Chapter 5
It was dinner time, and Jasmine sat at the head table, her porcelain smile plastered on as she sipped her soup. A second later, she clutched her throat.
strangled sound escaped her lips – a gag – then she bent forward, retching onto the tablecloth. The music cut off. Gasps and muffled shrieks rose like a wave.
Scott bolted to her side, gripping her shoulders as more guests around them started coughing, gagging, some dropping to their knees. The smell of vomit and panic filled the
room.
“Help! Somebody call a doctor!” Scott roared. He turned on me, eyes bloodshot with rage. “Nadine! What did you do?!”
I stumbled back, shaking my head. “I–I don’t know! I didn’t-”
“You think this is funny?” Scott shouted, spit flying. “Is this about the vase? Or our anniversary? Or that I gave her a banquet? Is that it, Nadine?!”
“No!” I cried. “I didn’t do this!”
He advanced, fists clenched. “Liar!”
I looked for help, for someone to speak up but all I found was Condor, Jasmine’s precious little brother, shoving his way through the crowd. His eyes were wild, veins pulsing in his neck.
“You hurt my sister!” he spat. “She’s not even recovered yet, and you poison her?” He raised his hand and struck me across the face, once, twice – each slap louder than the next.
–
Scott didn’t flinch. He didn’t even look away. He just stood there, watching my humiliation as the guests whispered and stared.
“That’s her! She was the one who did this,” he bellowed to the crowd. “She did this out of spite! Take her – bring her to the police now!”
Rough hands grabbed my arms. I struggled, sobbing, but no one cared.
–
Scott’s fist smashed into my stomach so hard I couldn’t breathe my vision went dark at the edges. The last thing I heard was Jasmine’s delicate cry: “Don’t hurt her too much, Scott… she’s still my friend.”
The cell was freezing. My side throbbed from where Scott had punched me. I pressed my forehead against the cold wall, whispering for help, but no one came. My lips were cracked, my throat raw.
I didn’t even know how many hours had passed when I crawled to the bars and begged the guard. “Please… please, let me talk to someone. Please…”
“Shut up,” he snapped.
–
I slumped to the floor. Maybe this was it. Maybe this was how I’d finally disappear – not in freedom, but in some moldy cell they’d leave me to rot in.
Then a voice sliced through the shadows.
–
11:40 Wed, 23 Jul 7 “Open it.”
3,40%
Footsteps. A familiar smell pine and cologne and something that reminded me of home.
“Sir, you can’t-”
“I said open this fucking door!” The voice thundered.
The bars rattled. Light spilled inside. And then strong arms wrapped around me, lifted me off the dirty floor as if I weighed nothing.
Niccolo.
1 blinked through the haze. His eyes were dark, furious, burning holes into the guard. “How dare you touch her like this? Do you know who she is? She is my future wife! You will all pay for this.”
He pulled me against his chest. I wanted to protest, to tell him I wasn’t worth this, but all that came out was a sob.
“I’m sorry,” I rasped. “I’m so sorry, Nicco…”
He kissed the top of my head. “You have nothing to be sorry for, Nadine. I’m here now. No one will ever hurt you again. Do you understand me?”
I clung to him like I was drowning – maybe I was. “Please… take me home. Please.”
“I will,” he promised. “I’ll take you so far away from all this that you’ll never even remember their names.”
He carried me out of that cell, down the cold corridor, out into the night air where a sleek car waited to take us to the plane.
The last thing I saw of that prison was its rusted gates slamming shut behind me coffin sealing up the girl I used to be.
–
