Chapter 3

The sound of the auctioneer' s voice, the excited whispers of the crowd, the clinking of glasses-it all merged into a meaningless drone. My mind was a blank slate, wiped clean by the sheer, brutal spectacle of it all. I felt nothing. It was as if my heart had finally given up and flatlined.

Without thinking, I followed them. Adler won the "auction," of course. He placed a single, impossibly high bid that no one could match. He didn't look triumphant. He just looked... inevitable. He took Annika by the arm, his grip possessive, and led her away from the gawking crowd, up the grand staircase toward the private suites.

I trailed behind them like a ghost, keeping to the shadows of the hallway. He pushed open the door to a lavish room and pulled her inside. I crept closer, the plush carpet swallowing the sound of my footsteps, until I was standing right outside the partially open door.

"Why are you doing this, Adler?" Annika' s voice was trembling, but there was a current of excitement beneath the fear. "Is this to punish me?"

"Punish you?" Adler' s laugh was low and humorless. "No, Annika. This isn't punishment."

"Then what is it? Do you still love me? Say you still love me."

He was silent for a long moment. When he finally spoke, his voice was a cold caress. "I hate you," he said softly. "But God, I still want you. You crawled back to me, thinking you could play your games again. But the rules have changed. I own you now."

"You were always the one who chased me," she whispered, a challenge in her tone.

"And you were the one who let me catch you," he countered. He moved closer to her, his voice dropping to a raw, intimate growl. "You made me this way. You taught me how to be cruel."

His words were poison, but his actions were a desperate antidote. I watched, paralyzed, as he backed her against the wall. His hands tangled in her hair, pulling her head back, and his mouth crashed down on hers. It wasn't a kiss of love. It was an act of possession, of rage and hunger and a history so toxic it had permanently warped them both.

The sight was obscene. The sounds were worse. The rustle of clothing, the sharp, indrawn breaths, the soft moans. He tore at the back of her dress, the rip of fabric a violent sound in the quiet room.

Then, at the peak of it all, a single, choked sob escaped his lips. A tear traced a path down his cheek.

Annika went still beneath him. "You're crying," she whispered, her voice filled with a strange, victorious wonder.

"Shut up," he commanded, his voice thick and broken.

I couldn't feel my own body. My hand was pressed against the wall, but I couldn't feel the cool plaster. My nails were digging into my palms, but I couldn't feel the sting. I just watched as he finished, his body shuddering with a release that seemed more like agony than pleasure.

He spent hours with her. I stood there, a statue of grief, and watched him take her again and again, as if trying to exorcise her from his soul by embedding her deeper within it. Finally, she passed out from exhaustion. He gently pulled a blanket over her, his touch now tender, his expression full of a sorrow so profound it made my own heartbreak feel insignificant. He looked at her sleeping face with the love and adoration he had never once shown me.

That was the moment I finally broke.

I turned and walked away, my steps mechanical. I navigated the empty hallways of the club and stepped out into the cold night air. The world felt tilted on its axis. I started walking, not knowing or caring where I was going.

The screech of tires was the last thing I heard.

A blinding flash of light, a horrifying crunch of metal and bone, and then... darkness.

I woke to the smell of antiseptic and the steady beeping of a machine. A nurse was leaning over me, her face a blur of professional concern.

"You're very lucky, Miss Preston," she said. "A fractured arm and a severe concussion, but it could have been much worse. We need to get you into surgery to set the bone." She handed me a clipboard. "We need you to sign the consent form. We tried calling your emergency contact, but..."

My emergency contact. Adler. Of course.

With a trembling hand, I took my phone from the plastic bag of my belongings. My vision was blurry. I found his name at the top of my favorites list and pressed call, my thumbprint a final, desperate habit.

It rang twice before a woman answered, her voice sleepy and smug. "Hello?"

It was Annika.

My throat closed up.

"Who is this?" Annika demanded, an edge of irritation in her voice. "Adler's in the shower. Oh, is this Hazel?" she purred, a cruel amusement coloring her tone. "He' s a little... preoccupied right now. He really wore me out last night."

I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe.

"Adler, honey!" she called out, her voice dripping with sweetness. "Your little girlfriend is on the phone. Are you going to talk to her?"

I heard the shower shut off. Adler's voice came on the line, distant and cold. "What is it, Hazel? I'm busy."

"I... I'm in the hospital," I managed to whisper, the words scraping my throat. "I was in an accident. I need surgery."

There was a pause. For a heart-stopping second, I allowed myself to hope.

"Can it wait?" he asked. "Annika isn't feeling well. I need to take care of her."

The beep of the heart monitor beside me seemed to scream in the sudden silence. He was choosing her. Even now. My life was hanging in the balance, and he was choosing her.

"She's my property now, you know," he continued, his voice taking on that possessive growl I'd heard earlier. "I have to make sure my investments are protected."

I heard a soft giggle from Annika in the background, followed by the sound of a kiss.

The line went dead. He had hung up on me.

The nurse was looking at me with pity. "Is there anyone else we can call? A family member?"

"No," I whispered, the word a final surrender. "There's no one."

I took the pen from her. My hand was shaking so badly that my signature was an almost illegible scrawl. A drop of blood from a cut on my hand splattered onto the paper, a crimson seal on the document that signed away my old life.

Then, the darkness swallowed me whole again.