Bruno laughed again.
“Why are you this stubborn?” he mused. “You’d think a blind woman would be easier to impress. Then again, maybe you just can’t appreciate how ridiculously good-looking I am.”
“If only you could see this face,” he drawled. “You’d be on your knees worshipping me. Hell, you’d be begging for far more than a slap on that ass.”
The words slid across the air like something dirty left too long in the sun.
I exhaled slowly through my nose.
“Perhaps no one has informed you yet,” I said calmly, “but I’m marrying your brother tomorrow.”
The silence that followed was immediate.
Even Bruno didn’t speak for a few seconds, and that alone told me the words had landed somewhere unexpected.
Then—
He laughed.
At first, it was disbelief. Sharp, quick bursts.
Then it grew louder.
“You?” he said between laughs. “Marry Rafael?”
Another laugh—shorter this time.
“A pathetic, blind nobody like you?” His voice rose with each word. “That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all week. Rafaelwouldn’t marry someone like you if you were the last woman on earth.”
I felt the shift before I heard it—the air tightening, the space changing density. Even Bruno noticed. I heard his posture adjust slightly, the way arrogance straightens when it senses a superior presence entering.
Heavy footsteps approached, measured and unhurried, yet somehow commanding every ounce of attention in the room.
Then came the scent of dark cedarwood and leather.
Rafael.
“What are you doing with my new personal assistant?” Rafael asked.
Bruno started to say something, but Rafael cut him off.
“Don’t bother. The look on your face tells me everything I need to know.” His voice turned cold. “Leave. And from this day forward, don’t set foot on this floor unless I specifically permit it.”
Bruno shot to his feet so abruptly that the chair scraped violently across the floor.
“You can't be serious.” he snapped. “Your office is on this floor. Are you saying I can’t come to my own brother’s office because of some bitch?”
A tense silence followed.
“And please tell me she’s bluffing,” he continued, disbelief sharpening his voice. “She said she’s marrying you.”
What happened next was so sudden I barely registered it.
A sharp movement.
Then Bruno gasped.
I didn’t need my eyes to know Rafael had his hand around Bruno’s throat.
