Ruthless Heart

LILY

I lose track of time.

I could have been in here. ten hours, or ten days, I don’t know. My mind is clouded with fear, I can’t think straight. Every time I hear footsteps in the hallway, I shake, wondering if my time is up.

Is this it? Is it all over?

I think of Teddy, and I want to weep. Will he have to mourn me, too? Or, worse, will Nero find him and finish the job?

Wipe the treacherous Fordham family off the map for good.

More footsteps come, and I brace myself. This time, the door opens.

It’s Nero. With a gun in his hand.

Oh God.

I’m on the ground, but I don’t think my legs could hold me up even if I tried, so I pull myself into a kneeling position.

“Don’t waste your time begging, Princess.”

Nero’s voice is harsh, and cold with betrayal.

I swallow. I can’t bear to look at him and see the wounded cruelty in his eyes. “I never told them anything,” I plead again. “We just met, that’s all. I wasn’t going to betray you.”

“But you already did. You lied. You sneaked around. You put my whole empire at risk.”

I glance up at that. Nero stands there, looking utterly detached, and I realize with horror that whatever I say now will make no difference.

His mind is made up.

I sag, broken. “Do it,” I say, surprised to find tears falling. Not just for my short life, but for Nero, too. Even now, in the midst of my fear, I don’t want to make a killer out of him.

I don’t want my blood staining his soul.

I take a final look at him, towering there above me. A face I’ve loved half my life now is harsh and resigned. Eyes burning into me, as dark as night. “You’ve given me no choice,” he swears.

I take deep breath, ready for the end. “Do what you have to do.”

I wait for the bullet. The end. But instead, I hear the clatter of metal on the concrete in front of me. Nero has tossed something down into the dirt.

“Pick it up,” he orders me.

I scrabble in the dust, wondering what new torture he’s devised for me. If this is just delaying the inevitable, or some other twisted game to make me beg.

My fingers brush metal, and I close my hand around it. Small, circular…

It’s a ring.

And not just any ring, but a slim gold band.

A wedding ring.

I look up. “What…?” I ask, my terror giving way to confusion. “What is this?”

“Your future.” Nero’s expression doesn’t flinch, as cold as steel. The man who wants me dead.

“Congratulations, Princess,” he announces with a sneer. “We’re getting married.”

I stare at him in disbelief. Take in the cruel triumph in his eyes. And then I realize:

There are some fates worse than death.