I didn't know how I ended up here. Lost in this villa in the middle of nowhere, in a dead suburb, surrounded by silence, miles away from Detroit. The only light came from the faint moon filtering through the reinforced windows. A golden prison, an invisible cage with no way out.
Angelina was still crying. Her tiny mouth screamed into the night, a cry that tore my heart apart and stole the little breath I had left.
"Stop crying, baby… please, just stop…" I whispered, rocking her in my arms, my trembling hands trying to soothe her sobs.
But it was useless.
She cried, and I was suffocating.
I carried a month of motherhood on my shoulders and already felt like I was failing. I had lost everything. My grandmother, my home, my past.
Now, I wasn't living. I was surviving.
---
A sharp noise made me jump.
"DAMN IT, ARE YOU GOING TO QUIET YOUR DAMN BABY OR NOT? YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY! I'M GONNA SHOOT HIM IF THIS KEEPS UP!"
Ana. Her voice echoed down the hall, cold and sharp like a blade.
I held Angelina tighter against me.
Ana appeared in the doorway, wearing a pink nightgown, her blonde hair cascading over her thin shoulders.
Her eyes shone with cold anger — the kind that meant nothing good was coming.
"Sorry…" I whispered, my throat tight.
I gently patted my daughter's back, hoping she would calm down.
Ana stared at me, her gaze sharp as a knife.
"That kid's gonna give us all insomnia, you know that?"
I said nothing.
Then she took a step closer, pointing a cold weapon at me as if to underline her words.
---
In that tense moment, the door opened again. Laurina stepped in, her slim figure clad in gray pajamas, her dark eyes scanning the room.
With her, Margot, my makeshift big sister, and Denis, Eyas's right-hand man — the guy Laurina was dating.
Their presence was a breath of fresh air in that suffocating atmosphere.
---
Eyas entered. Silence fell.
He had that icy gaze, that hard, tattooed face everyone feared. They called him "Demon" or "The Beast of the Evening."
No one dared talk to him more than necessary.
Ana yelled at him, voice shaking with rage:
"EYAS, WHY DID YOU BRING THIS GIRL AND HER BABY HERE? YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT THEM ON THE STREETS!"
I lowered my head, feeling the weight of her words. Eyas glanced at me, then at Ana.
Ana's weapon slowly dropped.
"Calm your daughter," he said in a dry, almost indifferent voice.
Then, without another word, he and Ana walked away.
---
That moment was worth its weight in gold: Eyas had just said "your daughter." Like this baby wasn't his. Like I was nothing but a stranger this bad boy had saved from the streets.
No one knew.
No one had to know.
---
I'm Emma. 21 years old. A girl who never had a choice.
I grew up with my grandmother until she died, leaving me alone in a merciless world.
I worked in a place where the rich come for shadows, for discretion. Where money is dirty and hands are guilty.
That's where he found me. Eyas. The man I didn't know. Who flirted with me while I didn't know he had a girlfriend.
We slept together. Just once. One night that changed everything.
I got pregnant.
And he, this demon, brought me here, to this isolated villa, forbidding me to speak or leave.
I had nothing left. No job. No friends. Just this prison and a baby crying in the middle of the night.
---
I'm alone. Always alone.
---
This villa is his fortress.
Where rules are cold, ruthless.
Where enemies lurk, ready to strike.
Where I'm invisible.
---
I don't know what the future holds. But I know one thing:
Here, I'm just a shadow.
A burden.
A secret.
--
I hold Angelina close, trying to chase away the fear that's eating me alive.