Chapter 2

Ila POV:

The fire alarm was a screeching symphony of chaos, and it was my escape. While nurses and security guards scrambled to contain the blaze I' d started, I slipped out of the hospital suite, a ghost in a borrowed gown. The smoke was my shield, the panic my cover.

I found a payphone in a deserted corner of the hospital lobby, the plastic receiver cool and solid in my trembling hand. My fingers, clumsy from disuse, fumbled with the coins. There was only one person in the world who could help me now. One person whose promise was a lifeline in this raging sea of betrayal.

The line connected after a single ring, cutting through the static of an intercontinental call.

"Dario," I breathed, my voice a raw whisper.

"Ila?" His voice was a deep, rich baritone, instantly recognizable even after five years. It held a warmth that I hadn't realized I'd been starving for. "Is that really you?"

"It's me," I said, tears I didn't know I had left beginning to well. "Dario... you once told me that if I ever needed anything, if I ever wanted to come back... you said the door to Milan would always be open. Does that promise still stand?"

There was no hesitation. "For you, Ila? Always. My god, I have missed the sound of your voice." The raw emotion in his words was a stark contrast to the cold pragmatism I' d heard from Jaxon. "What's happened? Are you alright?"

"No," I said, the single word a testament to the wreckage of my life. "My situation... it's complicated. My identity has been... compromised. It will take time to get the proper paperwork, to disappear from here."

"I have people who can handle that. Don't worry about the details," he said, his tone shifting, becoming sharper, more commanding. This was the Dario I remembered, the fashion mogul whose influence spanned continents. "The only thing that matters is getting you out safely. Jaxon Kent is a powerful man, and a possessive one. He won't let you go easily."

The accuracy of his statement sent a chill down my spine. "I know. That's why... that's why I need to die."

The line went silent for a beat. "Ila, what are you saying?"

"A fire. An accident. A body burned beyond recognition," I explained, the plan forming in my mind with chilling clarity. "It's the only way he'll stop looking for me. It's the only way I can truly be free."

Before Dario could respond, a pair of strong arms wrapped around me from behind, pulling me into a hard, desperate embrace. The scent of smoke and expensive cologne filled my senses.

"Ila." Jaxon's voice was a ragged sob against my hair. "Thank god. I thought I'd lost you. I thought you were in there..."

His body trembled against mine, his grip so tight it was almost painful. He was holding me as if I were the most precious thing in the world, a treasure he had almost let slip through his fingers.

Mark, Jaxon' s friend, appeared at his side, his face pale and smudged with soot. "He was a madman, Ila," Mark said, his voice shaking. "He ran back into the flames, screaming your name. He wouldn't leave until the firefighters dragged him out."

I looked at Jaxon then. Really looked at him for the first time with my own eyes in five years. His tailored suit was scorched, his hair singed at the tips. Angry red burns blistered the back of his hands and neck. He looked exhausted, terrified, and so deeply, achingly in love with me that it almost made me forget the words I' d overheard.

Almost.

How could this man, who ran into a burning building for me, be the same man who condemned me to a life of darkness? How could this desperate, trembling love coexist with such a cold, calculated betrayal? The contradiction was a dizzying, nauseating puzzle. My heart, a stupid, traitorous organ, ached with a phantom pain for his injuries.

Just as I felt myself wavering, a soft, timid voice cut through the air.

"Jaxon?"

It was Kamila. She stood a few feet away, her hand resting protectively on her swollen belly. She looked like a ghost of me-the same dark hair, the same delicate features, but her eyes... her eyes were different. They held none of the fire, none of the passion Jaxon had once claimed to love in mine. They were soft, placid, and utterly calculating.

Jaxon' s body went rigid. He slowly released me, the warmth of his embrace vanishing as if it had never been there. He took a half-step toward her, creating a physical and symbolic distance between us.

"Kamila, you shouldn't be here," he said, his voice strained. He turned back to me, his eyes pleading. "She' s just... a helper. A new staff member."

A helper. The lie was so blatant, so insulting, it was almost laughable.

Kamila' s lower lip trembled. She looked at me, then at Jaxon, and began to make a series of small, intricate movements with her hands. Sign language. My blood ran cold. It was a private language Jaxon had created for me in the first year of my blindness, a way for us to communicate intimately in a crowded room.

He was using our language with her.

His own hands moved in response, his gestures gentle, reassuring. I didn't need to be fluent to understand the meaning. He was telling her not to worry. He was telling her everything was okay.

He then looked at her stomach, a genuine, breathtakingly soft smile touching his lips. He signed again, a question.

Kamila beamed, her whole face lighting up. She signed back, a flurry of excited movements. Then, her voice filled the silence, sweet and melodic. "He's kicking! Jaxon, he's kicking!" She looked down at her belly. "We should call him 'Leo'. After your grandfather. And if it's a girl... maybe 'Hope'?"

Leo. Hope. The names we had chosen together. The names for the child I had lost.

The memory ripped through me, raw and brutal. Three years ago. A slip on the icy steps of the villa. The sharp, cramping pain. The blood. Jaxon had been on a business trip, and the staff, under his strict orders not to disturb him, hadn't called a doctor for hours. By the time they did, it was too late. I had miscarried our baby, alone in that cold, empty castle. Jaxon had returned a week later, his grief overshadowed by a strange, detached pragmatism. "We can try again, Ila," he'd said, as if we'd simply lost a set of keys.

Now, here he was, radiant with joy over a child with my replacement, using the names we had picked for our lost baby.

The last vestiges of my foolish, lingering love withered and died. The ache in my heart was gone, replaced by a hollow, echoing void. He wasn't complicated. He wasn't torn. He was simply a man who had moved on. His love, once a blazing inferno that I had centered my life around, was now a gentle, domestic hearth warming another woman' s home.

And I was left out in the cold.

"Ila," Jaxon said, turning back to me, his face a mask of earnest concern. "Let's get you back to your room. You need to rest. I' ve arranged for a new helper, a nutritionist, to look after you. This is Kamila."

Kamila gave a small, deferential bow of her head. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kline."

Miss Kline. Not Mrs. Kent-to-be. Not Ila. The demotion was subtle, but clear.

Jaxon draped his scorched jacket over my shoulders. The gesture, which once would have felt like a loving embrace, now felt like a shroud. He guided me away, his arm around my waist, while his other hand reached back, his fingers intertwining with Kamila's.

I saw it all. I saw him lead her to a private kitchenette, his movements full of a gentle domesticity I had never witnessed. He, who had a team of personal chefs, was now carefully washing vegetables for her.

"Just a light soup," he murmured to her, his voice a low, intimate rumble. "Good for you and the baby."

He fussed over her, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear, his touch lingering on her cheek. He treated her not like a priceless work of art to be admired from a distance, as he had with me, but like a comfortable, cherished part of his everyday life.

He brought a bowl of soup to me, the aroma rich and savory. "Here, Ila. You need to eat."

I took the bowl, my fingers numb. I watched as he fed Kamila a spoonful of his own, blowing on it first to cool it down, his eyes filled with a doting fondness that was a knife in my gut.

I drank the soup. It tasted of ash. My eyes were dry. My heart was a stone in my chest.

It was over. He loved her. He truly, deeply loved her.

And in that moment, I knew that faking my death wasn't enough. I had to utterly and completely annihilate the woman he thought I was, so I could finally become the woman I was meant to be.

The war had just begun.

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