PROLOGUE
Ariana's POV
~5 years ago~
"Ariana?"
My eyelids felt like lead, but that voice — that low, honey-thick voice — cut through the haze.
“Fuck...”I breathed, a smile twitching onto my lips.He was here.Finally.
Butterflies tore through my gut like shrapnel.I’d know that voice anywhere — the one that could make even a death threat sound like poetry.
“Ariana?”
There it was again.Jesus, that voice could melt steel.I wanted to jump up, throw myself into his arms, tell him I loved him — tell him a thousand times, so he’d never forget it.
“Ariana?”
He said my name like it meant something holy.My pulse spiked.Nobody else got to hear him like that — that soft tone that made me feel beautiful in a world built on violence.Everyone else feared him.But me?I saw the man under the monster.
Then his tone changed.
“Ariana?!?”
The air snapped cold.His voice was sharper, desperate, bouncing off unseen walls.I blinked, sat up — or tried to.The place around me wasn’t right.
What the hell...
The windows were sealed with rusted iron plates.No light.Just shadows and that thick, wet smell — blood.Fresh.My stomach clenched.
“Ariana?Where the fuck are you?!Stop playing games with me!”
His shout rattled my bones.That wasn’t the Alessandro I knew.This one was scared — or pissed.Probably both.
I pressed my palms to the cold floor, forcing myself upright.The air felt heavy, metallic.My breath came in short bursts.
He called again, and his voice cracked this time.“Ariana...stop.Please, baby.Please come out...”
Something in me broke.Alessandro never begged.Never.
I turned toward the sound — a steel door.His voice was coming from behind it.I tried to stand, but pain shot up my back like fire.I gritted my teeth and crawled, dragging myself until I reached the door.There was a tiny slit near the top.I pulled myself up by the frame — and froze.
He was on his knees.
Alessandro fucking Romano — the man everyone feared — was crumbling on the other side, head in his hands, shaking, whispering my name like a prayer.
My lips parted, but no words came out.I just stared, breath caught in my throat.I’d seen him kill men without blinking.But this?This broke me.
This had to be a nightmare.A bad dream.I just had to wake up.
Then the wind shifted — cold, filthy, crawling over my skin.Goosebumps raced up my arms.Something was wrong.Really wrong.
I tried to move, but pain ripped through me again.My muscles screamed, my bones felt like they’d been through a grinder.Still, I managed to turn — and froze when something brushed against me.
A hand.
No...not moving.
