My heart stopped completely when he asked if I had forgotten how much I hated him. I stared into his dark eyes and tried to figure out if he actually knew my secret or if he was testing my reaction to his words. I forced my face to remain perfectly blank and tilted my head to the side in a display of feigned confusion.
"What do you mean by that?" I asked quietly, and I made sure my voice trembled just enough to sound vulnerable. "Did we have a terrible argument before my accident happened today?"
Devon chuckled softly, and the dangerous tension inside the car immediately dissolved into something much more relaxed.
"We argued constantly when we first met at that charity gala last year," Devon explained as he leaned back against his leather seat.
"You thought I was an arrogant billionaire, and you told me to leave you alone for three entire months before you finally agreed to let me take you out to dinner. You are a very stubborn woman, Alexia, and you always claimed you hated my attitude before you finally fell in love with me."
I released a slow breath of relief because he was just talking about our fake history together, and he did not actually know I was pretending to have amnesia. He began to tell me a highly detailed story about our supposed courtship, and every single word he spoke terrified me because it sounded incredibly authentic.
He told me that we usually ate breakfast together on Sunday mornings, and he even knew that I always ordered scrambled eggs with exactly two packets of hot sauce. I had never eaten breakfast with this man in my entire life, yet he possessed intimate knowledge about my specific daily habits.
I realized that Tyler must have sold all of my personal information to Devon, or Devon had hired a private investigator to follow me around the city for the past several months.
The black SUV turned onto a smooth highway, and the city lights blurred past the tinted windows.
I felt a sudden rumble in my stomach because I had not eaten anything since my small lunch at the university cafeteria earlier today. Devon noticed the sound immediately and reached for a small compartment built into the center console of the vehicle.
"I assumed you would be hungry after dealing with the hospital staff all evening," Devon said while he handed me a small white cardboard box. "I had my assistant pick up those specific almond pastries you always buy from the bakery near your art studio."
I opened the box and saw three perfectly baked pastries resting on a clean paper napkin. My hands shook slightly as I took one out and took a small bite. The familiar taste of the sweet almond paste filled my mouth, and I chewed slowly to buy myself some time to think about my next move. He was using my favorite foods to make me feel comfortable, but the thoughtful gesture only made me feel more trapped in his elaborate lie.
"Thank you," I murmured after I swallowed the food. "These are very good, and I really appreciate you thinking about my appetite tonight."
"I always think about you, and taking care of your needs is my primary responsibility now," Devon replied smoothly as he watched me eat the pastry.
The driver exited the main highway and steered the large vehicle down a very quiet residential road surrounded by tall trees. We drove for another ten minutes until the car stopped completely in front of a pair of massive iron gates.
A security camera was mounted on a stone pillar next to the entrance, and a small red light blinked twice before the heavy metal doors slowly swung open to allow us inside the property.
We traveled up a very long driveway paved with dark bricks, and the tires crunched softly against the smooth surface. I looked out the window and gasped quietly when the Dominico estate finally came into view.
The house was absolutely enormous, and it featured three distinct levels of dark gray stone and dozens of large glass windows. It resembled a modern fortress designed to keep people securely locked inside rather than a normal family home.
The SUV parked near the front steps, and Aaron immediately opened my door to help me step out into the chilly night air.
I wrapped the soft cashmere sweater tighter around my shoulders while I looked up at the intimidating structure.
Devon walked around the back of the car and placed his hand firmly against the lower curve of my back to guide me toward the heavy wooden front doors.
"Welcome home, Alexia," Devon said as he pushed the doors open to reveal a brightly lit foyer with high ceilings and polished marble floors.
A woman wearing a neat gray skirt and a white blouse was standing near the base of a grand staircase, and she smiled warmly when we walked inside. She looked to be in her late twenties, and she held a digital tablet clipped to a leather folder.
"Good evening, Mr. Dominico, and we are so incredibly happy to see you safe and sound, Miss Winters," the woman greeted us with a perfectly professional tone. "I am Evelyn, and I will be assisting you with anything you might need during your recovery process."
"Thank you, Evelyn," Devon replied before I could even open my mouth to speak. "Please have the kitchen staff prepare a light chicken soup and bring it up to our bedroom in twenty minutes because Alexia needs to rest her head."
"Right away, sir," Evelyn nodded quickly and walked down a side hallway toward the back of the massive house.
I noticed that nobody on the staff acted surprised or confused by my sudden arrival. They all treated me as a permanent resident of the house, and they spoke to me with a level of familiarity that made my fake amnesia feel even more disorienting.
Devon did not give me any time to ask questions because he kept his hand on my back and steered me toward the wide wooden staircase.
We climbed the stairs to the second floor and walked down a long corridor lined with expensive landscape paintings. Devon finally stopped in front of a double door at the very end of the hallway and turned the brass handle. He pushed the doors open and gestured for me to enter the room first.
I stepped across the threshold and stopped walking completely because the sight in front of me stole the breath right out of my lungs. The bedroom was incredibly spacious, but the specific decorations caused my heart to pound heavily against my ribs.
The walls were painted a very soft shade of sage green, and that was the exact color I had been begging Tyler to let me paint our apartment living room for the past two years.
A large wooden easel stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, and a brand new set of professional oil paints rested neatly on a small rolling cart beside the canvas.
I walked slowly toward the attached bathroom and saw my favorite brand of lavender body wash sitting on the edge of the large porcelain bathtub.
Two thick white towels were folded neatly on a heated metal rack, and a pair of fluffy slippers waited on the soft bath mat. He had not simply provided a basic guest room for me to sleep in tonight.
He had built an entire living space completely tailored to my exact personal preferences, and he had clearly prepared all of this long before the car accident even happened today.
"Do you approve of the changes I made to the room while you were away?" Devon asked as he walked into the bedroom behind me and closed the heavy double doors until they clicked securely shut.
"It is very beautiful, but I am confused about why all of these specific things are here if we were planning to buy a new house after our wedding," I asked carefully, and I tried to use the fake history he had just told me in the car to my advantage.
"I wanted you to feel perfectly comfortable while we waited for the new house to be built, so I made sure to buy all the things that make you happy," Devon explained as he walked closer to me.
He stopped just one foot away from me and reached out to tuck a loose piece of hair behind my ear. His touch was gentle, but the look in his dark eyes was incredibly intense and overwhelming. I realized that escaping this house was going to be much harder than I originally thought because he had already anticipated my every need and provided it to keep me compliant.
"You are so tense and exhausted right now," Devon observed quietly as his hand slid down from my ear to rest heavily against my neck. "You should take a warm bath and eat the soup Evelyn is bringing up, and then you can sleep peacefully in our bed."
"I think I would prefer to just go to sleep immediately because my neck is still very sore from the seatbelt," I replied quickly because I desperately wanted him to leave the room so I could be alone to process my thoughts.
Devon stared down at me for a very long moment, and his fingers tightened slightly against my skin in a way that was not painful but was definitely a clear warning. He leaned his face down until his lips were hovering just an inch above my ear, and his warm breath made me shiver involuntarily.
"You can rest as much as you need tonight, Alexia, but you need to understand that your old life is completely over," Devon whispered in a low and deeply possessive tone that made my blood run cold. "Tyler gave you away because he is a weak coward, but I want to make it perfectly clear that I am never going to let you walk out of those front doors ever again."