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My heart thumps so loud it hammers mercilessly in my chest. Every gut instinct blares with alarm. She smiles at me, but her lips quiver, adding confusion to the mix.

“You know who I am, even though the woman in front of you has no name, no identity, no home. Remember me.” She places a kiss on my lips and stands up.

I am about to scoot up when I can’t feel my arms or legs.

What the fuck?

She crouches in front of the bed, brushing along my jaw. “In another life, make me yours and keep me, okay?”

I try to open my mouth. Knowing her, she’s about to do something monumentally stupid.

“It’s an immobilizing drug. It will wear off in a few hours. But by then—” She gulps and continues, “Goodbye for the last time, amore. Find my body and throw my ashes in the pond. I’ve never found my place on the ground, so maybe…”

Fuck, no. Move, I scream on the inside for my body to escape the fucking funk, but it brings me nothing. I’m guessing she has one destination in mind. By the time I can move, she will be across an ocean, hours in front of me.

“No,mio angelo,” I mouth. I should have never stopped calling her that. Fuck, I’d plead with her if I could. Tell her I’ll give her whatever she wants.

I won’t repeat my mistake of assuming what she needs. Her quest for freedom brought her to me. I should have simply kept her, not do a grand gesture that might cost me fucking everything. In my head, we’d get another chance. Lucky third, I guess. Now I might never be able to tell her I wouldn’t have truly let her go. We could have just started again with a clean slate.

I feel the tears sliding down my cheeks. I’ve never cried in my life until this moment when I am on the verge of losing my soul.

Don’t fucking leave me. There is a nagging and torturous feeling that I will never see her again. Fuck, she might be good, but she can’t survive getting her revenge on Augustus and the Council’s men.

“Dismantle or recreate the Council, but promise me it will never be in the Syndicate’s hands again. Never forget, it was me who made you the king of the underworld by giving you everything you needed.” She throws a USB stick at my side.I thrash, but my body doesn’t move, not even an inch. Sweat beads at my skin from trying to fight this paralysis.

“I’ve never wanted to discover any other type of freedom than the one you gave me. You were the first choice I made freely for myself—to be yours. Loving you was always out of my control. I believe I was meant to love you. Sadly, I wasn’t meant to be your wife and the mother of your children.” She exhales deeply. “I hate the one who will bear your name and carry your children more than anything else. I’ll be dead by then, because I’d never allow it otherwise.”

I don’t fucking care about anything else than her being with me. It’s her for me or no one else.

At the door, she looks back one more time at me over her shoulder. “Tell Mikail I am sorry, but my destiny is something else and stop choosing to be miserable. I love you.”

She closes the door behind her, and I try to shift to roll out of bed, but it’s like I am being held down by a giant’s foot.

Kill licks my hand before hopping down from the bed and going downstairs. It will be too late by the time Mika finds me. Hopefully my sister will check on me soon. I need to stop Luciana, but as the hours trickle toward my doom, the sun has long come up when I can finally move my toes and little finger.

I push through, hoping the rest of the paralysis wears off. It takes forever. What kind of drug is this? I am going to spank the fuck out of her when I find her in time to stop her.

The thought of losing her is something I refuse to entertain. She’s the only thing in my life that makes my life worthwhile. Without her, there’s nothing but darkness.

When I finally roll out of bed, I call it a success. Slowly, my limbs remember what they’re supposed to do. I stand up and shake my head, trying to clear it of the last bit of haze.

I could call Mika and gather my men, but I slip out of my home and get in my car.

I know where she will go. I am leaving my empire and my family in good hands with him. I either bring her back with me or I will go with her.

As I call the pilot to ready the jet, I am aware of what will be waiting for me once I land.

Venice will bleed at the hands of my lovely assassin. The entire world can bleed for all I care, but I need her to stay alive.

By the time the drug wears off, I will be crossing the Atlantic. My first stop is Enzo’s penthouse. I stole the keycard from his wallet before I left and I remember the code, but my heart clenches, yearning for him.

He set me free because he thought that’s what I craved most. The man acted selfless for once in his life, not realizing the only thing I desire most is him. I knew from the moment I said I love you that something in him had shifted. I broke down his every defense, but I didn’t think he’d go to this extreme.

Two guards pace around the garage, engaged in a chat, as I stealthily walk inside the elevator. Swiping the card, I enter the code. With every story, all I can think of is killing Augustus—the man who changed my fate as if he’s some kind of god. Except he’s human and he will bleed like one.

I wonder what would have happened if I had grown up surrounded by my family. Would Enzo and I be together?Most surely as it’s impossible for us to fight this connection transcending reason.

Would we have been long married and perhaps parents? Most definitely. I’ve never thought about those things before I met him, but now it’s all I can think about.