Chapter 3

Erica POV:

The following week was a blur of quiet grief and cold, methodical planning. I arranged for Nana's cremation, her ashes placed in a simple silver locket that I hung around my neck. It felt cool and solid against my skin, a tangible piece of the only unconditional love I had ever known.

I stood before her niche in the columbarium, tracing her name etched into the marble. "He's not a good boy, Nana," I whispered, my voice thick. "But don't you worry. They're going to pay. I promise you, they will all pay."

The hardest part was returning to the apartment-our apartment. The beautiful SoHo loft that Anthony had insisted on buying, a place filled with three years of manufactured memories. As I stood outside the door, fumbling for my key, I heard it. Laughter. A woman's high, tinkling laugh, interwoven with the deeper baritones of Anthony and Emmanuel.

It was so jarring, so utterly disrespectful, it felt like a physical blow. My grief, which had been a quiet, heavy cloak, ignited into white-hot rage.

Before I could retreat, the door swung open. It was Anthony. His smile faded when he saw me, replaced by a flicker of annoyance.

"Erica," he said, his tone flat. "You're back."

He stepped aside, a silent command for me to enter. My feet felt like lead, but I forced myself to walk into the lion' s den.

There, sitting on my sofa, nestled between Emmanuel and a pile of wedding magazines, was Bianca House. She looked up, her doll-like face arranged into an expression of sweet concern. Emmanuel' s arm was draped possessively over the back of the couch, his fingers just inches from her shoulder.

At the sight of her, a violent tremor ran through me. It was involuntary, a primal reaction of prey sensing its predator. The dark closet, the sneering laughter, the sharp kick to my ribs-it all came rushing back.

"Erica, honey, you're shaking," Bianca said, her voice dripping with false sympathy as she glided towards me. She was even more beautiful than I remembered, her beauty a weapon she wielded with expert precision. "We were so worried about you."

She reached out to touch my arm, and as her fingers brushed my skin, she leaned in close, her breath a poisonous whisper in my ear. "Still the same pathetic, trembling little mouse, aren't you?"

The words were a direct quote from one of her tormenting tirades in college.

Instinct took over. I flinched back, shoving her away from me. It wasn't a hard push, more a reflexive recoil, but Bianca was a master of theatre. She stumbled backward with a dramatic gasp, her hand flying to her chest as if I had struck her.

"Erica!" she cried, her eyes welling with crocodile tears. "I was just trying to comfort you!"

The change in the room was instantaneous. The casual amusement vanished from the twins' faces, replaced by twin masks of cold fury.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Anthony snarled, stepping between us to shield Bianca. He looked at me as if I were a piece of filth he'd found on his shoe. "Apologize to her. Now."

"For every tear Bianca shed because of that bitch. This is justice." His words from the club echoed in my mind. This was the performance. This was the righteous anger he felt for his delicate, victimized love.

The pain was so sharp, so absolute, it was almost clarifying. I said nothing. I just turned to leave. I couldn't breathe in this space, suffocated by lies and the ghosts of my past.

"Where do you think you're going?" Anthony grabbed my arm, his grip like iron. It was the first time he had ever laid a hand on me in anger, and the shock of it was as painful as the pressure on my bones.

"She needs to be taught a lesson, Anthony," Emmanuel said, his eyes glittering with a cruel light. "She's getting a little too big for her working-class britches."

"You're right," Anthony agreed, his voice dropping to a dangerously low register. "She's been coddled for too long. It's time for some discipline."

My heart hammered against my ribs. He began to drag me across the living room, past the open-concept kitchen, down a short hallway I rarely used.

"Anthony, what are you doing?" I struggled against his grip, but he was immovable.

He stopped in front of a small, unmarked door. A storage closet. He unlocked it and threw it open, revealing a small, windowless space, pitch black inside.

He shoved me in.

"No!" The scream was ripped from my throat as I scrambled back, my old phobia rising like bile. "No, please, Anthony, don't!"

The darkness, the confinement-it was a perfect replica of the torment Bianca had inflicted on me years ago.

He knew. He knew about the closet in college, the panic attacks, the years of therapy it took for me to be able to ride an elevator without hyperventilating. The man who had held me through my nightmares, who had promised to be my light in the darkness, was now using that very darkness as a cage.

"You'll stay in here until you learn to respect Bianca," he said, his voice cold and final from the other side of the door. "Think of it as punishment for a crime you didn't commit." His words were a chilling echo of our first conversation about her, twisted into a new, monstrous meaning.

The lock clicked shut.

Absolute darkness. Absolute silence.

"Anthony!" I screamed, beating my fists against the heavy wood until my knuckles were raw. "Let me out! Please!"

Only the faint sound of Bianca's concerned cooing and the brothers' soothing murmurs answered me.

I slid down the door, curling into a tight ball on the floor, my body shaking uncontrollably. Every tender moment, every whispered promise, every gentle touch replayed in my mind, now tainted and grotesque. All of it had been a lie. A performance. He had collected my vulnerabilities like treasured secrets, not to protect me, but to find the most effective way to break me.

This closet wasn't just a punishment. It was a custom-made hell, designed with intimate, loving knowledge of my deepest fears. And as I sat there, suffocating in the dark, I finally understood. This wasn't just revenge. This was annihilation.