Dante“What do you mean ‘He’s gone?” I’m barely hanging on to my last piece of insanity and I find myself surrounded by morons. “Who’s gone?”Daveed takes a step forward, asserting himself before speaking. “Richard, one of the men Miss Jean had problems with before, he’s gone AWOL since early today. We’re trying to track him down but he’s gone completely rogue.”“And no one thought to report about it until now?” I say through gritted teeth. Daveed visibly shrinks, this time it’s Luca who speaks. “That lack of foresight was mine. Adeline was the one keeping tabs on him, but since Jean started to work on her father’s case more actively, Adeline’s hands have been full of extra work.” Ah. I’ve truly lost Adeline’s loyalty. She serves Jean now. I won’t say I’m surprised. I should have predicted this given how close they’ve grown over the past couple of weeks.“I should have let someone else keep watch. I’m sorry. This one’s on me.”Damnright you should have. But tossing the blame around
Dante“Are you sure?” I manage to ask Adeline but she can only make a small noise in response. Her injuries might not be grave on the outside but we’ll only know more once a doctor has properly examined her. Between Luca and I, there’s only so much first aid could do.Luca and I exchange one look before he’s tossing me his revolver and I’m dashing toward the edge of the road where the railing had been bent and broken out of place. The drop isn’t too bad. Before I could second-guess it, I jump.With my forearms bent close to my head and chest, protecting my head and ribs, I’m able to ease my fall by rolling over to my side. But it doesn’t do much for my injured arm so, I don’t fight the groan that tears out of me. But I don’t have time to think about my injuries right now. Jean is somewhere in this forest, scared and possibly injured. I need to find her and bring her home.A rolling thunder erupts loudly above us, as the sky dims with dark clouds. If that’s not foreboding I don’t know
JeanTremors overtake my whole body, and I don’t know why. Is it because Richard is dead at my feet or because it was Dante who had killed him? What even is he doing here?This wasn’t supposed to happen. Dante’s not supposed to be here. He should be back at the safe house, resting for fuck’s sake! But with him here, forcing all my bottled-up emotions to the surface is the last thing I want. I wanted to finish this cleanly. The plan was solid. Head to the island, prove that Serafino has been using it as a stop-over point for human trafficking, then let the police do the rest. He would have gone down so easily with all the evidence Adeline and I found against him. I was so close too if it weren’t for Dick showing up when he did.Adeline and I had the scare of our lives when all of a sudden, our car is being pelted by bullets. Had Dick had backup, we would be dead now. And as to how he had so eloquently put it, my corpse would be missing a hand for Dante to jack off with. How fucking d
DanteThe drive back to the estate was by far the longest and numbest trip I’ve taken. With Adeline and Jean properly strapped into the back seat, we make good time.“Shit, Dante. You could have killed her.” Luca commented when I appeared with Jean flung over my shoulder unconscious from the swift chop I did to the back of her head. “Thank God you’re injured. If not, we could be dealing with more than a slight concussion.”I have no energy for Luca’s reprimanding. I just want to go home and get this shit sorted out. Jean now obviously knows more than necessary and I have to fix that. She’s in more danger now than she has ever been before and I will die before I allow her to be in the same position as she has been these past few days.“I panicked, okay?” I whine, letting my head fall back into the headrest. “She was injured and was insisting on staying on that damned mountain. Anything to get away from me. I wasn’t thinking.”Luca scoffs and spares a glance toward Jean in the backseat.
Jean He can’t be serious. This has to be some kind of a sick joke. “What are you talking about?” I hadn’t meant to whisper, but I can’t find it in me to make my voice louder. The fight had left me before it could even begin. That’s how intimidated I am by this Dante standing in front of me. It’s like he’s a different person. It’s not just with the way he talks or the fact that he won’t come close to me. But his eyes. His eyes are a different story. Dante’s eyes may contain a violent storm in those gray orbs but it’s never coldness. He had never directed cold eyes toward me. And just like that, I am no better than those men Dante had tortured and disposed of. Impossible. What is he even saying? Learn to obey? What am I a dog? I wrack my brain for a memory in case I agreed to this somehow, in the middle of crying in the rain in the middle of nowhere. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember agreeing to be his prisoner. “Explain yourself, Dante,” I emphasize, making my tone
JeanThe following days aren’t any better. More and more, Dante deprives me of my needs. But at least he still feeds me on the designated schedule. Today marks the fifth day that I’ve been a prisoner, and the day Dante decided to pay me a visit, the first one since he announced I’m to stay here until I learn to obey.Dante looks and feels the same, cold, ruthless, and unfeeling. I’m worried that the Dante I started to fall for is gone forever, but I keep a small window in my heart for the opposite. But for now, I need to play his game in order to survive.I was so close to discovering the truth about the island that my father bought, so close to getting evidence that Serafino is trafficking humans using it. I can’t let this deter me.“I see you’ve learned something at least.” His tone is neutral as he glances toward the plates and cutlery placed neatly on top of the tray, ready to be picked up by the kitchen staff. For some reason, it was never Hana who delivered my food and took away
Hello! I hope everyone is enjoying my work so far. I just want to inform you that the next chapter and some of the succeeding chapters will tackle several topics and experiences that may be triggering to some. I would like to apologize in advance to anyone who might be offended or triggered by them. I understand that these are serious matters and must be handled delicately. Please remember that this is a work of fiction and in no way do I encourage these destructive behaviors. I will list the possible trigger warnings below (I will edit this if there are any changes), if any of them make you uncomfortable, please proceed with caution or skip the chapters altogether. Thank you for understanding, and for supporting my work until now. I hope we can all be together till the end. WARNINGS: - eating disorders - self-harm - blackmailing - suicidal thoughts - mentions of rape (nothing explicit, I promise) - human rights violations (human trafficking, physical abuse, etc.)
The first step is to test Dante. I know he still has feelings for me, he’s just burying them for some absurd reason, but in the event that he doesn’t love me anymore, my plan won’t matter, hence this experiment.Perhaps giving him a little scare would be worth the sacrifice I will make.For the next few days, I fall into a steady routine. My meals are brought up to me on time, and each time, I eat less and less until my body became comfortable with the new intake of food. Most days were particularly hard, especially at night when I could feel and hear my stomach grumble in protest despite the delicious food staring at me, but I stayed firm.At the end of each day, before going to bed, I take two sleeping pills normally. And every day, I wake up feeling worse than the last.The dosages of the pills are too strong to handle on a near-empty stomach, causing some abdominal pains, and slight nausea, but I’ll endure it.Three days pass like this, with me starving myself until the food prese