“Valeria!”
You flinched.
Damian felt it.
His arms tightened, not possessively, but steady enough to remind you that you would not fall.
“Don’t look back,” he said.
You didn’t.
A black SUV waited at the curb.
A man opened the door.
Damian placed you inside gently, then climbed in beside you.
Your mother rushed out seconds later, crying.
Your father followed, pale and shaking.
Leonardo’s security tried to block them, but one glance from Damian’s driver made the men step aside.
Your mother climbed into the SUV and grabbed your hand.
“My baby,” she sobbed. “My baby, I’m sorry.”
You looked at her through half-closed eyes.
“You knew?”
Her face crumpled.
That was the answer.
The pain of it cut deeper than your bruises.
Your father stood outside the open door, unable to meet your eyes.
Damian looked at him.
“You asked me to come,” he said.
Your father nodded once.
Your heart stopped.
“What?”
Your voice was barely a whisper.
Your father finally looked at you.
“I didn’t know how to stop it.”
You stared at him.
The man who had taught you to ride a bike.
The man who used to carry you on his shoulders at street fairs.
The man who had watched you walk toward an altar in pain because he “didn’t know how to stop it.”
Damian’s expression turned colder.
“You knew enough to call me.”
Your father’s mouth trembled.
“Leonardo threatened the company. The house. Caroline’s medical bills. He said if we canceled, he would destroy everything.”
You closed your eyes.
There it was.
The price of your body.
Your father’s business.
Your parents’ comfort.
Your family’s name.
You had become the payment.
Damian shut the door.
“To Northwestern Memorial,” he told the driver.
Your father remained outside on the sidewalk as the SUV pulled away.
Your mother stayed beside you, weeping into your hand.
You wanted to comfort her.
That old instinct rose automatically.
But then you remembered every time she had helped cover the bruises.
Every time she told you to be patient.
Every time she said rich men were complicated.
Every time she said marriage would calm Leonardo down.
You pulled your hand away.
She sobbed harder.
You turned your face toward the window.
Chicago moved past in silver streaks of glass and winter sunlight.
You were still wearing your wedding dress.
Still covered in pearls.
Still carrying the shape of Leonardo’s fingers under lace.
But you were not at the altar anymore.
That had to mean something.
At the hospital, Damian did not leave you.
He did not crowd you either.
He stood outside the exam room while a female doctor spoke gently to you and a nurse cut open the sleeves of your gown to examine your arms.
The bruises came out one by one.
Purple along your ribs.
Yellow near your collarbone.
Fingerprints on your wrist.
A healing mark beneath your jaw.
