Chapter 2 Caught

CHAPTER TWO

Layla’s POV

Something was wrong.

I felt it before I even opened my eyes.

My head throbbed so badly that every heartbeat sent another wave of pain through my skull, and my body felt heavy, as though I had been carrying someone else’s weight all night. Even breathing seemed harder than it should have been.

For several seconds, I stayed still.

Then I slowly opened my eyes, the  ceiling above me wasn’t mine.

Neither was the room, my heart skipped.

I pushed myself up in a hurry, but dizziness hit me so hard that I almost fell back onto the bed. I squeezed my eyes shut until the room stopped spinning, then looked around again.

Large windows covered one side of the room. Dark wooden furniture stood neatly against the walls.

A crystal chandelier hung above me.

Everything looked expensive, everything looked unfamiliar. “Where… am I?”

The words came out as nothing more than a whisper.

My breathing became uneven. The last thing I remembered was leaving my parents’ house after they threw me out, the reporters, the questions, the  tears, then the bar.

Glass after glass of alcohol. After that… Nothing.

My heart began to pound, I quickly looked down at myself.

The blanket slipped from my shoulder.

Every drop of blood drained from my face. “No…”

My voice trembled.

The dress I had worn to the bar was gone.

Fear wrapped itself around my chest so tightly that I struggled to breathe.

Broken memories flashed through my mind, strong arms holding me.

A deep voice close to my ear. Warm fingers brushing against my skin, then darkness.

My hands began to shake. “Please…”

I didn’t even know who I was praying to.

“Please don’t let it be true.”

A soft sound behind me made my entire body freeze.

Someone was in the room, I slowly lifted my head.

A man stood by the window with his back facing me.

He was tall, dressed in black trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his forearms. One hand rested inside his pocket while the other held a glass of water. He hadn’t noticed I was awake of maybe he had.

Maybe he simply didn’t care.

My throat felt painfully dry. “H… hello?”

He didn’t answer. I gathered what little courage I had left. “Excuse me…”

The man finally turned around.m, the  moment I saw his face…

The world stopped, my  heartbeat disappeared. It was Jake Carter. Aria’s fiancé.

The man my parents admired, the man who should have been planning his wedding today of  everyone in the world…

Why him?

I stared at him in horror.

He stared back without a single trace of emotion.

His eyes were cold, not  angry, not surprised, just  cold.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke.

Then he finally broke the silence. “So…”

His deep voice echoed through the room. “You’ve finally decided to wake up.”

A chill ran down my spine. “I…” Nowords came.

He looked me up and down once before speaking again. “I defended you.”

Confusion filled my face. “What?”

“I told everyone they were wrong.” He walked toward me slowly. “I said you couldn’t have kidnapped Aria.”

Hope flickered inside my chest. “You… believed me?”

“I did.” His footsteps stopped beside the bed.

Then his expression darkened. “But after last night…” His eyes locked onto mine. “I’m beginning to think I gave my trust to the wrong woman.”

The hope inside me shattered. “No.”

I shook my head desperately. “No, you’ve got it all wrong.”

“Do I?”

“I don’t know where Aria is.”

“Then explain this.” His voice remained calm. “Explain why I woke up with you in my bed.”

“No… I did not do anything like that,” I said, my voice unsteady but urgent. “I do not even know where she is. I swear to you, I have been trying to find her too.”

But he did not allow me to continue, his expression darkened slightly as he stepped forward, cutting through my words as though they held no value at all.

“You really wanted me that badly,” he said slowly, his voice controlled and cold, “that you had to come into my bed.”

My eyes widened immediately as panic rose in my throat.“That is not what happened,” I said quickly, shaking my head as I tried to steady my voice. “I was drunk. I did not even know where I was. I did not plan anything. I just—”

“Or what,” he interrupted again, his tone sharper now, “you drugged me?”

The question hit me like a slap. “No,” I said at once, louder this time, fear breaking through my control. “No, I did not do that. I swear I did not.”

I pushed myself up from the bed, my legs unsteady as I tried to stand properly, my hands still trembling because nothing about this situation felt real or fair. It felt like I had been thrown into another version of my life where everything was already decided against me.

“I do not even remember everything clearly,” I said honestly, my voice breaking slightly. “I was not thinking. I only wanted everything to stop. I only wanted to forget for a while.”

He watched me without speaking for a long moment, and that silence felt heavier than his accusations. It made it impossible to understand what was going through his mind, only that he was not believing me.

Then he moved.He walked toward me in a slow, controlled way that made my body react before my thoughts could catch up. Before I could step back, his hand closed around my neck, not painfully enough to harm me, but firmly enough to stop me completely.

My breath caught instantly.

My hands lifted slightly in shock as my eyes widened, locked on his face, unable to understand how quickly everything had changed.

“Where is Aria?” he asked again, his voice lower now, dangerous in its calmness.

My throat felt tight under his grip as I forced the words out carefully.

“I do not know,” I said weakly. “I really do not know where she is.”

There was a pause that felt long and suffocating, as though the entire room had stopped breathing with me.

Then he let go.Just like that, as if I had no further importance to him.

I stumbled slightly, one hand going to my throat as I tried to steady my breathing again, my heart racing so fast I could barely hold my thoughts together.

He turned away from me as though the moment no longer mattered.

“I would not want unnecessary noise,” he said calmly, his tone returning to something controlled and distant, “since tomorrow is the wedding.”

My entire body went still.

Wedding? I blinked slowly, struggling to understand what he had just said. Then he looked at me again, fully this time, his expression unreadable.

“And you kind of look like her,” he added.

A cold feeling dropped into my stomach immediately. Before I could even ask what he meant, he stepped closer once more, and this time his voice came out clear, final, and heavy enough to silence everything inside me.

“Be my wife until she is back.”

My lips parted in shock. “What…?” I whispered, barely able to process the words.

My heartbeat rose painfully as I shook my head, stepping back slightly.

“No,” I said quickly, my voice trembling. “I cannot do that. I do not want this. I did nothing wrong. I should not be part of this.”

For a moment, there was silence again, and I almost believed he might reconsider.

But his expression changed only slightly, becoming colder in a way that erased that hope completely.

“Say no,” he said calmly, “and I will tell everyone how you ended up in my bed last night.”

My breath stopped because I understood exactly what that meant, no one would ask questions, no one would listen to me.

They would only believe what sounded easier to accept.

My hands trembled at my sides as the silence in the room pressed harder against my chest, making it difficult to breathe.

And in that moment, standing in front of him, I understood something I could not escape.

My life was no longer something I could explain.

It was already something that had been decided for me.

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