Page 111 of Born in Depravity

I looked at the concrete ground beneath me. I wondered if Roberto was okay. No one should know he helped me, but should Father find out …

I didn’t want to think about what would happen to him. I didn’t want anything to happen to him. And I wondered if he knew I never made it to California like we’d planned.

His helping me escape had all been for naught, yet if I hadn’t left and ended up in this prison, I would have been on my way to marry Henry Ramos, a man twice my age.

As if I’d conjured him up just thinking about him, I found my eyes trained on the side profile of a man who looked just like him. I focused on the man, thinking my eyes were probably playing tricks on me, but then he turned fully.

Our eyes met, and even from a distance, I knew he recognized me.

I stumbled back a step.

It was Henry Ramos.

But what was he doing here? I thought he was one of Father’s men, and if not, then an associate.

Damien, Mikhail, and Nikolay hated my father. That was the reason they had taken me.

To start a war.

But Henry was here.

My heart raced in fear as I thought about what he had done to me.

I don’t want to break in my new wife, Angelo. I want one who’s already broken.

“Princess?” Nikolay asked, bringing my focus back to reality.

I turned to him, and the fear must have still been present in my eyes, because he wrapped his arms around me and looked at where Henry had been standing. He wasn’t there anymore.

Had I imagined him?

“What’s wrong?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. Just because I was comfortable speaking to Mikhail, didn’t mean I could with Nikolay.

I shook my head, moving closer to him.

I buried my face in his chest and felt him tighten his arms around me for a fraction. I wondered if he was even aware he was doing it. If he even knew he was offering me comfort and protection, when everything about him before had been wild and careless and explosive.

I wondered if he realized he was changing.

Or perhaps it was me who was changing.

Finding these monsters to not be as terrible as they tried so hard to convince me they were.

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