The entire time I was locked in that cellar, I refused to apologize.
The sealed space made it hard to breathe. Stone walls, no windows, the kind of room built for men who owed debts they couldn't pay. All I could do was curl into myself as tightly as possible, searching for some small scrap of comfort. Somewhere above me, the compound went on living. Footsteps. Muffled voices. The faint percussion of a door closing in a distant wing.
Then a pair of leather shoes appeared in front of me. Riccardo stood over me, looking down. "Ready to admit you were wrong?"
I thought of the mausoleum, leveled to nothing, and the stubbornness in me held. "I wasn't wrong. Riccardo, you know that burial ground—"
He cut me off before I could finish. "I know."
"Nico wanted it. So I gave it to her."
I stared up at him, eyes wide. "You gave it to her?"
In that moment, I felt like I was looking at a stranger.
Riccardo shrugged it off. His signet ring turned lazily against his knuckle, a habit that looked casual to anyone who didn't know what it meant. "Nico is beautiful and kind. If she hadn't carried me out of those mountains, I probably wouldn't be alive today."
"Bianca, all you have to do is admit you were wrong, and I'll let you out."
The mountains? Nico saved him?
Three years ago, when Riccardo was stranded in the mountains after a deal gone wrong, I was the one who hauled him out. Step by step, his weight on my back, through the snow, while Barone soldiers waited at the treeline because none of them could reach us in time. He survived. I ended up in a Dr.-run clinic for two weeks. When I finally woke up, the first thing I learned was that he'd been keeping a mistress the entire time. That was what ended our marriage.
But how had the person who saved him become Nico?
I opened my mouth. "Riccardo, maybe you should look into—"
"Mr. Barone, please don't be hard on her. It's all my fault. I lost my footing and fell on my own. She absolutely did not push me…"
Nico clicked over in her heels and positioned herself at Riccardo's side, instantly pulling every ounce of his attention. The sound of her shoes on the cellar stairs had been deliberate, timed, rehearsed.
The moment I met her eyes, full of calculation and triumph, I understood. Nico had stolen credit for what I'd done.
Riccardo wrapped his arm around Nico's slim waist, his voice tender. "What are you doing out of bed? The doctor said you need rest."
Nico leaned into him, her voice a syrupy whine. "I missed you. And it looks like she still hasn't realized what she did wrong." One lacquered nail tapped the edge of his lapel, light as a suggestion. "Maybe you should toss something in there with her. I hear people confess to anything when they're scared enough."
Riccardo gave her an approving glance, then turned to the soldiers. "You two. Go put my pets in there."
The word pets sent ice through my veins.
Riccardo had a particular hobby. He kept centipedes, spiders, and snakes. Cold-blooded creatures, all of them. The kind of collection that made visitors go quiet and then never mention it again.
The first time I'd seen them, I'd asked him, "They won't bite me, will they?"
Back then, Riccardo had looked me in the eye and promised, with every appearance of sincerity: "Don't worry. As long as I'm here, I will never let them hurt you. I won't let anyone hurt you."
I never imagined this day would come so soon.
When the centipedes and spiders were released into the cellar, my scalp went numb. They moved as if drawn to me, locking onto my position with terrible precision, swarming up my body in a crawling, writhing mass.
Tiny, sharp stabs of pain, over and over, until I could barely think.
Riccardo's expression wavered. His ring went still.
Nico pressed her fingertips to her temple, her voice going faint. "Oh no, Mr. Barone, I think I'm feeling a little unwell…"
Without a word, Riccardo scooped her into his arms and walked away. The cellar door stayed open. No one came back.
I lifted my head just in time to catch Nico peering back over his shoulder. Our eyes met. She mouthed the words silently: You deserve this, you worthless tramp.
I clenched my jaw and slammed my hands down on the insects, crushing every one I could reach.
Only one thought kept me alive: I am not dying here.
