Page 27 of Passion and Revenge

“Your father is going to pay for what he’s done. First will come the anger, the burning desire to find you, but with every dead end, he’ll start to lose hope until he knows he’s lost. He’ll grieve you while knowing you’re alive. His imagination will run wild with what you’re going through.” I chuckle. “I’ll break Ivan D’Addario into tiny, irrecoverable pieces.”

“A—and me?” she asks softly, “What do you plan on doing with me once you’ve gotten the revenge you want?”

We both know I won’t ever let her leave here alive, so I don’t bother responding.

“Welcome to the worst days of your life, Sienna.”

I leave her standing there, wearing a defeated expression. A smile curves my lips as I leave the room and walk through the hallway. Now that I have all my pieces in place, it is time to start the game.

CHAPTER 9

Sienna

Ifeel like Rapunzel, trapped up in this tower with nobody else for company. No wonder the Disney princess resorted to talking to a chameleon. At this point, I’m really wishing for a chameleon of my own.

With an irritated groan, I shut the book I’m reading and toss it away from me. I’m going stir-crazy being trapped inside here with nobody to speak to. It’s been five days since Vin—no—Alessandro walked out of those doors and seemingly disappeared.

Five days of me twiddling my thumb and dreading the day he decides I’m not of any use to him alive after all.

As an artist, I’m used to endless hours where I do nothing but inhale instant noodles and paint, but the monotony was often broken up by phone calls to either my dad or Kat, my rap playlist, or cute cat videos on the internet.

I can’t remember the last time I went more than six hours without talking to either my best friend or father. While I often used to see their constant checkups as being intrusive, it’s the thing I crave most of all.

Never again will I disregard their efforts to reach out to me.

That is if I even survive this. I have to survive this.

I’ve never really thought of death. It has always just been something that is distant. The past few days, I have felt it like a boulder crushing down on my lungs and taunting me.

Will today be the unlucky day?

“If you’re not going to help me, you can at least talk back to me.” I glare at the woman who is pushing a vacuum cleaner around my room.

The woman is five foot nothing with silver hair that’s always tied into a severe bun at the back of her head. She ignores me, as usual.

I’m really starting to suspect Alessandro promised her torture, followed by death, if she ever speaks to me.

Well, today, I’m not taking silence for an answer. I jump out of the bed and move toward her.

“I’m talking to you,” I say.

She jumps, turning around to face me with her eyes saucer wide.

“Did he tell you he’ll kill you if you talked to me?” I demand. “Where is he? What is he paying you to keep your mouth shut? I can pay you double to let me out of here.”

All of the money I got from The Revelation has to be enough to bribe the cleaner into helping me, but she only presses her mouth into a thin line and turns back to her cleaning.

I’ve never been a violent person, so it comes as a shock to me when I see my hands reach for the woman’s shoulders and then yank them to me.

She yelps as I bring her to my face.

“What is wrong with you? Are you so heartless that you don’t care I’ve been kept here against my own will? Is all the money he’s paying you enough to buy your sense of humanity? When I get out of here, I’ll make sure you end up behind bars like your boss.”

For the first time, she speaks. My jaw drops open as gibberish begins to fly out of her mouth, with her gesticulating wildly.

I immediately jump away from her. “What?”

More gibberish that I now realize is Mandarin comes out of her mouth.

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