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After finishing my workout and showering, I returned to my bedroom.
Juliana was sitting on the bed, her hair disheveled, looking distraught. As I entered, she looked up at me, her face creased with worry and exhaustion.
“So, your brother thought he’d be the hero and come rescue you? How sweet.” I gave a harsh laugh. “Did he really think he’d get in and out of our estate undetected?”
“Wh-what did you do to him?” she stammered.
“What do you think? I made him talk, of course. I made him spill some delicious Società secrets—although he needed some convincing to speak, but I was happy to give him that encouragement.”
Her face blanched. She knew I had tortured him. “What’s going to happen to him now? And Cornelio?” she whispered.
I was silent for a short while, before finally speaking. “That’s up to you.”
“You can have me—I’ll give myself to you. I’ll stop fighting you.” She forced the words out. “Please just let them go. Please just let Jake be okay.” She couldn’t bear it if anything happened to her sibling.
“So, you’ll give yourself to me in exchange for their lives?”
“Yes.” She swallowed hard. “Yes, I will.”
I gave a twisted smile. “I already own your body and your life. You are mine now. You don’t get to decide to give me yourself to me. I already have it, it’s already in my hands: your body, your life, your fate.”
I watched a blanket of confusion settle over her features. “I don’t understand. I’m giving you all that I have to give. What else do you want from me?”
I didn’t take my eyes off her. “I’m not giving the choice of surrendering your innocence in exchange for their lives. The choice I’m giving you is that you will decide who gets killed.”
Her breath exhaled on a gasp. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“The choice I’m giving you is this. Who dies—either your bodyguard or your brother.” My voice was harsh and uncompromising.
“I won’t condemn a man to his death.” She tried to make herself sound strong, but she couldn’t stop the wobble in her voice.
“Choose who will die, (a) your bodyguard or (b) Jacob.”
“I can’t,” she replied in horror, her knuckles white as she clenched her hands around the bedsheets.
“Of course you can. It’s an easy question. I’ve even made it multiple choice to make it even easier for you to answer: you just need to say (a) or (b),” I smirked.
“I can’t…”
“If you can’t decide, I can give you a coin. You can toss it to make the decision.” My tone was flippant, not giving a care to her feelings or emotions.
“I won’t do that,” she said in a slightly louder voice.” I won’t be involved in any decision about who to kill.”
“But you will be involved.” I was silent for a few, long seconds. She wasn’t going to escape making this choice, no matter what she did. “Because if you don’t choose one, then they will both die.”
“Why are you doing this to me?” she cried out, the tears she had been holding back finally running down her face.
“You know why.” I glowered at her. “You are mine now. And the Società needs to know that. They can never have you back as long as I want to keep you. The only time they can have you back is if I decide to hand you over to them. Until then they need to learn their fucking lesson.”
“I’ll talk to them, I’ll talk to Jake, I’ll tell them that once you let them go, they can never come back. Please!”
“You know begging doesn’t work on me. You have five seconds to make up your mind—Jacob or Cornelio. If you don’t give me your answer, then both will die.”
“Please don’t do this,” she sobbed.
“Five…four—”
