The mansion loomed smaller than ever, almost to the point where it was claustrophobic. The air lay so thick it pressed against Alessia from every direction. For the second day in a row, Alessia had set out to just get on with things as she always did—and as she knew how to do. She had learned how to walk on tiptoes, how to speak with care, how to follow every last rule. Just as she started to let her breathing relax, Dominic appeared out of nowhere.
"Think you can ditch me again?" His tone sliced through the silence, its jagged edges cutting her. "Think you can shake me and walk away?" Alessia felt her stomach turn out from underneath her. The beat of her heart pounded against her ribs, and she realized in that split-second instant that she was no longer playing along tentatively but hopelessly trapped.
Dominic closed the space between them, and Alessia felt the distance shrink with passion. A shiver ran its way up Alessia's spine. Alessia wanted to talk, tell her side, beg her case, but she found nothing to say. Alessia was, quite literally and figuratively, stuck. It was her daughter, her survival, and peace she had maintained for so long, hanging in the balance of this impromptu meeting. Alessia felt rooted to the spot.
His eyes were on her, analyzing her, taking control in a way that only ever happened with Dominic. "No more running, no more hiding. Now you are mine, whether you want it or not." Alessia struggled for air as she felt herself trapped in Dominic's protection and held under his control.
A cold realization dawns on her as she is faced with the extent of Dominic's power. Gone was the man she had left behind five years ago, so vulnerable, so decent, so kind; in his wake, what remained was the leader, the ruler, cold and bitter from the experience of it all and so eager to use it lethally. Alessia knew she had stepped right into Dominic's domain and was now trapped within it-a danger to herself in a game she did not want to play.
Avery flashed in her mind, that fragile but bright child whose very existence depended utterly on Alessia's choices. All these precautions against Dominic's enemies now seemed silly and inconsequential against the new possibility that now faced her. One mistake, one sighting, and that careful safety net she had pulled in could begin to unravel. Alessia felt her heart tighten and her hands slightly tremble.
Dominic said nothing, but yet always watched her, silently judging her, making sure she knew her place. Alessia felt that with every step, she was failing. She knew the truth she always knew but could not quite articulate: that it was useless to resist, but to submit was to imprison herself in other ways.
Days passed, and Alessia found the manor she had shared with Dominic gradually turning into a fortress around her. Guards lined up in her corridors, doors automatically closed behind her, and she was recorded by ever-calculating security cameras. And Alessia felt that all her life she had been living under observation, that every look and every step that she made was written down somewhere. She lived in stealth, not to trip herself up, because she knew Dominic was always monitoring her, even if not actually around her. And when she asked for some little favors-to go see her friend, to get some fresh air, or to take out a book-she would find every request rejected by that same frigid 'no'. No to every question, no need to discuss it or debate on it.
Alessia felt her cage slam shut around her, as though the walls themselves seemed to press in closer with every refusal. Although, between the oppressive rules and cold hold, there existed moments that were brief, perilous, and disorienting where her former Dominic seemed to emerge occasionally. It could either be where she required a consoling touch or where he spoke to her in hushed tones filled with concern or where he nursed her gently as she stumbled.
This always ran shivers down her spine, and she felt something long buried stirring to life—a hope that perhaps her former love was hiding behind this cold mask. Alessia felt her heart suffer from the contradicting nature of it all. She did not want this ever-watchful gaze on her, this oppressive control, but most especially this control over her. And at the same time, she felt her body wanting protection in the form he provided, wanting to know she was safe underneath his controlling grasp, wanting to remember she had once felt so much love – though it had twisted into this possessive form.
As night fell, Alessia was standing in her room, her eyes on the black, locked door with its shiny handle, cold to her touch. The leash on her life seemed unbreakable. It was as though she felt the heavy weight of the mansion, its guards, and Dominic's ever-watchful eyes dragging her down. Alessia felt fear mingle with her anger and that curious, perturbing new feeling, and she knew with cold, hard truth that she had allowed herself to be corralled into a cage she'd once escaped so easily, but this time, she'd find it anything but effortless. She raised her eyes to the window where the moon cast its light on her behind the thick curtains.
Meanwhile, the city pulsed blindly, unaware of the struggle going on in Dominic's house. Alessia's hands reached out to the glass longingly, yearning for freedom, for the ability to choose her own way, for relief from those intangible boundaries that circumscribed her life. Nevertheless, she turned to the closed door and knew it was only too true: She had lost control of her life again. The big house did not feel for her like a place to live anymore. To her, it felt like Dominic's turf, and she was a guest, with no right to anything.
The rules, the pair of eyes on her, the cameras everywhere, and, last but not least, her realization that this man's concern had curdled into domination held her captive. Alessia pressed her palm on the door to touch its cold metal to her skin, and she knew the truth, which felt like ice flowing within her.
For the first time in a long while, Alessia felt herself trapped, not because of reasons relating to fighting and tying her up but for reasons pertaining to her own mental stamina, which was larger, sharper, and more tenacious than anything she had ever met. The trap had closed,
and she was inside.