Page 295 of Rosetti Family New York
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I can give." Something changes in his expression, the predator showing a glimpse of the man underneath. "Until the Callahan threat is gone. Until you're safe. Until..."
"Until what?"
"Until you stop wanting to leave."
That admission hangs between us. It's not temporary captivity, but a method to change my desires.
Am I horrified? I should be. I should be planning escape, looking for weapons, thinking about resistance. Instead, I find myself looking at his face in the morning light, noting the changes time has made. Sharper angles, stress lines around eyes that have searched too hard, wanted too much.
He's beautiful in his obsession. Terrible, magnetic, and completely devoted.
"What if I promise to be careful?" I ask, hating the pleading tone in my voice. "What if I agree to reasonable precautions, check in regularly, accept protection without feeling like a prisoner?"
"What if you try to run the moment I give you the opportunity?" His smile is as sharp as ice. "What if your careful promises are just tricks to get freedom you'll use to disappear again?"
"I won't."
"You will." He says this with a certainty that feels more cutting than an accusation. "Because running is what you do when things get too real, too dangerous, too permanent. You've been doing it for a long time."
His accuracy makes me flinch. He doesn't just know my habits, he understands my mind, my patterns, the instinct to protect myself that's kept me alive but also alone.
"So you're going to keep me here until I prove I won't run?"
"I'm going to keep you here until running doesn't even seem like an option."
This idea scares me more than being forced. Not breaking my will, but changing it. Not destroying my independence, but making me feel like dependence is my choice.
"You're insane," I whisper, though I don't really believe it.
"I'm devoted." His voice drops to a tone that makes my heart skip despite everything. "Absolutely, completely, irrevocably devoted to your survival. If that's insanity, then I've been crazy since the moment you walked out the door."
The way he frames obsession as love, control as care, stirs something dangerous inside me. This is how it starts, the slow wearing down of resistance through attention that feels like worship.
"I need to think," I say, standing on shaky legs. "Alone. Without you watching me like I might vanish."
"Of course." He rises smoothly, already moving toward the door. "Take all the time you need. Explore. Make yourself comfortable. The penthouse is yours to enjoy. And when you're ready, join me for breakfast."
The casual offer, permission to use what's already mine because I'm trapped, makes my jaw tighten. Even his kindnesses reinforce his control.
"Emilio." His name stops me at the doorway. When I turn, a flicker of vulnerability crosses his face.
"How long have you been planning this? The penthouse, the surveillance, the... preparation?"
"Since the night you left," he admits. "I started building contingencies the moment I realized you were gone. Every system, every safeguard, every luxury… all designed for the day you'd finally come home."
The depth of his obsession sends a chill through me. And a strange satisfaction that someone cared this much.
"And if I'd never come back?"
He meets my gaze honestly. "Then I would have died surrounded by reminders of the woman I couldn't save from herself."
9
Mara
After Emilio leaves, I look around the bedroom.
