Chapter 2

Harper POV

I returned to the main villa and headed straight for my office. It was the only room in the house that felt remotely like mine, though I knew better now; it was just another cell, gilded and locked.

I threw the bolt on the door.

My heart hammered against my ribs, beating a slow, heavy rhythm of war.

I sat at my computer and launched a secure browser.

I had been the architect of the Crosby empire's legitimate face for years. I knew their systems. I knew their backdoors.

I typed a request to the dark web contact I had unearthed months ago-a ghost in the machine.

Subject: Protocol Erasure.

Target: Harper Cline.

Execution Window: 10 Days.

I hit send, my finger trembling slightly.

Then, I switched gears, opening the application for the Paris Architectural Competition.

I uploaded the portfolio I had created in secret, stolen moments late at night, training my left hand until the cramps made me weep.

The designs weren't the perfect lines and rigid structures of my old work.

They were fluid. They were raw. They were angry.

I submitted them under the alias Aria Reed.

Aria meant air. It meant song. It meant something Bennet couldn't touch, couldn't cage.

I closed the laptop just as the front door slammed downstairs, the sound echoing like a gunshot.

"Harper!"

Bennet's voice thundered through the marble hallway. It was the roar of a lion hunting for its stray cub.

I checked my phone. Fifteen missed calls lit up the screen.

I inhaled shakily, smoothing my expression into the perfect mask of the fragile, submissive wife.

I unlocked my office door and stepped out onto the landing.

Bennet was charging up the stairs, his eyes wild with a manic energy. When he saw me, he froze.

His chest heaved.

"Where were you?" he demanded, his voice tight. "I called you. You didn't answer."

"I went for a drive, Bennet," I said softly, keeping my posture non-threatening. "To clear my head. It is our anniversary, after all."

He closed the distance between us in two long strides.

He seized my shoulders, his grip punishing. "Don't ever do that again," he hissed, his face inches from mine. "You answer me. You are mine. You don't disappear."

He pulled me roughly into his chest.

I smelled his cologne-sandalwood and metallic blood. And beneath it all, the faint, sickly sweet cloy of Gianna's perfume.

I didn't flinch.

"I am here, Bennet," I lied against his shirt.

He pulled back, his gaze scouring my face, searching for cracks in the porcelain.

He found none.

His expression softened, the shift from monster to lover terrifyingly seamless.

"I have a surprise," he said, his voice dropping to a caress. "Get your coat."

He led me to the helipad on the roof.

The chopper blades sliced through the night air, deafening and violent.

We flew over the city, the glittering lights of New York fading into the suffocating darkness of the countryside.

Bennet held my scarred right hand the entire time, his thumb rubbing obsessively over the disfigured knuckles.

It used to feel like comfort. Now, it felt like he was checking the integrity of a lock.

We landed on a massive estate I had never seen before.

It was a modern fortress of stone and glass, perched precariously on a cliff edge.

"Harper's Haven," Bennet announced over the headset, pride swelling in his tone. "I built it for you."

We walked into the grand foyer. It was empty, cold, and magnificent-a mausoleum waiting for its queen.

Bennet turned to me and pulled a velvet box from his pocket.

He opened it.

Inside sat a diamond the size of a quail's egg, glittering under the harsh recessed lighting.

"Marry me again," he said, his eyes burning with intensity. "Renew our vows. Let me take care of you forever."

The irony clawed at my throat, almost making me laugh.

He wanted to renew vows to a woman he wasn't legally married to.

He took the ring and slid it onto my finger. It felt heavy, like a shackle.

"It is beautiful," I whispered.

"It is more than beautiful," Bennet said, gripping my hand. "It has a military-grade GPS tracker embedded within the setting. If you are ever taken, I will find you. If you ever get lost, I will bring you home."

He kissed my forehead, a benediction and a threat.

"You will never leave me, Harper."

Before I could answer, his phone buzzed against his hip.

A specific ringtone. Two short, sharp chimes.

Bennet stiffened instantly.

He pulled away, checking the screen.

"I have to go," he said abruptly, the romantic facade dropping. "Syndicate business. A shipment issue at the docks."

"On our anniversary?" I asked, injecting just enough tremor into my voice to sell the disappointment.

"I am doing this for us," he said, already walking toward the door, his focus gone. "Stay here. Explore your new home. I will be back by morning."

He left me standing alone in my multi-million dollar cage.

I watched through the glass as the helicopter lifted off.

He wasn't going to the docks.

He was going to her.