Page 3 of Trapped

But I hated Dimitri.

I hated the way he looked at me. How he flaunted me to his friends but never respected me behind closed doors. How he used my father’s power as a leash.

The door creaked, and footsteps clicked over the hardwood floors. Dimitri walked in, wearing a smug smile. Dressed in a tailored suit, he didn’t bother looking at the mess he’d created. His cold eyes shot at me.

“You’re home,” he said, as if he hadn’t just demolished everything that mattered to me.

“What did you do?” My voice cracked, but I stood up.

“I did us both a favor. This—” he gestured lazily to the empty racks, “was a distraction.”

“Adistraction?”

“You’ve spent more time on this bullshit than on your fiancé.”

Heat bubbled in my throat. “This was my collection. It was my future. My boutique?—”

His mouth twisted, and he waved his hand. “Drop the little girl dreams and start acting like a woman. Your only job is being my wife.”

His venomous words were wrapped in velvet. He always made his control sound so reasonable, but he destroyed anything that gave me independence. He wanted me to rely on him.

So did my father.

Dimitri is perfect for you. He is a very strong man,he’d said months ago.You’ll learn to be grateful for that. You’re not some American girl who gets to run wild, Delilah. You marry for the family. Dimitri knows how to keep his house in order, and you will be part of that.

My father respected men like Dimitri, who saw love as something to conquer. A good husband wasn’t measured by kindness but by how well he controlled his wife. Turning me into a demure Bratva wife had been my father’s plan for years, but I’d never been the obedient type. I fooled myself into thinking I could embrace it, hoping to buy a fraction of my father’s love. It was a terrible mistake I couldn’t take back.

Dimitri stepped closer. “You didn’t think I’d let you go through with that ridiculous little shop, did you?”

“I never asked for yourpermission.”

His lips curved. “I don’t need you to ask. I make the decisions now.”

“You don’t decide anything for me!”

“The sooner you accept that I’m in charge, the better off you’ll be.”

“These were one of a kind.Irreplaceable.”

“Maybe next time you’ll answer my calls.”

My eyes burned. “You had no right. They were mine.”

“Nothing is yours,” he said smoothly. “Not the slutty clothes you wear. Not evenyou. Don’t forget that,kotyonok.”

I fucking hated him.

Dimitri smiled. “You’ll thank me later.”

He patted my cheek and left the room.

I stood in the wreckage of my dreams, my stomach boiling. The tears I held back dissolved. Dimitri thought he’d won, that he’d crushed me, but he was so wrong. Destroying my boutique didn’t break me—it only lit a fire.

I couldn’t live like this. He would strip me of everything I cared about. I needed to escape, and I knew exactly how.

Santino Costa.

He wasn’t a good man either, but he could free me from Dimitri’s grip. Tomorrow night, I’d go to him. I didn’t care what I had to do. Santino was my way out, and I’d trade my soul to take it.

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