Page 146 of Gilded Cage (Kovalyov Bratva 1)

But it’s not just a figment of my imagination.

It’s real pain.

I grab the banister of the staircase and stagger my way back to the bedroom. My stomach twists like I’m going to vomit, but there’s nothing in there to come out.

Another lurch of agony. Sharp. Brutal. Sudden.

I trip. Try to grab the side table, but my aim is off and instead, I knock off a vase of flowers. It crashes to the floor like a peal of thunder.

Shards scatter across the hardwood. My vision is blurring, darkening at the edges.

The pain is everywhere. Head to toe, heart and soul. So much of it.

The door behind me opens. I gasp again, turn, and see Artem standing on the landing.

He looks at me with concern that I no longer believe.

His dark eyes are merely a pretense, a facade I couldn’t see past because of my romantic, naïve fantasy of who I thought he was.

He’s not a special kind of monster. He’s not the beast who will protect me, like he said he was.

He’s just a nightmare come to life.

He reaches for me. “Esme!” he says, panicked.

I shake my head frantically and try to scramble back away from him.

But the pain twists my vision until all I can see is spots of light floating in front of my eyes, bathing everything in strange, confusing stripes.

It feels like I’m falling.

Maybe I am falling, but I don’t care anymore.

The light fades into darkness.

The world slides out of focus.

I’m left alone with only my memories for company.

* * *

Many Years Earlier

“Esme?”

“I’m not talking to you, Cesar!” I pout, turning my back to him.

He chuckles under his breath as he runs up to me. “Are you mad at me?”

“Yes!” I spit like a little brat.

“Why?”

“You told me you’d take me to Tulum with you.”

“I tried, little bird—”

“I’m not a little bird!” I snap at him. “And you promised!”

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