When the blindfold finally came off, I could finally breathe properly.
The first thing I saw was the was glass. Floor-to-ceiling windows stretched around me, giving a perfect view of the city skyline. The penthouse gleamed, all polished marble and steel, like a palace built from money.
And when nm my eyes adjusted.
He was sitting right there.
I froze.
I'd know that face anywhere. Older, sharper, and colder now but still his.
Ethan.
My Ethan. Or at least, he used to be.
Once, he'd been the boy who kissed me under the bleachers, who swore he'd make the world ours, who held me so tightly I believed nothing could tear us apart. Once, he'd been all laughter and reckless promises, fire and softness wrapped in one.
But the man in front of me wasn't that boy.
This man was carved from steel. His jaw could cut glass, his dark suit screamed money and power, and the watch on his wrist was worth more than my father's car collection. His eyes, once warm enough to set me alight, were ice now. Ruthless.
He smiled at me. Slow. Dangerous.
"Long time no see, princess."
My blood froze.
My voice came out broken, a whisper that scraped my throat. "E-Ethan… what are you …..what's happenings?"
Ethan leaned against the window, hands in his pockets, the city burning behind him. The same city my parents owned pieces of, the same city that had spat him out years ago. His reflection in the glass looked like a ghost of the boy I once knew, but the man standing there? He was something else entirely.
A predator dressed in Armani.
I sat up on the leather couch, my wrists raw from the ropes. My wedding dress was ruined, the veil torn, makeup smudged into a stranger's face in the mirror across the room. I looked like a bride from a nightmare.
"Comfortable?" His voice broke the silence, deep, lazy, dripping with the confidence of a man who knew exactly how trapped I was.
I swallowed hard. "You fucking kidnapped me."
"I did." He turned, his eyes cutting through me. "And you're still breathing. Consider that mercy."
Rage flared hot in my chest. "You ruined my wedding…."
He cut me off with a dark laugh. "That wasn't a wedding, Aria. That was a transaction. You, gift-wrapped and sold to the man your parents approved of. Tell me did you really think love had anything to do with it?"
My voice trembled. "At least he didn't didn't steal me from the altar like some criminal!"
"Criminal?" Ethan stalked closer, each step slow, deliberate, his gaze locked on mine. "No, sweetheart. I'm not a criminal. I'm justice with a name. I'm what your family made me."
I backed against the couch cushions, my heart in my throat. "You're insane."
"Maybe." He stopped right in front of me, towering over me, and crouched until his face was level with mine. "But you're still going to sign."
He tossed a folder onto the coffee table. The same one from the van. The papers slid open, the words Marriage Contract blaring in bold.
I shook my head, pushing it back at him. "No. I won't."
His hand shot out, gripping my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes. His touch was hard, unyielding, but it wasn't unfamiliar. My body remembered him, even if my heart wanted to forget.
"You will," he murmured, voice low, lethal. "Or I'll strip your parents of everything they own. The mansions, the cars, the companies. I'll make sure your pretty little fiancé never works another day in his pampered life. You'll watch them crumble the way I watched my family die."
My chest caved, breath shaking. "You wouldn't….."
"I already started," he cut in, releasing me so suddenly I nearly fell back. "Your father's stock dropped this morning. His partners are pulling out one by one. By tomorrow, he'll be begging for my mercy. And I don't have any left."
The blood drained from my face. He wasn't bluffing. He had the power now, the kind of power my parents once used to destroy him.
Tears burned my eyes, but I blinked them away, forcing my voice steady. "So what? You think forcing me to marry you is revenge? That this makes us even?"
He leaned closer, so close I could feel his breath against my ear. "Even? No. This isn't about even. This is about owning the one thing they can't buy. You."
My heart slammed against my ribs. My skin prickled where his words touched me. God, why did it still feel like fire when he was near?
I shoved him back, shaking. "I hate you."
His smile was slow, devastating, cruel. "Good. Hate burns just as hot as love. And I can work with hate."
My throat went dry. "You won't break me."
His eyes darkened, the corner of his mouth lifting. "Sweetheart, you were already broken. I'm just claiming the pieces."
The contract sat between us like a loaded gun. He tapped a finger against it, calm, controlled. "You have until midnight to sign. Until then, you're not leaving this penthouse."
I glared at him. "And if I don't?"
His smile vanished. "Then your family learns what hell feels like."
Silence stretched thick between us, heavy with everything unspoken, our past, our grief, the ashes of the love we once had.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to slap him so hard the arrogance cracked off his face. But instead, I sat there, trembling, my chest full of fire and ice, just staring at the contract.
And yet… my heart betrayed me.
Because a traitorous, buried part of me whispered that maybe, just maybe, I never stopped being his.