Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105679 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 528(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 352(@300wpm)
That was what would have elevated my status and benefited my family.
But I married the spare. Adrian, who was reckless and his legacy that was filled with nothing but blood and dead bodies.
A fresh wave of tears spilled from my eyes, soaking into the already damp pillow beneath my head. The shame burned through me, hotter than any fever. How could I have been so foolish? So naive?
I’d believed his lies, had walked down the aisle thinking there was something real between us. That he would protect me.
But I had only been a foolish piece that he moved where he wanted in his dangerous game of revenge.
My phone pinged from somewhere in the tangle of sheets. I didn’t need to look to know it was Arabella. She’d been messaging me for days, growing increasingly worried with each unanswered text.
Arabella: Please just let me know you’re okay. I’m worried.
Arabella: or you could just be enjoying your honeymoon.
Arabella: That’s what I’m saying to convince myself. Because my gut is telling me something is very, very wrong.
Arabella: Wherever you are, I hope you’re safe.
Arabella: But if you need help… if you need to run, tell me.
Arabella: I know I’ve never said this before or even suggested it, considering the nature of our friendship, but I can get you out. If you truly want, I can and I will. Just say the word, Sera.
Arabella: My husband has the resources…
I closed my eyes tightly, guilt washing over me. How could I explain any of this to her? How could I tell my best friend, the one person who truly knew the real me, that I’d married a monster who had used me as a pawn in his twisted game? That I’d lost my virginity to a man who viewed me as nothing more than a means to hurt his brother?
The truth was too humiliating, too devastating to share even with her.
She wouldn’t understand. How could she? Her life was perfect with her husband on their little island and their beautiful kids.
Arabella wouldn’t understand the world I lived in.
There was a knock on my door. Elena again, probably, with another tray of food I wouldn’t touch. The housekeeper had been persistent at first, but after two days of me refusing to answer, her visits had grown less frequent.
“Mrs. Salvatore?” Her voice was muffled through the thick wood. “I’ve brought fresh towels.”
I didn’t respond. Couldn’t find the energy to form words. The silence stretched until, mercifully, I heard her footsteps retreating down the hallway.
My stomach clenched painfully. Hunger or grief—I couldn’t tell the difference anymore. The pain in my heart had become my sole companion and the grief in my soul festered pus like an untreated wound.
They’d become one and the same, a constant ache that consumed me from the inside out.
I hated Adrian with a passion that frightened me.
The intensity of it shocked me, this burning rage that seemed to grow stronger with each passing hour. I’d never hated anyone before, had never known it was possible to feel such pure, unadulterated loathing for another human being.
But Adrian wasn’t human. He was something else entirely—a monster who wore the face of a beautiful man.
Another knock came through, the sound jolting me out of my thoughts. I pressed my hands over my ears, blocking it all as the knocking became more insistent. Again, and again.
“Go away.” My voice cracked with the whisper. “Just go away.”
And then silence, almost as if whoever was on the other side of the door heard me even though that wasn’t possible.
My hands relaxed, dropping to my side again. I sniffled, closing my eyes, finding minimal reprieve in the silence—
My door opened without warning.
I sat up immediately, fury flaring through my veins. “I didn’t give anyone permission to enter—”
But it wasn’t Elena.
Or Adrian. Thank God. I didn’t know what I would do if it was him.
Maybe I would have scratched his eyes out.
Or maybe stabbed him in the heart.
I never knew I could possess such vehemence, but now I felt it, the violence burning through me, simmering under my flesh, rotting me from the inside out.
The person standing in the doorway was Giulia, her dark curls framing an expression of such genuine concern and pity that my anger faltered for a mere second.
“Oh, what has he done to you?” she whispered, her eyes taking in my disheveled appearance and the tear-stained pillows.
She crossed the room in three quick strides, setting a plate of elaborately decorated cupcakes on the nightstand before sitting beside me on the bed. Without hesitation, she pulled me into her arms.
I should have resisted. Should have maintained what little dignity I had left. But her warmth, her compassion, was too much to resist.
A part of me had craved such warmth.
I sank into her embrace, closing my eyes as fresh tears spilled down my cheeks.