.
"Well, he lied to you, Bianca. The man died. He was the father of three.
And I am the only person who has footage of your face behind the
steering wheel."He gripped my chin, so I could clearly see the evidence of the
hit-and-run that could ruin my life.
"Not only did I buy your debt today, Bianca, I also bought your freedom
from a life sentence.
In the law's eyes, you're a murderer, but in my own eyes..." He said,
trailing his thumb over my bottom lip, his gaze completely locked on
mine, one that's dark with a sick, beautiful obsession. "You are my
obsession."
He shifted back, his lips brushing mine, the powerful scent of his
tobacco and danger filling my brain
"Now tell me, my dear bride.... Are you going to fight me, or thank me
for saving you from a cage of iron and putting you in a cage of silk?