Chapter 12: The Pulse of Obsession

The echo of my heels clattered against the marble floor as I stepped into the penthouse Nico locked me in. The air was too clean. The walls too silent. But inside me, chaos rioted like a warzone.

He didn't speak when he entered. He never did when he was brooding. The gun on his waistband still had that faint metallic scent I hated but couldn't ignore.

"You're mad?" I asked, voice low, watching his back as he peeled off his coat. That silence again. He didn't even look at me.

He hated when I questioned. I should've learned by now.

"I'm not your prisoner, Nico."

The laugh that came from him wasn't a laugh—it was venom curling out of his throat.

"You married me, Bianca. I didn't force the ring on you."

"No, you just wore a different face. Different name. You tricked me."

He turned. Finally. That cold, slow smirk painted his lips like blood drawn too carefully. "And yet here you are, still wearing the ring."

I threw the glass in my hand, not aiming to hurt. Just aiming to scream through something.

It shattered behind him. He didn't even flinch.

"You think you love me," he said, walking closer, slow, deliberate, that same predator's pace I saw in the alleys of Berlin when I first met him.

"No, Nico," I whispered. "I do love you. And that's what scares the hell out of me."

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