Aria didn't wait for permission this time. She'd spent days in Luca's glass penthouse, every wall gleaming like a mirror of her own cage. But there was still a world beyond those walls one he couldn't control every second of every day.
He'd left early, a curt Meeting. Don't leave note beside her untouched breakfast. She stared at the neat handwriting until the words blurred, then stuffed the note in her pocket like she was daring herself to shred it later.
Maria was nowhere in sight. The guards at the door, they always nodded at her, polite but blank-faced. They probably thought she was too meek to try. Or too smart.
She slipped on her coat, pulled the hood low, and walked right past them. They looked up, but she didn't stop. No one moved. Maybe Luca's leash wasn't as tight as he thought.
The elevator dinged open. She stepped inside, her heart pounding. As the doors closed, she half-expected a hand to shoot in, yank her back his voice in her ear: Not so fast, sweetheart.
But no one came.
When the lobby doors whooshed open, the cold city air slammed into her like a slap. She almost laughed. She'd forgotten how much the street smelled like wet concrete, diesel, cheap food trucks lined up on the corner. Life. Normal life.
She walked for blocks, hands buried deep in her pockets, pulse racing with each step. She didn't have a plan no bag, no money except a crumpled note she found buried in her jeans. She just knew she had to breathe somewhere he wasn't.
A kid shoved a flyer into her hand. University Registration Now Open. Her chest twisted. She hadn't even dropped out properly she'd just vanished. Did her professors wonder where she'd gone? Her roommate? She almost laughed. Her parents. God, her parents.
She ducked into a small park, sat on a damp bench under a bare-limbed tree. The flyer sat in her lap like an accusation. Maybe she could go back. Maybe she could fight him for something. Anything.
Her phone buzzed in her pocket, the burner Luca had given her, stripped of every number except his and Maria's. The screen blinked: Cross. He knew. Of course he knew.
She powered it off. Threw it in a trash can. Stood and kept walking.
She found herself outside the library on campus an hour later, half-frozen, half-certain she'd made a mistake. She didn't have her student ID anymore. But when she pressed her hand to the glass, she could see students inside coffee cups balanced on textbooks, laughter echoing across rows of books.
She missed this. She missed it so much it made her throat burn.
"Hey," someone said behind her. A security guard, bored and older. "You need help, miss?"
"I used to go here," she blurted. "I just wanted to see it again."
His eyes softened. "Well, no trouble, okay? Can't let you inside without ID."
She nodded. "Of course."
As she turned away, her chest squeezed. Freedom tasted like a ghost she could almost touch then he'd appear, reminding her that ghost came with a price.
When she walked out to the street again, the first flakes of snow started to drift down. She didn't have gloves. Her coat was too thin. Her whole body trembled, but it wasn't just the cold.
She heard it before she saw him. A black town car idled by the curb. Luca stepped out, no coat, sleeves rolled up, hair damp from the snow melting on it. He looked so perfectly furious she almost flinched.
"Aria."
She stood frozen. People flowed around them on the sidewalk, oblivious. To them, he looked like a man in a suit scolding his wayward girlfriend. No one would know he owned her with a single signature.
"Get in the car," he said.
She hugged her arms to her chest. "No."
His eyes narrowed. "I'm not asking."
She lifted her chin. "What are you going to do? Drag me by the hair?"
He stalked forward. She braced for him to grab her, but instead his hands cupped her face, ice-cold and burning at once.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing to me?" he hissed. "Running off like this. Where were you going? Back to your dorm? Back to nothing?"
"Back to my life," she shot back. "Before you "
"Before me, you were drowning." His thumb dragged across her cheek, his touch both a promise and a threat. "You think they would've taken you back? You think you could just forget this?"
She shoved him, hard enough to break his hold. "I'd rather drown than stay here forever."
He let her push him but his eyes went dark. "You really believe that?"
"I want to see my parents," she snapped. "I want my own money. I want to finish school. I want a life that's not just you in a penthouse telling me who I am."
For a second, she saw it. The crack. A storm brewing under the control. He closed the distance, nose brushing hers, his words a hot whisper.
"Then run. Run, Aria. But when you come crawling back, I'll remind you who you belong to."
His mouth crashed onto hers, hard enough she gasped. She could taste the frost on his lips, the bite of his anger. She hated how her knees buckled, hated how she kissed him back like she needed it more than air.
When he pulled away, they were both breathing hard. His eyes dropped to her mouth, then her belly, his child, his leverage.
"You can test me all you want," he murmured. "But you will always come back."
She tore herself from him, stumbled to the curb. A bus pulled up …pure luck, or maybe fate trying to remind her she could still choose. She climbed on, not looking back. The doors hissed shut. She didn't see him follow. But she felt him watching.
She rode the bus for an hour, city blocks crawling past like a memory. She found herself in front of a battered little café near the edge of campus. She used to come here for free Wi-Fi when her phone got cut off. She sat inside, nursing a cup of tea she could barely taste.
She thought about the contract. About the child growing inside her. About the stupid twist in her heart when Luca's mouth had crushed hers.
She hated him. She hated him. She hated that he made her want him. That he'd ruined every other door but his.
When she stepped back out, snow clung to her lashes. She tugged her coat tighter, tried to pretend she was just another girl out in the cold.
But she knew he'd find her. He always did.
She walked for another block before she saw the car parked half on the curb. He leaned against it, arms crossed, breath misting in the winter air. No coat again, just his shirt rolled at the sleeves, like the cold couldn't touch him
He didn't say anything. Just opened the passenger door.
She stood there, teeth chattering, fingers numb.
He held her gaze. "Done testing me yet?"
She hated him. She wanted him. She climbed in.
Back at the penthouse, she stormed straight to the bedroom. He followed, calm as ever.
She slammed the door, shoved the dresser in front of it like a barricade. She sat on the floor, back to the door, chest heaving. She heard him on the other side, his palm pressed to the wood.
"You can lock me out," he said, voice low. "But you're still mine, Aria. Every damn piece of you."
Her eyes squeezed shut. She hated how part of her wanted that to be true.
She whispered to the empty room, "What happens when I don't want to come back?
Silence. Then his voice, cracked and dark.
"Then I'll come get you. Every time."
She pressed her hand to the door. A tremor ran through her. Some debts couldn't be paid with cash alone. And some hearts came with a price no one could see coming.