Kiera's POV

My whimpers get louder. I try to stop it. Oh God! I do. But it hurts. Every part of me does. My hand moves to my chest slowly, pressing hard on it. Nothing changes. The tears still roll down my cheeks, and it still feels like I am being torn from the inside out.

"Wifey!" The amusement is gone, replaced by an undiluted rage. I have felt it before. I feel it every day. "We can do it my way, which you know is the easiest. Or yours. Choose one, baby."

"Choose carefully."

I should go out. I know I should. Yet, I remain huddled in the dark, praying for a miracle that will never come.

He waits a full minute before he sighs. "Okay then. Do it your way."

My husband's footsteps inch closer every second. I try to drain out the sound, focusing on the roar of my blood against my ears. I am delusional enough to think he isn't going to find me, enough to wrap my hands around my frame and shut my eyes tightly.

My tears touch my lips, the taste of salt travelling through.

"Got you!"

I jump in fright when his cold arms wrap around me, pulling me out from the corner. His fingers dig into my forearm, and I scream from the pain that builds. Alex doesn't let go, pulling me to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

"Alex!" I can't see him in the dark, but I can feel him.

I can smell him.

That sharp liquor underneath his breath.

"Alex, please." My voice cracks, coming out frail. Helpless. Tears blur my vision, and my breathing comes out in pants. "Please. Not tonight."

"That is the problem, Kiera," he drawls, shaking his head slowly. "You think the world revolves around you, but guess what?"

My whimpers slice through.

"It doesn't."

"Alex..."

"What did you think would happen earlier today, huh? That Lara would throw me in jail for touching you?" His scoffs, and the sound settles in the pit of my stomach. "No one cares about you, Kiera. Not until you are taught a lesson."

"Alex!"

My scream travels through the building, but Alex doesn't budge, pulling me with him up the stairs, my bones hitting each step until I find it hard to breathe. My head slams against the ground when we reach the landing, and a piercing scream leaves my lips.

Outside the basement, he turns away for a second. Long enough for me to get up from the floor and race towards the door. My heart thuds hard against my chest. I hear him get closer behind me.

I look back at him. I shouldn't have. Because in a split second, I trip on one of his discarded shoes and find myself back where I started.

On the ground.

Alex hovers above me, the dim lights of the living area splaying on his face. I see his eyes, bright with action, and that smug look on his face that I wish I could wipe away.

"Did you really think you could run away after you returned from the hospital, Kiera?" This is the lowest I have ever heard him speak. He goes on one knee and brings his face closer to me. "Think twice, baby, because you belong to me. Now and until I decide I am done with you."

"You don't deserve me!" I snap, something going loose in me. "You and your whoring-self do not deserve me."

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me, Alex."

His hand lifts high in the air, and I close my eyes, bracing myself for the slap. But it never comes, because the next thing I hear is the sound of a car honking loudly in the driveway.

I want to hug whoever it is that just stopped on our driveway, because suddenly, Alex no longer cares about the punishment he has for me.

Or at least, not yet.

He arches a brow, pushing through the doors into the porch without giving me a second look. I wait for the sound of his footsteps to fade into oblivion before opening the door again. The night's air whips harshly against my broken skin, but it is ten times better than staying here, allowing Alex to have his way for the millionth time.

My heart thuds hard against my chest as I walk out through the small steps on the porch. My eyes take him in. He is leaning against the car on the driveway, talking to the person behind the wheel.

Even though I can hear nothing from where I stand, it looks like an argument. A lot of waving hands and saliva flying into the air.

I pick up a few words.

"You cannot do this!" It's private property." "That wasn't a scream. It was a moan. Know the difference."

Of course, I expect no different from the man my aunt sold me to after taking everything that belongs to me. The man who sees me as nothing more than a possession, beats me up every single day and brings in his whores, forcing me to attend to them, to watch them have sex.

It is sickening.

I thought for the longest time that I could endure until my aunt finally realized that I am the only daughter of her sister, and I do not deserve to be treated this way. But the days have turned into months, and this ... this is the only way out.

Yet, the moment I turn, my clumsy luck strikes for the umpteenth time today. My feet hit a tin can, the sound ringing through the night. And my dear husband jerks in my direction.

I know that tonight, it is either kill or be killed.

So, I don't think twice about it.

I run.

The wind roars against my ears, and my pulse thrums hard against my blood with every step I take. I am barefoot, so the tar on the road bites into my feet. It stings sharply, but anything is better than returning to that house with Alex.

But everything happens all at once.

The blinding white lights, the screeching sound, and the pair of piercing green eyes watching me from the glass before my body hits the ground.

Ryan's POV

The Montenegro family library is filled with people I really do not care about. Their voices carry into the air, pinched faces, hurrying lips, narrowed gazes – the loudest this space has been since the death of my father.

I turn to the windows, leaning forward slightly. The clouds are gathering. It won't be long before rain patters to the earth. I hope it doesn't trap them all in here. I can't deal with them for an hour longer.

The door squeaks open suddenly, and the room is immediately plunged into silence as David, the family lawyer, saunters in. His shoes tap lightly against the marble floor as he crosses the space, walking past the whole family and settling into the seat that once belonged to my father.

A muscle works in my jaw, but in that split second, I feel warm, slender fingers on my arm. My girlfriend, Luciana.

She shakes her head subtly. "Not here, Ryan."

David's eyes fall on her. "The will reading is meant for family only."

"I am family," she murmurs, leaning further into the couch. "Or do you want to contest that?"

David looks like he is about to say something, but he decides against it, moving instead to the black briefcase in his hands. In another minute, he retrieves a folder and flips to the first page.

"The late Montenegro has assigned all rights to me to read his will today, and hence, everything in this document stands. If you have issues with it, you can take it up with the court, but I assure you that it was written and signed in the presence of two witnesses."

And then, he looks sternly at my mother, seated at the opposite side of the room. "Shall we begin?"

David starts with the formalities, reading every line and going into details about the properties and assets owned by my father. I allow my mind to trail away, because I am aware of every penny. I have been from a tender age.

As his only son, my father made it a point to teach me everything I needed to know to run the chain of companies. But we had our differences. My father and I.

After what feels like an eternity, David finally calls my name, and even the silence in the room deepens. I scoot to the edge of my seat, looking up at David.

He clears his throat noisily before his lips move again. "To my son, Ryan Montenegro, you have grown to live below your potential. It is what I term a reckless life, and I would like to see some responsibility in you now. For this reason, the ownership of the companies goes to you."

A smile stretches on my mother's face, but mine remains the same. Stoic and expressionless. I know my father. He would not have given me his whole legacy if there wasn't a catch to it.

As if on cue, David flips to the next page. "But this is only dependent on a condition."

The air in the room stills.

"If Ryan Montenegro, my first and only son, fails to marry within one month of my death," David continues. "Control of the Montenegro Conglomerate will be transferred to my nephew, Xavier Montenegro."

"That's a joke, right?" My mother's voice carries through the room. "I mean, my husband couldn't have possibly written that."

"There's still more," David murmurs. Of course. He is going to make me suffer from being called the CEO.

"If you get married without having a child within the first two years, the company's ownership shares will go to my nephew, Xavier Montenegro. This is to ensure that the marriage is real and strong, and to continue the Montenegro line."

My eyes take in Xavier, sitting comfortably with a smug look on his face. He leans in to his mother and whispers something.

The grins on their faces throw me off balance, but if there is one thing I have learned from my late father, it is the fact that you never let your enemies know when you are displeased.

"Is that it?" I mutter, rising to my feet. David looks up at me, his eyes bearing that gleam of surprise. He expected me to do something more. Maybe lash out at how ludicrous the will is. But I expected it.

"Yes, Sir."

"Great, then." I turn to my mother. "I have to get to the company now. There is a meeting scheduled with some investors tonight. Just in case Xavier takes over as CEO, I need him to meet the finances of the company in great shape."

It is meant to be a jab, but my foolish nephew nods in agreement, his wide smile almost bursting his face open.

Rolling my eyes, I move to my mother, leaning to plant a chaste peck on her cheeks. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"What about Luciana?" She whispers, her eyes on my girlfriend.

"She said she has an outing with her friends tonight. I'll see her at home."

I pull away and walk out of the mansion that ceased to be called home ages ago, waiting out on the curb as my bodyguard brings the car over.

"Sir," he says as he gets the backseat door open.

"Thank you, Thomas."

Out in the dense traffic, Thomas regards me from the rearview mirror. His lips part and close repeatedly.

"I heard what happened in there."

"Damn!" I breathe. "News sure does travel fast."

"What do you plan on doing?"

I shrug. "There is no way Xavier is getting the company. Not after all the rumors circulating."

"There was nothing about that in the will?"

I shake my head. "My father isn't bold enough, even in death, to declare to the whole city that the young man he parades as his nephew is actually his firstborn son. And even if Xavier doesn't know that, I do."

Thomas takes a sharp turn, going at full speed. "If he does, he would know the CEO seat is actually his to take."

"There is no way on earth I am giving out the Montenegro Conglomerate to an ex-convict. Xavier is...."

A girl with long brown hair runs out into the open from nowhere, and Thomas hits the brakes hard, pushing me forward. She halts in that split second, panic and dread filling her eyes before her feet give way underneath her.

Kiera's POV

And once again, I am drowning.

But this time, it feels different. It's warmer in here, and no matter how deep it seems, my body never hits the ground. I see those eyes again, their intensity finding its way deep into my bones.

My lips move at the same time as my hands. I try to reach out, to touch them. But they slip away from my grasp, slowly until they fade into oblivion.

This is when the smell seeps through. That familiar smell of antiseptic alerts me to where I am. Blinding lights bit into my eyes the minute I pull them open, and at once, I remember how I got here in the first place.

The screeching sound when I walked into the road, the driver hitting the brakes, my heart giving out inside me.

Alex.

I try to get up, panic coursing through every fibre of my being. I look around frantically, the white walls meaning nothing to me. I still think my husband is going to come out of nowhere to finish what he started.

He is going to harm my baby, and I won't be able to do a thing about it.

I need to leave.

And I need to do that now.

My hand moves to the drop attached to my other hand, but just as I start to pull it out, the door pushes open, and a doctor walks in. He halts for a second at the door, his eyes taking in the scene, before his feet start moving again.

"What are you doing, Miss?" He asks, wrapping his firm hands around mine and pulling them apart.

"I need to leave," I wail, fighting hard against his grip. I use my body, my feet, my eyes...but he doesn't budge.

"You can't," he says with such calmness that I begin to feel like I am running insane. "Just... relax, okay? I need your name."

I shake my head insistently, tears stinging the corners of my eyes. "He is going to find me, don't you get it? He is going to harm my baby."

When the door opens again, I almost rip the needle out of my arm, but a temporary relief washes through me when I see that it is just another doctor. He seems to be the senior around here, taking over from the one who first walked in.

"Miss," he begins in that same calm tone. "I am going to need you to take a deep breath if you don't want to be knocked unconscious this minute."

That has to be a violation of ethics, but something about the way he says it has my raging breath calming immediately. I take in gulps of air, my chest rising and falling, the flush on my face evening out.

He angles his head, before his eyes stray to the needle, slightly poking out of my skin.

The doctor turns to the other one. "Get me a pair of latex gloves, please."

"Where is Alex?" I breathe when it is just us both in the room. "Did he ask you to keep me here? Did he tell you I am running insane?"

He leans closer, looking into my eyes. His gaze narrows before he pulls away, retrieving a folder by the side of the bed. "And who might Alex be?"

I stop, realizing for the first time that this isn't the hospital Alex usually brings me to after beating me up. It's bigger and from the bed, I can take in the view beyond the balcony. There is a waterfall a distance away, and the sound of the water carries through the space.

It's not something Alex or Lara can afford.

"Where am I?"

"The hospital." He pushes the folder back and turns to look at me. "You were brought in last night after an accident. Luckily, you weren't hit by the car, but the shock made you pass out."

My lips fall open, but nothing comes out. He takes it as a cue to proceed.

"We had to keep you sedated because you looked like you were under pressure and your body needed rest, especially for your baby."

My baby.

My hands fly to my stomach immediately, feeling much better that nothing happened to it.

"Who brought me in?" My quiet voice creates such contrast with the way I sounded earlier when I thought Alex was around.

The doctor remains silent for a minute before his lips move again. "He prefers to remain anonymous," he says, clasping his hands in front of him. "However, he did ensure that you were given the best medical attention."

Confusion etches in my future as I try to sit up again. "How ... why?" This has to be a private ward.

The other doctor returns with the gloves. "Someone named Lara is outside. She says she is the patient's aunt."

My panic returns, eyes shooting wide open. I should have known this wasn't going to last long.

***

Lara pulls up in the driveway in front of her house, and the silence of the engine sounds deafening. She takes her time pulling the key out of the ignition before turning around to face me.

"You reported Alex to the police." It is the first time she has spoken to me since she got to the hospital, and I made her wait out there for hours. "Why?"

I bite my bottom lip, trying to stop it from quivering. It has been years now. I can't believe Lara still frightens me.

"He hit me," I manage to say, my voice coming out as a whimper. "He deserves to rot in jail."

When I look back into the car, my aunt's knuckles have tightened into fists on her lap, and her eyes glare daggers at me.

"You should count yourself lucky that I have guests inside," she whispers harshly. "Today is a very important day for Ava, my daughter. So, we will revisit whatever this is once they leave. Are we clear?"

I nod quietly, just grateful that she hasn't hit me yet. I follow her out of the car, walking through the side of the lawn and over to the door.

Lara turns around abruptly, and I almost bump into her.

"The minute we walk in, take the stairs, and disappear out of sight. I don't want to smell your lousy self around. Or you return to the hospital. Heaven knows I have tried keeping you fed since you killed my sister."

Lara doesn't wait for my response as she pushes the door open, stepping into the cozy space. A sharp pain slices through my chest at her words, and I walk in behind her, needing to be out of her way.

But suddenly, my feet refuse to move, freezing to the spot, when I see the eerily familiar pair of green eyes in Lara's living room.