~LAUREN’S POV~  

"Tell me, amor… what scares you more? That you hate me? Or that you don’t?"

His words wouldn’t leave my head. They clung to my thoughts like a whispered curse, threading through my veins, tightening around my ribs.  

I wanted to tell him he was wrong. That I wasn’t scared. That I despised him. That I felt nothing.  

But that would be a lie.  

And Alexandro Castello? He thrived on the truth beneath the lies.  

His fingers brushed against my cheek, the warmth of his touch bringing down the cold wind that bit at my skin. My pulse betrayed me, hammering against my ribs, loud enough that I...