Page 68 of Revenge & Ruin

I glance down at my wrist and the handcuff that is wrapped around it. I tug against it again for good measure, but it’s locked onto the bar of my hospital bed.

What the hell happened?

Thankfully, I don’t have to wait too long for an answer.

There’s movement behind the door opposite me, and I brace myself for a doctor or a cop, who will undoubtedly start asking questions.

But when the door opens, neither walks through.

“You’re awake,” Teo Vitale says, entirely unalarmed by the situation.

I gape at him. “What did you do to me?”

“Ididn’t do anything,” he nods at the drip still attached to my arm. “Youtook enough tranquilizer to kill a bear.”

I begin to retort, but my memories return to me like a burst damn. The Candelabra,Teo talking me to a secluded corner, slipping the contents of my mother’s vial into his champagne, flirting. Needing him to follow me out of there.

Except…

It all begins to blur after he puts his hand on my thigh.

“What,” I hiss, tears already forming in my eyes, “did you do?”

“I switched the glasses,” he replies softly, barely moving an inch. “You drank and began to flirt with me. You were already falling asleep before anything happened, so I picked you up and walked you out to avoid suspicion.”

“You expect me to trust your word?”

He points to the TV screen hanging on the wall. “No. But you can rewatch the CCTV footage if you’d like.” He waves a remote at me for good measure.

My hands are still shaking when I ask. “Then what?”

“You collapsed before we reached my car. I was going to take you straight to the hospital, but luckily, Mia called our medic out to come to treat you. He performed CPR on you right there in the parking lot.”

Something cool drips down my spine. “What…do you mean?”

“You died, Isabella. Twice.”

His words are like a stone smashing through glass bottles. Each rattles the earth as they shatter to the floor.

No. I can’t believe it, I won’t believe it.

She said it would incapacitate him, notkillhim.

But it had almost killed me.

How could she? Howcouldshe?

The tears fall freely. Because I’m angry and I’m terrified. Because Teo switched the glasses and betrayed me, even though I was going to do the same thing to him. Because my mother told me no one would get hurt.

And yet here I am, in a hospital bed.

As my tears fall, Teo doesn’t move. Like some kind of frozen guardian, he waits for me to finish,perfectly content to wait and watch forever.

I don’t know how long it takes until I have my breathing under control again.

“Where am I?”

He blinks as if waking up from a wide-eyed slumber. “Safe.”

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