Chapter 2 - The Gilded Cage
By midnight, my two-bedroom walk-up in Lincoln Park ceased to exist as my home.
Dominic didn’t let me pack. His men moved with military precision, loading my clothes, my childhood albums, and my mother’s handwritten recipe books into unmarked black SUVs while Dominic stood beside me on the curb, his long charcoal overcoat shielding me from the driving sleet. He ignored the whispers of my neighbors and the flashing red taillights of the Chicago police cruising past—neither law nor public opinion dared interrupt a Bellano operation.
We arrived at his Lake Forest estate behind three sets of wrought-iron gates and enough armed security to rival a federal garrison. The sprawling stone manor stood like a fortress against the dark shoreline, surrounded by towering pines that hissed in the gale.
"This is madness, Dominic," I said as he guided me through the grand foyer, past marble statues and cascading chandeliers that felt like monuments to violence. "I am your secretary. I have an ordinary life. I can’t live like a prisoner."
"You are not a prisoner, Penelope," he said evenly, unbuttoning his coat and tossing it to an awaiting butler who vanished without making a sound. Dominic turned to face me, the shadows carving hard, aristocratic angles into his jaw. "You are the mother of my child. Which makes you the most dangerous weakness I possess, and the single most valuable target in North America."
"I don't want your money! I don't want your war!" Tears burned behind my eyelids, born of sheer exhaustion and the raging hormones coursing through my veins. "I had a life planned. A quiet town. A bakery. A child who wouldn't grow up learning how to dodge snipers!"
Dominic stepped into my personal space, towering over me until I had to tilt my head back to hold his gaze. There was no cruelty in his eyes, only an ancient, terrifying resolve. He reached out, his thumb catching a stray tear on my cheek and wiping it away with shocking tenderness.
"You think Victor Raines would have let you live in peace?" he murmured, stepping closer until his warmth enveloped me. "He had a team watching your apartment before you even got off the train from the clinic, Penny. If I hadn’t swept that clinic records office forty minutes after you walked in, you would have been taken before you reached your front door."
A cold shudder tore through me. "He... he was already there?"
"Yes. My men neutralized his spotters while you were buying your ticket home." He tilted my chin up, forcing me to look directly into the storm brewing in his dark eyes. "You ran away from me nine weeks ago after that night. I gave you space because I thought you needed time to process what happened between us. I thought you were afraid of the line we crossed."
"I was," I confessed, my voice trembling. "I am."
"Then be afraid of the world out there, Penny," he whispered, his thumb brushing my bottom lip. "Because inside these walls, you are absolute law. Tomorrow, we sign the papers. By the end of the week, you will bear my name."
My breath hitched. "A contract marriage?"
May you like
His eyes flashed with something hot and unyielding. "There is nothing fake about this, Penelope. You will be my wife in every sense of the word. And I will burn this city to the ground before I let anyone touch what is mine."
---
