Emma
The walls pressed in around me, my pulse pounding in my ears. Their voices—Alexander's cold command, Ethan's desperate plea—clawed at me. I had to get away.
I wasn't running from them. I was running from the truth.
Ethan—my Ethan—was Alexander's son. The thought hit me like a slap. How had I not known? How had I not seen it? The man who once made me believe in love, and the one who trapped me in his world, weren't just connected—they were two sides of the same cursed coin.
I stumbled into a shadowy alcove near the garden doors, my back pressing against the cool stone. The damp air bit at my skin, but it was the only place where I could almost breathe. Almost. Their words circled in my mind, chains I couldn't break.
Alexander's voice thundered inside my head: "You belong to me."
Ethan's followed, quieter but just as suffocating: "Come with me, Emma."
I squeezed my eyes shut. My chest burned—betrayal, confusion, anger—all twisted together.
Ethan had been my everything once. But now? He was the man who left me, shattered and alone. And Alexander—he was a cage. Yet there'd been something in his eyes tonight, something I hated myself for noticing. Vulnerability? I couldn't allow it.
The thought made my stomach churn. How had I become this person, caught between two men who only knew how to take?
"Emma."
His voice sliced through the silence. Dark, smooth like smoke.
I turned, breath caught in my throat. Alexander stood there, cutting through the dim light, his dark eyes fixed on mine. His presence consumed everything, filling the space with that same unspoken authority that made it impossible to escape.
"You're leaving?" he asked, voice calm, deceptively so.
"I can if I want to," I shot back, bitterness dripping from my words.
His mouth twitched. "Don't I own you?"
I stiffened. My pulse raced. He stepped closer, his cologne filling the air, suffocating me.
"How do you know Ethan?" he demanded, his hand gripping my wrist, cold as ice.
"We went to high school together," I muttered, hoping I sounded unaffected.
His eyes narrowed. "You're nervous."
"I'm nervous because you won't stop staring at me," I snapped, trying to mask the panic rising in my chest.
He didn't flinch. "Stay away from him."
I opened my mouth to argue, but his words stopped me.
"Ethan doesn't act without purpose. He's reckless. A fool."
"I don't care," I growled, my voice shaking. "I don't have any connection to him."
His gaze hardened, his grip tightening on my wrist. But then, for a fraction of a second, his expression softened. It almost disarmed me.
"Good," he said, his voice low. "Because the only connection you need is with me."
"Don't flatter yourself," I shot back, pushing past him, my heart pounding.
I reached the garden doors and pushed them open. The cool night air hit me, but it couldn't cool the storm raging inside. The rain-soaked earth gleamed beneath the moonlight, the only sound my shaky breaths.
But even here, in the quiet, I couldn't outrun it.
"Emma."
The voice was softer this time, but no less haunting.
I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat as Ethan emerged from the shadows. His face was harder, older, but those eyes—those eyes were still the same.
"What do you want, Ethan?" My voice came out sharper than I intended.
"To explain," he said, stepping closer.
"Explain?" I laughed bitterly. "You had years to explain. And now you want to?"
He ran a hand through his hair, frustration clear on his face. "I didn't know. If I had—"
"If you had, what?" I cut him off, anger bubbling over. "Stopped Alexander from getting his claws in me? Or stopped yourself from walking away in the first place?"
Ethan flinched, guilt flashing across his face. "I didn't have a choice."
"There's always a choice," I spat. "You just didn't choose me."
His eyes burned with raw emotion. "You think I wanted to leave you? You think I didn't fight for us?"
I turned away, my chest tightening. "It doesn't matter now, Ethan. It's too late."
"It's not," he said quietly. "You don't understand. My father—he destroys everything he touches. I couldn't let him destroy you."
I froze. His words cut deeper than I wanted to admit.
"You think you're protecting me now?" My voice trembled. "It's too late for that."
Ethan's hand reached for me, hesitant. "It's not too late. Come with me. We can leave. Tonight."
I turned to face him, the sincerity in his eyes nearly breaking me. But behind that sincerity, I saw the recklessness that had always been his.
"And go where?" I whispered, my heart aching. "He'll never let me go."
Ethan's jaw clenched, fists tightening. "Then I'll fight him."
"For what?" I demanded. "For me? Or because you can't stand seeing me with him?"
Before he could answer, the sound of heels clicking against stone shattered the night.
"Babe…"