Page 66 of Beautiful Villain
My heart was racing now, adrenaline flooding my system as the plan took shape.I didn’t know where I’d go yet.Somewhere.Anywhere.I just needed distance.Time.Space to think without men deciding my value for me.
A floorboard creaked in the hall.
I froze.
“Mikayla?”
Gianni’s voice.
My breath hitched.Panic flared sharp and sudden, and I shoved the bag into the closet on instinct, hands fumbling.
The door opened.
He stepped inside, eyes scanning the room, landing on me instantly.His expression shifted the moment he took in my face—too pale, too tight, already halfway to a meltdown.
“What’s wrong?”he asked.
I laughed then.A short, brittle sound that didn’t belong to me.
“I don’t know, Gianni.Why don’t you tell me?”
28
Gianni
The bed was cold when I woke, the other side empty.No warmth.No weight.Just sheets that had already lost her shape.
I got up and crossed the hall.Her door was open.
I found her in her room.
I knew something was wrong the second I stepped inside and looked at her.The air felt wrong—tight and unsettled.Her face was a mask of fury.“What’s wrong?”I asked.
She laughed, sharp and hollow, like the sound scraped its way out of her chest instead of her throat.
“I don’t know, Gianni.Why don’t you tell me?”she shot back.
My gaze slid to the open wardrobe, to the clothes pulled out of place and left hanging wrong.It didn’t take long for it to make sense.The pieces fell into place, sharp and immediate—then the weight of it settled in my chest, heavier than the realization itself.
“What’s going on?”
Her eyes burned.“You lied,” she said.“You’re going to hand me back to him.”
My jaw locked hard enough to hurt.“Mikayla?—”
I reached for her without thinking, sliding a hand around her waist the way I had before.A grounding touch.A reflex.She slipped out of it easily.
She turned to face me, eyes bright in a way that set every alarm in my body ringing.This was not the soft, vulnerable Mikayla I knew.She was wound tight, and she was absolutely simmering with fury.
She folded her arms across her chest, like she needed the barrier between us.
“Were you planning to trade me back to Archie?”
The question landed where it was intended to cause maximum damage.I didn’t answer immediately, because I refused to lie to her.
Her mouth twisted.“There it is.”
“Mikayla—”
