Vale's POV
I answered the phone with trembling fingers.
"Mama?" I whispered.
"Vale, baby, don't listen to him," my mother's voice came through, weak but urgent. "Everything he's told you is a lie."
Vincent snatched the phone from my hand before I could respond.
"Now, now, Isabella," he said into the speaker. "We discussed this. No spoiling the surprise."
"You monster," my mother's voice crackled through. "Let my daughter go."
"Your daughter came to me willingly," Vincent replied. "Didn't you, sweetheart?"
He looked at me expectantly. I wanted to scream that I'd been tricked, that he'd threatened everyone I loved, but what was the point? He held all the power here.
"Just get this over with," I said instead.
Vincent smiled and hung up the phone.
"Such a brave girl," he said. "Just like your mother was at your age."
"Stop talking about her like you knew her," I snapped.
"But I did know her," Vincent said, pushing open the warehouse door. "I knew her very, very well."
