I woke up in a room that wasn't mine.
The walls were painted a pale, suffocating beige that seemed to close in on me. My vanity, usually cluttered with crystal perfume bottles and silver-handled brushes, was stripped bare. The wedding photo that always sat on the nightstand—Dante lifting my veil with a look of reverence—was gone.
In its place was a framed picture of Dante and Sofia. They were sitting on a garden bench, smiling. It looked old. It looked terrifyingly real.
My head throbbed with a dull, rhythmic ache. My mind felt like shattered glass that had been glued back together in the wrong order, reflecting a distorted reality I couldn't recognize.
The door clicked opened.
Dante walked in. He was dressed in a charcoal suit, impeccable, dangerous. He smelled of dark espresso and raw, unchecked power.
"You're awake," he stated, his voice devoid of warmth.
I sat up, clutching the sheets to my chest. I didn't know how to look at him. My brain told me he was my husband, but my gut screamed that he was my torturer.
"Where are my things?" I asked. My voice was raspy, scraped raw from silence.
"Sofia is fragile," Dante said, adjusting his cufflinks with precise, deliberate movements. "Seeing your belongings... it triggers her PTSD. She remembers you packing her bags the night she was taken. She needs to feel at home here. This was her home first, Elena."
"I didn't pack her bags," I whispered, the memory hazy but the conviction strong. "I was six years old."
Dante sighed. It was a sound of clinical impatience. "The therapy takes time. Your denial is deep-rooted."
He walked to the bed and towered over me. He didn't touch me. He looked at me like a problem to be solved, a calculation that hadn't balanced out.
"Get dressed," he ordered. "You have chores."
"Chores?"
"You need to learn humility. You need to reconnect with the reality of your actions. You will tend to the kennels today."
The air left my lungs.
Dante knew. He knew better than anyone. When I was eight, a rival family's guard dog had torn my calf open. I still had the jagged, silvery scars. I couldn't be near big dogs without my throat closing up.
"Dante, no," I pleaded, my hands shaking violently. "Please. Anything else. I'll scrub the floors. I'll clean the kitchens until my hands bleed. Don't make me go near them."
"Fear is a lack of discipline," he said coldly. "The Cane Corsos are family. You will learn to respect them, just as you will learn to respect your sister."
He grabbed my wrist with a grip like iron and pulled me out of bed.
Ten minutes later, I was standing in the gravel run of the estate's kennels. The smell of musk and raw meat hung heavy in the damp air.
Three massive Cane Corsos paced the fence. They were muscle and teeth, bred to kill on command.
Sofia was there. She was wearing a white sundress, looking like an angel descended into hell. She stood safely behind the gate.
"They're hungry, Elena," she chirped, her voice sickeningly sweet. She held out a bucket of raw meat. "Dante says you have to feed them by hand."
Dante stood on the porch, watching. His arms were crossed. He was the judge, and this was my sentence.
I took the bucket. My hands were trembling so hard the handle rattled against the plastic.
I stepped into the enclosure.
The alpha male, Brutus, growled. It was a low, rumbling sound that vibrated deep in my chest.
"Good boy," I whispered, tears blurring my vision. "Good boy."
"He smells your fear," Sofia called out. "Stop being such a coward. It's embarrassing."
She picked up a stone from the path.
Before I could react, she hurled it. It hit Brutus square on the flank with a sickening thud.
The dog snapped.
He didn't look at Sofia. He looked at the trembling prey in front of him.
He lunged.
I screamed, throwing my arms up to protect my face. Jaws clamped onto my forearm. Teeth sank into flesh. The pain was white-hot and immediate, searing through my nerves.
"Help!" I shrieked. "Dante!"
I fell backward into the dirt. The dog was shaking me, tearing at the muscle.
A gunshot rang out.
The dog released me and scrambled back, whining. Dante hadn't shot the dog; he had fired into the air.
He vaulted the fence, but he didn't run to me. He ran to check the dog.
"Brutus, down!" he commanded.
I lay in the dirt, clutching my bleeding arm. Blood soaked my shirt, turning the fabric dark and heavy.
Sofia was screaming. "She provoked him! I saw it! She tried to hit him with the bucket!"
Dante turned to me. His eyes were abysses.
"Get up," he hissed.
"He bit me," I sobbed, shock making my words slur. "She threw a stone..."
"Liar," Dante spat. "Sofia loves these animals. You hate them. You hate everything that I love."
He hauled me up by my uninjured arm. He dragged me out of the enclosure like a sack of refuse.
"Go to the infirmary," he said. "Get it stitched. And then get out of my sight."
The nightmare didn't end there.
Later that evening, Brutus was found dead. Foaming at the mouth. Rat poison.
Dante stormed into my room. He threw a packet of poison onto my bed. It had been found in my drawer.
"I didn't do it," I said, numb. My arm was bandaged, throbbing in time with my heart.
"You killed a loyal soldier because you are weak," Dante said. His voice was terrifyingly quiet. "You disrespected the Family."
He grabbed me by the hair and dragged me downstairs. He threw open the heavy oak doors to the courtyard.
It was November. A freezing rain was falling, turning the cobblestones into slick grey ice.
"Kneel," he ordered.
"Dante, please. It's freezing."
"Kneel!" he roared.
I fell to my knees on the stones. The cold soaked through my thin pants instantly, biting into my skin like needles.
"You stay here until you understand loyalty," he said.
He slammed the doors shut. I heard the heavy lock click.
I knelt there for hours. The rain turned to sleet. My body started to shake violently, then it stopped shaking, which was worse.
I looked up at the window of the warm, golden living room.
I saw Dante. He was sitting by the fire. Sofia was on the floor, her head resting on his knee. He was stroking her hair, staring into the flames.
He looked like a king on his throne.
And I was just a peasant dying at his gates.
