“Lies!”he bellowed, and the walls themselves quaked beneath the force of his wrath.
I stumbled back from the door, spine pressing to cold stone, heart slamming in my chest like a drum of doom.
Salvatore moved—like death given form.
Silent.Inevitable.Unstoppable.
A flash of steel.
A wet, broken gurgle.
And then—my father collapsed.
A man who once ruled over everything...reduced to a lifeless heap.
The world fell to stillness.Blood pooled across polished floors, soaking into the silence like a curse.
“I will find out where your daughter is hiding… and kill her!”
Salvatore’s roar shattered the air—a nightmare loosed upon the world.
Horror gripped me, rooted me in place, paralyzed my limbs for a single, eternal heartbeat.
Then instinct took over.
I turned—ran.
My skirts whispered against the marble like ghosts, feet barely touching the ground as I fled.My heart pounded, my blood boomed in my ears.
Bursting into the daylight, I threw myself into the carriage beside Mary.
“We need to leave.Now!”I gasped, voice raw, a desperate scrape torn from a throat tight with fear.
The horses whinnied, sensing the storm in my chest, hooves hammering the ground like war drums as we surged forward—toward the docks, toward escape.
My mind raced ahead—over the ocean, across an expanse vast and unknown.
To the Americas.
A refuge...
Or another battlefield.
I didn’t know.
I didn’t care.
There was no time for doubt.
Only survival.
Only escape.
Only the road ahead.
ChapterTwenty-Two
AMIR
