Page 74 of Ivory Obsession

But before I had finished organizing my thoughts, a knock—sharp and unexpected—pierced through my muddled thoughts. Curiosity peaked, laced with annoyance at the disruption. I glanced up at the clock on my nightstand.

It was nearly midnight.

Who could it be at this hour?

I hoped everything was okay. I was already wearing my pajamas and slippers, my hair a messy tumble of curls against my neck. I stood up, crossing the room to see through the peephole. My heart stuttered in my chest when I recognized the figure standing there. Dante.

All the oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the room. I could feel my pulse quicken and a wave of dizziness threatening as his silhouette blurred then sharpened once more in my view. The edges of my vision danced with the threat of panic, but I took slow, deep breaths, reminding myself that this was Dante. He was complicated, yes, and dangerous in ways I was still discovering, but he was not a threat to me.

“Dante?” I asked, opening the door a crack. He looked out of place in my apartment corridor, his tailored suit gleaming under the dim lights, his chiseled features hardened by a taut expression.

His jaw clenched at the sight of me, his pained expression a stark contrast to his usual confident demeanor. He looked even more handsome under the low light, if that was even possible.

His face was drained of color; the jovial mischief I’d grown accustomed to was nowhere in sight. Dante’s eyes were clouded with urgency. His chest rose and fell heavily, as if he’d been running.

“Jade,” he began, but his voice caught in his throat as if the words were too painful to form. He fumbled for composure, raking his fingers through his hair.

“I need...” he started again, swallowing hard. I watched, my heart pounding against my ribcage like a wild animal defending its territory.

I knew I should tell him to go away. There was no reason for him to be here. And yet he looked so upset…

“Dante, are you okay?” I asked tentatively, opening the door wider. The concern in my voice was genuine, this was nothing like him.

Dante glanced behind him before stepping inside, his movements shaky. His usually confident demeanor replaced by a palpable unease. “I need...to tell you something,” he finally managed to say, fixing me with a look that sent a chill down my spine.

“Alright.” My throat tightened as I closed the door behind him and led him to the living room. Our relationship was anything but ordinary, yet this felt different, it felt loaded and potentially life-altering. My heart pounded in my chest as we both took a seat.

Dante’s fingers drummed restlessly against his knee, his gaze darting around my apartment. “I’m going to show you a picture on my phone,” he said. “It’s not going to make a lot of sense, but I’m going to explain it. You can ask me any questions you want, but all I ask is that you let me finish explaining before you ask me any questions. Is that okay?”

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat, my curiosity piqued by his strange behavior and cryptic words. His hand slipped into his pocket, pulling out a sleek, black phone. What could possibly be on that phone that was causing him so much distress?

He showed me a picture of a newspaper clipping. My name was on it. My picture was on it. I read it a couple of times, unable to make sense of it. It seemed to be an obituary for me. But I was alive.

Very much alive, and very much pregnant.

My heart throbbed in my chest. My hands felt like ice blocks. My mind spun with impossible thoughts.

“I... What is this, Dante?” I asked, voice trembling. “What’s going on?”

He took a deep breath, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the phone a little tighter. “Jade...it’s a long story, but the short version is, I have a lot of powerful enemies and one of them found out we were seeing each other. Don’t worry. I’m going to take care of him. You won’t have to worry about this. But in case someone sends this to you on social media or something, you should know so you can play it off as a prank.”

“A prank,” I said, my voice a whisper.

Dante nodded, the tension in his face easing slightly. “Yes, Jade. A prank,” he reiterated. “My family’s criminal empire extends far beyond what you see at face value, and unfortunately... you’re caught in the middle.”

A soft sigh escaped my lips as I handed his phone back to him. I didn’t speak for several moments, letting the silence stretch between us.

He cleared his throat. “Do you have any questions for me?” he asked.

My mind was a whirlwind of confusion and fear, with questions echoing like a broken record in my consciousness. There were the obvious ones, like ‘How could you let this happen?’ or ‘Why didn’t you tell me sooner?’ But those weren’t the questions that scared me. The ones that truly terrified me were along the lines of ‘Who wants to kill me?’ and ‘Am I going to die?’

“Are they going to kill me?” I finally asked.

Dante’s expression darkened. “No. I would never let anything happen to you.”

“How can you know that?”

“What do you mean?” he asked. “I’ll kill them first.”

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