Life felt great lately.
Even though it still sucked when Arianna remembered she was stuck here, a prisoner in Antonio's house, she was glad that Liam hadn't been taken away from her again.
It had been more than a week.
No calls.
No texts from Antonio. At some point she even wished he had dropped dead somewhere—but was that a joke?
Antonio Blackheart didn't die easily.
She could recall several occasions when he had walked in, bloody and injured, yet the man still graced the earth like a cat with nine lives.
A yawn escaped her lips as the young lady stretched herself on the bed and extended her hand to touch her son—only to find the space empty.
Arianna sat up instantly and yanked the window open.
He's gone.
Liam wasn't here with her anymore.
"No… no… no!" She panicked at the thought of only one name—Antonio Blackheart.
Was he back?
Did he take Liam?
Of course he did, since he was the only one who could give that command. But she could swear she hadn't heard anyone walk into the room.
She rushed toward the door, only to hear a baby's cackle from the balcony. She turned around to see Antonio on a call, holding a very much wide-awake Liam in his arms.
Antonio turned, their eyes met, and Arianna's nerves spiked. After all, she had never done the one thing she knew he would speak of now that he was back.
The marriage contract.
She watched him end his call before he started toward her, stopping in front of her.
"He's grown since the last time I saw him," Antonio said, glancing back at his son with a proud smile—a smile that only made Arianna more afraid.
She couldn't recall the last time she had seen him smile. It had been years.
"Hmm."
That was all Arianna managed, before she stretched out her arms to take her child. Surprisingly, Antonio didn't stop her.
A relieved sigh left her lips the moment Liam was back in her arms. Still, she couldn't shake off the fact that Antonio was an accident walking in flesh.
Those hands of his—hands that had killed thousands of men—were now touching her child?
Just the thought made her stomach recoil. That someone like him could love Liam without destroying him too felt impossible.
Antonio was a possessive and jealous man.
She was shocked he didn't get angry that someone else—their child—now shared her attention.
"I missed you," Antonio confessed.
Arianna looked up from where she sat at the edge of the bed. His confession troubled her—she had no idea how to respond.
She missed nothing about him. If anything, she wished that business trip had kept him away for more than a week.
Yet she didn't say that out loud. But her face said it all—she wasn't glad he was back, and he knew it.
The moment he stepped closer after she failed to respond, her breathing quickened.
"I—" Arianna tried to speak.
"I heard you've been a good girl since I left," Antonio cut in. His eyes lingered on her breasts, as their son suckled on them.
Pervert.
"I'm… just doing what's right," she whispered, looking away from his intimidating gaze. But he tilted her chin, forcing her to meet his eyes.
"And what do you mean by that, when you haven't done what I ordered?" Antonio asked.
His tone turned dark. Intimidating.
This was no longer the man who had just told her he missed her. This was the other side—the monster she never wanted to meet.
"Ant… I can't do it," she confessed, calling him by the pet name she had given him back when things were different. When he was soft. Loving. Back when he was the man she truly loved.
But that man was gone.
Now all she had left for him was fear.
Fear of what would happen if she didn't give him what he wanted.
"Babygirl, you're getting this all wrong." He laughed, taking Liam from her arms. She tried to hold on, but one look from him froze her. All she could do was cry.
Her tears only fueled him—he loved them. He always said so.
"This isn't about what's right or wrong. It's about what I want. And you, my girl, are going to do as I say."
Antonio whistled. One of his guards entered, taking the crying Liam away.
"Antonio, please…" Arianna begged. "He's just a baby!" She wept as the guard left, shutting her inside with the devil himself.
Antonio grabbed her, dragging her toward the secret room she dreaded. The Red Room.
It held memories she had buried—yet here she was again.
He pushed her inside. Arianna fell to her knees in tears.
"What's so hard about signing a contract? I don't want to force you, babygirl. I'm trying to be better for you. But you're pushing me too far, and you know what happens when I'm angry." He cupped her chin with his huge hand.
"Have you ever thought about what I want? I'm the mother of your child, yet you treat me like a slave—and you call that change? You're nothing but a monster, Anthony." Arianna spat in his face.
The slap that followed stung hot across her cheek.
The talk of change? Lies.
He was the same man he'd always been.
"Ungrateful bitch!" he snarled. He knew exactly how to break her.
Arianna screamed and fought as he dragged her to the iron X in the room. He chained her wrists, leaving her feet free—free enough to walk, to see what was happening in the main room.
"Let me out!" she thrashed.
"You'll stay here, locked up with no food or water, until you come back to your senses. You know how this goes, love," Antonio said, satisfaction glinting in his eyes.
"Get me out!" Arianna cried, lunging at him, but he slipped away before she could reach him.
"I didn't want to do this… you pushed me." Those were his final words before he locked the door.
"Noo!!"
"Antonio!!"
Arianna screamed, but the room was soundproof. She stumbled to the one-way mirror. He couldn't see her, but she knew he knew she was there, pounding against the glass.
And in the end, she was back where she dreaded.
Chained.
By her baby's father.
By the monster who would never let her go.