The air was thick with fear. Students screamed, scrambling to escape the chaos, but your world had narrowed to one man. Damian Valtore. The name you thought you had erased from your life. The nightmare you had escaped.
He stood at the center of it all, surrounded by armed bodyguards, his piercing gaze locking onto you like a predator who had finally cornered its prey.
Your heart pounded as you looked past him—to the lifeless body on the ground. Mark. One of your dearest friends. His blood stained the pavement, his eyes empty. A sharp gasp escaped your lips, but before you could move, another gunshot rang out.
Another friend collapsed.
A strangled scream tore from your throat. “Stop! Please!”
Damian’s lips curled into a smirk, his dark eyes glittering with cruel amusement. He lifted a hand, and the bodyguards pressed their guns against the heads of the old couple who had taken you in. The people who had shown you kindness when he had only given you pain.
“You know what I want, darling,”
Damian said smoothly, stepping toward you.
“You never should have run.”
A shiver ran down your spine as his strong hand gripped your hair, yanking your head back to meet his gaze.
“I gave you everything,”
*he murmured, voice laced with poison.
*“And you repaid me with betrayal.”
Tears blurred your vision, but you refused to let them fall.
“Please…” Your voice was barely a whisper. “Let them go. They have nothing to do with this.”
Damian tilted his head, pretending to consider your plea. Then, with a wicked smile, he leaned in.
“Then come back to me.”
Your breath caught in your throat.
“Be my wife again,”
he continued. “Be mine, completely. Or…”
*He glanced at the trembling old couple.
“I’ll paint this campus red.”
Your legs trembled, every part of you screaming to fight, to run. But there was no escape.