Page 28 of Marked for Life

But the rationalization doesn't stop the warmth that floods my chest when I remember Dante's confession—his willingness to sacrifice his empire for me, the vulnerability in his eyes when he admitted his fear of never being truly loved. God help me, something inside me responded to that. Something broken and reshaped by months of captivity recognized his brokenness as a mirror of my own.

I can't let this happen. I can't become this—a woman who loves her kidnapper, who develops feelings for the man who's systematically stripped away her freedom, her identity, her very sense of self. If I surrender to these emotions, whatever remains of Hannah Brightley will vanish completely, replaced by this hollow vessel who accepts possession as love, control as protection, obsession as devotion.

The decision crystallizes with sudden clarity. I have to leave. Now. Today. Before these feelings solidify, before I lose myself completely in Dante's twisted reality.

I know he's distracted this morning—important business calls, something about territory disputes requiring his personal attention. The guard rotation happens in ten minutes. There's a brief window when the cameras in the east hallway reset during system upgrades—a detail I overheard months ago and filed away, never daring to hope it might be useful.

My movements are deliberate, unhurried as I gather essentials. Nothing obvious—no bag, no change of clothes that might trigger suspicion. Just my body, my wits, and the desperate determination of someone who realizes they're drowning and makes one final push toward the surface.

I approach the door to my suite, heart hammering against my ribs. The biometric lock means I can't leave without Dante, but I've noticed something—when the cleaning staff enters, there's a three-second delay before the lock reengages. If I time it perfectly...

The opportunity comes sooner than expected. A maintenance worker arrives to check the ventilation system—something about ensuring proper air quality for my pregnancy. I sit quietly, feigning disinterest as he works. When he finishes and moves to leave, I rise casually, stretching as if stiff from sitting too long.

"Thank you," I say, following him toward the door at a distance that appears respectful but keeps me within range.

He nods without meeting my eyes—they've all been trained to avoid direct contact since Rivera's death—and opens the door. I count silently. One. Two.

On three, I move, slipping through the gap just before the lock reengages with its soft electronic hum. The maintenance worker is already turning the corner, unaware of my escape. The hallway stretches before me, momentarily empty.

I move quickly but carefully, one hand supporting my belly, the other trailing along the wall for balance. The pregnancy makes stealth difficult, my center of gravity altered by the life growing inside me. But desperation gives me focus, clarity, purpose beyond the confusion of emotions I'm fleeing.

Left at the end of the corridor. Right past the small study. Down the service stairs that should lead to the kitchen area. From there—what? I have no plan beyond putting distance between myself and Dante, between myself and these traitorous feelings threatening to consume whatever remains of my true self.

The staircase looms ahead, empty and dimly lit. I ease the door open, listening for footsteps, for voices, for any sign that my absence has been discovered. Nothing. Just the distant hum of the mansion's systems, the quiet efficiency of Dante's carefully orchestrated world continuing without disruption.

I'm halfway down the stairs when the alarm sounds—not the blaring security breach I expected, but a soft, persistent tonethat seems to emanate from everywhere and nowhere. My blood turns to ice. The tracking chip. Of course. How could I have forgotten the technological tether embedded beneath my skin, connecting my movements directly to Dante's awareness?

Still, I continue downward, desperation overriding logic. Maybe I can find something to cut it out. Maybe there's still a chance if I move quickly enough, if I?—

"Hannah."

His voice stops me like a physical barrier. Dante stands at the bottom of the stairs, his expression a complex mixture of rage and something that might almost be hurt in anyone else. Behind him, Marco and two other security personnel block the exit, their faces impassive, their postures alert.

"Come here," Dante says, extending his hand. The gesture appears gentle, an offer rather than a command, but we both know what will happen if I refuse.

I remain frozen, one hand clutched around the railing, the other pressed against my belly where our son has gone quiet, as if sensing the danger crackling in the air between his parents.

"Now, Hannah." Steel enters Dante's voice, that dangerous softness that precedes his most extreme punishments, his most absolute demonstrations of ownership.

My legs carry me downward of their own accord, conditioned by months of captivity to respond to that tone regardless of my conscious intentions. When I reach the bottom step, Dante's hand closes around my upper arm—not painfully, but with unmistakable possession, with the absolute certainty that what he's claimed can never truly escape.

"Why?" he asks, the single word loaded with emotion I rarely hear from him—genuine confusion, as if my attempt to flee makes no sense after the connection we've established, after my admission of feeling something beyond fear and resignation.

"I can't," I whisper, unable to articulate the horror of my developing feelings, the terror of losing myself completely in his twisted version of love. "I can't become this. I can't feel this. I can't?—"

Understanding dawns in his expression, followed immediately by something darker, more possessive, more absolute in its certainty. "You're afraid of your feelings for me," he says, not a question but a statement of fact that strips away my defenses, exposes the raw truth I've been hiding even from myself. "You're running from us, not from me."

The accuracy of his assessment leaves me speechless, breathless, defenseless against the knowing look in his eyes. How can he understand me so completely when I barely understand myself? How can he read my emotions with such precision when I've tried so hard to conceal them?

"Come," he says, turning me toward a corridor I've never seen before, one that branches away from the main hallway into an older part of the mansion. His hand remains firm on my arm, his body close enough that I can feel the heat radiating from him, smell the familiar scent that once terrified me but now triggers a complex mixture of fear and something dangerously close to comfort.

We descend further into the mansion, past ornate doors and ancient tapestries, into sections I never knew existed despite nearly a year of captivity. The architecture changes—stone replacing marble, wood darkened with age, ceilings lower and more oppressive with each turn of the corridor.

"Where are you taking me?" I ask, voice small in the enclosed space, in the pressing weight of stone and history and Dante's unwavering possession.

"Somewhere safe," he replies, his thumb absently stroking the inside of my wrist in that possessive gesture that has become so familiar I barely notice it anymore. "Somewhere you can'thurt yourself by running. Somewhere you can process these feelings you're so desperate to escape."

We stop before a heavy wooden door reinforced with iron bands, ancient-looking but clearly maintained with meticulous care. Dante produces a key—not electronic, not biometric, but an actual metal key that looks like it belongs in a museum rather than a functional lock in this century.

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