V I V I A N A

The moment I am dragged through the doors of the ballroom, the noise behind me vanishes, swallowed by thick walls and distance, and all that remains is the sound of my own voice tearing itself apart as I scream, curse, threaten, beg, anything to keep myself from disappearing into the night like this, like a body being removed from a crime scene.

Hands are locked around my arms, fingers digging deep and forcing me forward through corridors I know better than my own reflection. This house has watched me grow, watched me bleed, watched me train until my body shook, and now it watches me be ripped out of it without protest. Servants press themselves against the walls as we pass, their eyes lowered and their mouths shut tight. No one intervenes, no one even flinches, and that makes me fight even harder.

My heels scrape against the marble, my dress tangling around my legs as I snarl like a feral animal, twisting, biting, kicking wherever I can reach. That's when one of my elbows slams backwards and connects with a rib, followed by a grunt from one of the guards holding onto me. I feel the grip around my right arm loosen for half a second, and that's all the time I need. I rip my arm free long enough to slam my palm into a throat, making the man choke and stumble, eventually letting me go as well. Now, there's no one holding onto me, and the moment I'm free, I feel something wild ignite inside my chest.

Now's my chance.

And there's no way in hell I am leaving quietly.

But before I know it, I feel someone yank my hair, pain spreading across my scalp immediately and causing rage to take over completely, cancelling out fear and thought and leaving only instinct. I hold onto the wrist of the person holding my hair and twist sharply, ducking low before driving my knee up hard towards his stomach. I feel it connect, then hear the man grunt out loud, the air leaving him completely, just as he finally lets go of my hair. Another man lunges, and I immediately grab his wrist, bending it the wrong way and soon hearing a sharp crack, right before he screams. I am breathing hard, my lungs burning, blood roaring in my ears, and the world narrowed to movement and survival.

They did not expect this.

I rip free again, stumbling but upright, and my gaze snaps to the holster at one man's hip... A gun... so close it feels like destiny reaching out a hand...

And so, I move before anyone can stop me. My fingers wrap around the grip, the feeling all too familiar, as I tear it free and spin, raising it with both hands, and pointing it right at the man who's behind all of this...

Don Dante Accardi...

The very same man who watched me take down his men single-handedly.

My arms tremble, but my aim is true, and my training takes over. Years of drills, years of muscle memory have all led me to this moment. To face the man that's trying to kidnap me...

He stands at arm's reach, watching me carefully, his gaze momentarily shifting from the gun, then to me.

He doesn't move a muscle, and looks far from a man afraid of being shot. His gaze is locked on me, dark with intent, and something in his eyes tells me he already knows how this ends.

Without thinking, I fire.

The sound rips through the night, sharp and muffled through the silencer fitted at the tip of the gun, and at the exact same moment, hands clamp around my wrists and wrench them upward. The shot tears into the open sky, sparks flaring somewhere above, and the recoil jolts through my arms uselessly as the gun is forced from my grip.

My breath leaves me in a broken sound as I stare at him in disbelief. I have never seen someone with such reflections...

As he holds onto my wrists, forcing my arms high until my shoulders scream, he tugs me towards him until my body collides with his, forcing me to look up at him, our faces only inches apart. My pulse hammers so hard it feels like my chest might split open. I quickly snap out of it, realising that no matter how handsome he is, this is the same man who is trying to kidnap me and force me into a marriage I never asked for. And so I begin to thrash, trying to bring my knee up, trying to bite, trying to do anything to free myself, but he shifts with me, close enough that I can smell him, clean, dark and dangerous, close enough that his presence crowds every thought out of my head.

"That's enough, dollface," he says quietly and smoothly, as if stating a fact that has always been true.

"Fuck you." I hiss at him, just as I stop fighting him, realising that I'm only wasting my energy. My wrists twist painfully, and that's when he reaches up to my hands and takes the gun away. That's when he spins me around and pins my hands to my back instead, forcing my back to his chest.

"It's gonna take a little more than that for you to be free of me..." He whispers into my ear, his face moving towards my neck where his breath would lightly fan my skin. For a moment, I shut my eyes, trying my best not to let him get to me. I know he is simply toying with me, and I refuse to give him the satisfaction of knowing... he is starting to get to me.

Before I can even react, he spins me around, this time so I'm facing him again, and bends slightly, hauling me up in one smooth motion and throwing me over his shoulder.

The world tilts violently, and the blood immediately rushes to my head just as I yell out in surprise, trying my best to keep my head up.

"No!" I scream, pounding my fists uselessly against his back, my voice cracking, shredding itself apart. "Put me down! You bastard, put me down!" I continue, but he doesn't care.

His arm hooks around my thighs, locking me in place, his other hand still pinning my wrists together, preventing me from striking or clawing. I twist and scream, my rage spilling out of me in ugly, broken sounds. He began walking, carrying me down the steps, through the front doors gates and toward the waiting car.

I see the mansion upside down as we pass it, lights glowing warmly behind the windows, my home standing tall and indifferent as I am carried away from it like trash being taken to the curb.

This is it.

This is how I leave.

The car door opens, and the cool air hits my face. causing my throat to tighten as my chest seizes, and suddenly the fight drains out of me all at once, leaving only something far worse behind.

Grief.

It crashes into me without warning, violent and uncontrollable, and my body betrays me completely. Tears spill from my eyes, hot and furious, blurring everything as my hands curl into fists against his shoulder.

"I hate you," I choke, the words torn from somewhere deep and wounded. "I hate him. I hate all of you."

Dante pauses for half a second before lowering me into the back seat. He does not drop me or toss me aside. Instead, he sets me down carefully, still holding my wrists until I am seated, until I am contained, until escape is no longer an option.

Then he releases me and doesn't say a word to me. Instead, he lets out a sigh and steps back, the door shutting behind him.

I face forward, my hands shaking as sobs rip out of me, and I press my forehead to my knees, my entire body trembling with fury and loss and humiliation. I cry not because I am weak, but because everything I was has been ripped out of me in one night, because my father erased me with his voice. After all, my name has been stripped from my bones, because no matter how hard I fought, I was still taken.

That's when the car begins to move, and somewhere deep beneath the tears, beneath the pain, beneath the rage, a burning feeling forms... a taste for vengeance that needs to be satisfied...

All I know... they think this is the end of me... but they haven't heard the last of...

Every last one of the Costanzo family...

V I V I A N A

I do not speak for the rest of the car ride.

Not because I have nothing to say, but because if I open my mouth again, I know it will only be to scream, and I am done giving them that satisfaction. My hands rest in my lap, fingers curled so tightly my nails bite into my palms, keeping me stable in the only way I know how. Outside the tinted windows, the city slips past in streaks of light and shadow, streets I know, that once belonged to me, all fading further away with every passing second...

Dante sits across from me, legs relaxed, posture infuriatingly at ease, watching me without pretending otherwise. I can feel his attention like pressure against my skin, even when I refuse to look at him. Every part of me bristles under it. He has already taken enough from me. He does not get my eyes too.

The car slows down, and that's when I sit up slightly, looking out the window and seeing that we are now passing through a series of iron gates and are now approaching a mansion...

We park in front of the mansion, and the door opens, allowing cool night air to spill into the car, carrying the scent of rain-soaked stone and expensive landscaping. Dante steps out first, straightening to his full height, and when I finally look past him, my breath catches despite myself.

The Accardi estate looms before me, a powerful structure with lights glowing across multiple levels, balconies stacked like tiers of power rising into the dark. It is larger than the Costanzo mansion by far, more expansive, more polished and a statement carved into architecture. Dare I say it, it's magnificent.

Dante turns back toward me, one hand resting on the open door as he looks into the car, watching me carefully.

"Are you going to behave yourself," he asks calmly, "or will you have to be dragged out?" He asks, and I narrow my eyes at him, leaning in closer to him as I put one leg out of the car.

"If any of your men touch me," I say, my voice tight and filled with venom, "I will start breaking bones... again," I say, reminding him of what I did to some of his men right before we left.

His eyes squint slightly, his eyes travelling over me slowly as he continues to look down at me. A sudden tension forms between us, and that's when I realise how close he is to me, how I can smell his cologne, how subtle his breaths are, how his jaw and neck muscles clench. Snap out of it, Viviana...

"Your choice," he replies, finally snapping me out of whatever the hell that was.

He then takes a step back, giving me space to climb out of the car. My heels hit the gravel slowly, my spine straightening despite the ache in my body. I begin walking fowards and two guards move closer immediately, flanking me like shadows, and for a heartbeat I think Dante will stop them.

He does not.

We take only a few steps before I feel it. A hand presses lightly against my back, nudging and guiding, as if I were some unruly guest who needs direction.

That's when something inside me snaps.

I move without thinking, reaching back and catching his wrist, twisting hard and fast, channelling every ounce of fury still burning in my veins. I feel it give beneath my grip, a sickening crack vibrating through my palm just as I hold onto the man's hand while he begins to shout in pain, dropping to the ground, clutching his arm as his body folds in on itself. His guards all tense up, moving away from me just as I lock gazes with Dante, but all he does is watch me, seemingly impressed with my actions.

"I warned you," I say, taking a slow, deep breath.

That's when he smiles, keeping his hands in his pocket just as he walks up to me, staring down at me as his eyes scan me.

"You never said anything about me touching you." He suddenly says, suddenly throwing me off guard. Heat rushes to my face before I can stop it, anger and humiliation mixing as my entire body tenses, and that seems to be all it takes.

His hand closes around my arm, not rough but inescapable, and he starts pulling me forward.

"Let's go. If you try anything with me, I'm tying you up," he says causually and I gasp at him as he continues to tug me forward. I glare back at him, matching his footsteps and face forward to where he's taking me.

We approach the entrance where the doors would open, and I am ushered inside whether I want to be or not.

The interior steals my breath in a way I resent. Everything is bright, polished and expensive. Marble floors stretch beneath my feet, and ceilings soar high above. It is luxury on a scale meant to intimidate, meant to remind anyone who enters that they are small here, that this place does not bend for anyone.

I hate that part of me can even stand here, appreciating the interior.

We barely make it a few steps inside before two figures approach us from the far end of the hall.

"Boss, you're back," a woman says, and I turn my head to scan the two of them.

The woman who spoke is tall, incredibly stunning and dark-skinned, with pitch-black curls sitting in a ferocious afro, her eyes striking green eyes that take everything in at once. There is confidence in her stride, familiarity in the way she addresses him.

"And you came back with company," the man beside her adds, his smile easy-going and calm, his eyes bright blue, filled with curiosity. He is handsome, having soft brown hair and is the same height as the woman beside him, both of them dressed in all black tactical gear. They must be mercenaries of some sort...

Dante soon releases my arm and steps forward, coming into full view.

"Thalia. Enzo," he says before he faces the man and woman. "Meet my future wife. Viviana Costanzo. Or soon, Mrs Viviana Accardi..." He calls out, and I slowly turn to him, narrowing my eyes at him viciously.

"A gift from the Costanzo family... in exchange for 20 million dollars, that is," Dante adds, glancing back at me and staring at me from head to toe.

Thalia's gaze shifts to me then, softer than I expect, studying rather than judging. Enzo lets out a low whistle.

"Well, damn," he mutters. "The plan really worked, huh?" He chuckles, but Dante ignores him and steps in front of me.

"Thalia, escort her to her room. Have her freshened up, just in time before dinner," he says. "I imagine she's had quite the long day... just give us a minute first."

"Yes, boss," Thalia answers swiftly just as I look over Dante's shoulder to stare at her, her gaze meeting mine.

"Nice meeting you, Donna," she says, a small smile tugging at her lips, and I frown at her for being kind to me. Is it all an act? Whatever it is, I won't be dumb enough to fall for it.

With that, both her and Enzo begin walking out of the room, leaving Dante and I alone together, and once they're gone, the hall suddenly feels too large, the silence between Dante and I being too loud now. My heart pounds, anger and fear swirling together, my thoughts racing faster than I can grab hold of them...

"Welcome to your new home, sweetheart," he says, and his words make my stomach turn.

I lift my chin, meeting his gaze head-on, pouring every ounce of hatred I have left into the look I give him.

"You don't own me, and you never will," I say, my voice trembling despite my effort to keep it steady.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll do exactly as I tell you. Am I understood...?" He questions.

"No." The words leave my lips before I can control them, and as a result, fear floods my entire body as I stare face-to-face with the man that my parents have sold me off to.

"No?" His deep voice hums in his chest, sending a series of chills running across my skin. My bottom lip quivers in fear, but I quickly bite it in an attempt to maintain some sort of control over my body. I can't let him see how terrified I am of him, how my body trembles in terror as he remains across from me.

Dante moves dangerously close to me, his frame towering over me and making me feel almost insignificant in my own skin. His cold, icy gaze meets mine, those soulless blue orbs searing into my green ones. I am paralysed, with no control over my own limbs. I should move, turn around and run while I still have a chance. But where would I even go? I'm in his house now, and there's nowhere I would feel safe anymore...

Before I realise what's happening, his grip is around my throat, his fingers pressing against my skin. My back slams against the wall, and a frightened gasp leaves my lips, just as I look up at the person who has easily overpowered me. He remains silent as he looks down at me, his face inches apart from mine as panicked breaths leave my lips. Suddenly, the fear turns into something else as I realise how his body is pressed against me, how the only space between is the one between our faces...

"Let's get something straight, dollface." He says lowly, his voice sending my heart racing as he keeps himself only inches from my face, my lips.

"You're mine now, and there's nothing you can do about it..."