Bella's POV
For three days, I lived like a pampered prisoner caged in luxury, but never truly free. Every morning and night food would arrive at my door, delivers by silent maids who avoided eye contact and acted like the where taking orders straight from the devil himself.
I hadn't seen him. Not once in these past days, but his presence clung to everything. His shadow in every corner, his voice echoing in the back of my mind like a curse I couldn't escape.
The blinding sunlight cracked through the curtains like a slap to my face, yanking me out of the restless sleep. I sat up, disoriented, scanning the unfamiliar room before the realization hit me—I was in the devil's den.
I'd fallen asleep on the couch, reading a book I found on the shelf, but somehow I woke up I was on the bed; someone had moved me. Instinctively, I patted myself down. My clothes still intact, relief hit me, but didn't wash the unease away.
I rubbed my face, trying to shake off the exhaustion still clinging to my bones. I was too drained—mentally, physically, and emotionally. My untouched dinner from last night sat cold.
But what's worse than the hunger and isolation was the haunting memory of my dream. One so hot, steamy, and sinfully vivid, it made my skin burn. The devil himself started it.
His face. His lips. His muscled ink skin, how they pinned me, oh.. and that unholy voice it did something to me.
"What is wrong with you, bella?" I muttered, under my breath, disgusted at myself for having lewd dreams about my buyer. The devil has infected my mind. No peace, not even in sleep. He haunted me in my dreams, just like he did in real life.
I stumbled towards the bathroom, needing to clear my head. As I brushed my teeth and splashed cold water on my face. I caught my reflection—and froze.
Red marks, but there, streaked across my neck. The remainder of his hands wrapped around my throat, the rage, the darkness in his golden eyes. He was a fucking psycho, going crazy over some dumb picture. My fingers grazed my skin as something else struck me—my necklace was gone.
Panic bloomed in my chest. "No, no, no.." I frantically search for my clothes. Nothing.
He must've taken it. I stared in the mirror, nausea curling low in my gut. That pendant was more than jewelry —it held a microchip and, tracker. The only link I had of being found by my father, Ethan, and maya. The three people I couldn't stop thinking about.
We're they safe? We're they looking for me? Or do they think I'm dead?
I hadn't been able to reach out to them since I got kidnapped from the house. There wasn't any phone here. And every secound that passed widened the void between us, and now my one tether to them finding me was gone.
Tears burned behind my eyes, but I blinked them back. Crying doesn't help. Planning does.
I stepped out of the bathroom and immediately froze. I felt a presence watching me. My towel dropped from my body at the worst possible second, It seems the universe hates me. I whipped around to find him sitting there.
The devil. Alessandro.
His golden eyes smoldered, slow and deliberate, crawling over every inch of my exposed skin. "AHH" I shrieked, fumbling to grab the flimsy towel from the floor, yanking it around me like a shield. "How long have you been sitting here, you psycho?!"
He didn't answer, just stared unbothered with that smug look.
My cheeks burned. He was the first man to ever see me like this. And he knew it. My skin prickled under his gaze. He stood from the bed, calm and terrifyingly composed, and started walking towards me.
I backed away. Fast.
He didn't stop until he'd cornered me, his presence caging me in with his presence. I could feel his breath—minty, warm, too close.
I didn't dare meet his eyes. Was this my end? Was this how I was going to die a virgin?
His fingers brushed my cheek, feather light, and my eyes fluttered shut against my will.
I hated how my body betrayed me.
God help me, I wanted it—but I also wanted to vomit for wanting it.
His lips hovered so close I could almost taste him, my hands clench into fists. I looked helpless.
Then he laughed— Dark, cruel, amused.
" I thought you hated me," he murmured. "Yet here you are, almost begging for a kiss," the humiliation scorched me. Rage exploding. I shoved him away with all the strength I had and dashed back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me.
Sliding down the door, I buried my face in my hands, trembling. I'd almost given in. I stayed there curled up in silence until I heard the click of the main door closing. Only then did I breathe.
After changing into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, I found in the closet, along with underwear that suspiciously fit too well. Were there other girls like me, or did he buy them too for his twisted pleasure? The thought haunted me, bile crawled up my throat. He was sick. Disturbingly sick.
I had to be smarter. I had to run.
I crept to the door, heart pounding. The handle turned it wasn't locked. my heart skipped but what if it was a trap?
I cracked the door open and peered out, the empty hallway.
No cameras. No guards. Too easy.
I slipped out, hugging the wall, retracing my steps from the day I was brought in. But I didn't get far.
"Good morning, Ma'am ," a maid greeted, appearing from nowhere."Do you need anything?"
Think fast.
" yes," I smiled, "I'm starving. I didn't eat dinner. it's still in my room."she nodded and left.
I bolted in the opposite direction, barefooted and running towards a door that's looked like it lead to the back of the house.
Bingo. I was right.
The cold morning air hit me like a whip as I sprinted across the sprawling garden. Heart pounding against my rib cage. Legs flying. I didn't look back. One wrong move and I would be back in his grip, but I didn't care. I had to be anywhere other than this cursed mansion with the devil.
But I should have known no one escapes the devil's claw.
The estate stretched endlessly, like a world of its own. I spotted the east gate, but it was heavily guarded.
The maze, I remember seeing it from my window, now up close the maze hedges taller than me with twisting patterns. it was a Risk. But my only chance,one I had to take.
I darted into the heged labyrinth , branches scrapping my skin. But I didn't stop, not when the sky darkened, not when the first drops of rain fell.
I ran faster, hoping to meet an exist. But the paths twisted and repeated. I was going in circles.
My lungs burned. My legs gave out. I collapsed under a small branch tree, soaking wet and shivering.
Then came the violent thunder splitting the sky, my tears mixed with the rain. I was scared of the thunderstorm, I hated it. Always had.
The reminded me of her. A face I could no longer clearly see, but a presence I held close. That was the day chaos arrived at our doorstep it was a memory I always pushed to the darkest corner of my mind.
I curled into myself, whispering nothing nonsense—anything to block the memories and thunder from consuming me whole.
Then I heard it. Footsteps.
Slow, purposeful, and measured. He stepped into view as I turned, and there he was.
Alessandro.
Soaked in rain, his black shirt clinging to his body like a second skin, hair sleeked back, water skidding from the sides of his face. Golden eyes's burning through the darkness.
Thunder roared behind him like it obeyed his will. He looked like something out of a nightmare—beautiful and terrifying.
He crouched beside me and scooped me into his hands, gentle like I was made of glass. "You will always be mine Rosa Mai," he whispered, kissing the top of my head. "no matter how much you run."
That was the last thing I heard before the darkness swallowed me whole, the the same darkness that had been waiting for me all along.