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The cost of it might even be our lives.
I know my father would see this as a betrayal; a reckless act which could ruin everything he’s spent years building, but the worst part of this—the part which gnaws at me in the quiet hours of the night—is the possibility that he might see Chiara as a pawn. He might see her as a valuable asset, as a tool to use in negotiations to make things happen in the way he wants them. He wouldn’t care about her; he would only care of the power she might represent.
And as for my brother and I?
Well, I’m not too sure about how this will affect us.
Looking back at Chiara, I release all the air from my lungs. She breathes softly against my fingers, her body exhausted from the drugs we’ve injected into her system, and her mind restless as she desperately tries to think of ways to escape.
The corners of my lips twitch.
Now that she’s here, there’s no going back.
Even if Chiara is who we think she is, we’re still not letting go.
She’s too important, too valuable, to ever let her go.
If Chiara truly is a princess, the consequences of our actions will be far more worse than anything Nikolai and I have ever dealt with. The Italians will come for her, that much is clear enough. They will send their best men to find her, and to take her back.
And when they find out our role in this…
My mind races with endless scenarios of how that might play out. Their soldiers can try, can come to our territory and fight, can find Chiara safe and sound here. But they won’t be taking her back. That much I’m sure of.
We will never let her go.
We will always keep her safe.
We will always protect her.
And if anything else is to happen, we will deal with the consequences.
We always do.
When her eyelids twitch, the first sign that she’s waking up, I find my lips stretching into a smile across my face. I lean in slightly, watching the subtle shift in her expression, as she stirs. A small gasp escapes her lips as her eyes finally flutter open, meeting mine.
Fear flashes through her eyes a little, softer now that she’s been here for a while, and a little hesitant too. I see therecognition settle in her features when she realises which twin brother I am, and her lips part open.
I lean in closer to her, my breath warm against her skin. She grows tense, but she doesn’t pull away. Not yet. Her chest rises and falls a little quicker than usual, and she blinks up at me a couple of times.
“Morning, beauty.”
I murmur low, my voice a playful taunt.
She flinches slightly, her body trembling under my touch as I brush my thumb across her rosy cheek. Her eyes remain locked on mine as she swallows hard, her fingers twitching as if she wants to push me away, but can’t quite bring herself to do it.
I give her some time to process the confusion. Her mind must be a fuzzy place to be stuck in, and our mind games are only making things worse for her. My smile transforms into a smirk, knowing that Chiara has nowhere else to go from here.
Suddenly, she scrambles backward as she presses herself against the wall, curling into herself as if she’s just realised how close we are beside one another. Her chest rises and falls with every panicked breath she takes, and I can only watch her, amused at the way she’s reacting, as the dark thrill of control sweeps through me.
A deep chuckle echoes through the quiet room as Chiara tries to make herself even smaller, but there’s no point.
There’s nowhere to hide.
There's nowhere to escape.
Not from me.
Not from Nikolai.