Chapter 2
“That was never Alexander!”
I tried desperately to delude myself. But the next second, a searing pain exploded across my scalp.
“Bitch, thought you could run?”
The kidnapper, still bleeding from his wounded thigh, had circled around behind me without my notice.
Before I could even struggle, a brutal blow crashed into the back of my neck. My vision blurred to black, and consciousness slipped away in an instant.
When I came to, I’d been tossed into a damp, moldy storage room, my wrists bound tightly behind my back with thick hemp rope.
Smack!
A brutal backhanded slap sent stars bursting across my eyes.
“Talk! Where the hell did you hide the Tear of the Siren?!”
A bulky masked man pressed his boot hard against my kneecap. Agony wracked my body, forcing me to convulse and curl in on myself instinctively.
“I have no idea… It’s my mother’s keepsake, you thieves!” I screamed hoarsely.
“Still running your mouth?” The man let out a cold snort and kicked savagely into my lower back without mercy.
A sharp, crippling pain erupted from my abdomen. I could feel a warm, thick liquid trickling down the inner side of my thighs, pooling into a glaring crimson stain on the grimy concrete floor.
My baby girl… Please, someone save my daughter.
“Boss, this bitch is about to miscarry. Blood’s everywhere, goddamn disgusting. Let’s step outside for a smoke and deal with her later. She’s got nowhere to run.”
The iron door slammed shut with a deafening bang.
The relentless pain blurred my vision, yet a fierce surge of maternal instinct ignited my will to survive. I couldn’t die here. I would never let my child perish at the hands of these monsters.
Dragging myself across the blood-soaked floor inch by inch, my fingers brushed against a shard of broken lightbulb.
Without hesitation, I pressed the jagged glass against the hemp rope binding my wrists. The sharp edge sliced deep into my palm, bathing my hand in fresh blood, but I felt nothing.
The second the rope snapped, I mustered every last ounce of my strength to push myself upright.
Having grown up side by side with Alexander since childhood, I knew every secret passage hidden within this manor like the back of my hand.
Staggering through the abandoned maids’ corridor, I stumbled my way up to the second floor—Alexander’s master bedroom.
If I could get my hands on the private landline beside his bed, I could call for help.
I could survive this.
I trembled as I pushed open the heavy oak door. I’d barely lunged toward the phone when furious barking and thunderous shouts echoed from the hallway outside.
“That damned bitch escaped! Search every single room! Old Man Sterling’s orders—no survivors!”
Chaotic footsteps drew closer to the bedroom at a terrifying speed.
Panic clamped around my throat, leaving me barely able to breathe. With nowhere left to hide, I pulled open the wardrobe door and slipped inside.
The door had barely clicked shut behind me when the bedroom door was kicked violently off its frame.
Peering through the narrow crack between the wardrobe doors, my blood turned to ice in my veins.
The man who stepped inside was not one of the hired men hunting me. It was my husband—Alexander Sterling.
And nestled securely in his arms, her waist gripped roughly beneath his palms, was the red-haired woman who’d bid against me at the auction—his personal secretary, Victoria.
“Alexander… slow down…” Victoria breathed in a feigned, sultry whimper, her entire body clinging to his.
Their lips locked in a heated kiss as they stumbled backward, straight toward the wardrobe where I hid.
Thud!
Their bodies crashed hard against the wardrobe door.
“Alexander,” Victoria panted, looping her arms around his neck in a petulant tone, “some lunatic woman kept fighting me for the Tear of the Siren at the auction today.
She not only disrespected me, but stared at me like I was dirt. I was so upset.”
Every drop of blood in my body turned freezing cold the moment her words registered.
I pressed a trembling hand over my mouth to muffle my ragged gasps, hot tears spilling uncontrollably down my cheeks.
Separated from me by nothing but a thin wooden panel, the same man who’d once knelt beneath a Times Square billboard to propose to me, who’d sworn to protect me with his life, let out a low, indulgent chuckle.
“Who was it? Some brainless fool.” Alexander’s voice turned icy and dismissive. “No one in all of Manhattan gets to take anything away from my girl.
If she upset you, then she deserves to vanish from this world for good.”
“Really?” A triumphant laugh slipped from Victoria’s lips as she traced slow circles across his firm chest with her fingertips. “Don’t worry. I already sent someone to take care of her.”
Without a single second of hesitation, Alexander seized her jaw, kissing her fiercely and possessively, his tone thick with reckless indulgence.
“You’re such a wicked little devil. God, I love this cruel side of you.”
Outside the wardrobe, lewd gasps and tangled bodies flayed my soul raw, torturing me bit by bit.
Inside the dark, cramped wardrobe, my entire world crumbled into ruin.
A violent spasm tore through my lower abdomen, fresh blood seeping through my coat and staining the fabric a deep, unforgiving red.
Amid the nauseating sounds of their debauchery, the last thread of my strength frayed completely.
Overwhelmed by bottomless hatred and despair, I collapsed heavily into the darkness, slipping into unconsciousness once more.
