THE MAFIA KING BROKEN ROSE novel Chapter 200

Chapter 200

Chapter 200

Aria’s POV

The truck stopped moving hours ago, but I could still feel the invincible vibration in my bones.

Victoria had moved me again, this time to somewhere that smelled like decay.

Did she kill someone here? I wondered.

The new room was smaller than the last one, with no windows and a single bare bulb that flickers constantly.

I’d lost track of time completely. Was it day? Night? Had it been hours since the auction or days?

My stomach was cramped with hunger, and my throat felt like sandpaper. Victoria was being more systematic row, more calculated in her cruelty.

The door opened with a screech of metal on metal, and Victoria walked in carrying a tray. The smell of food made my mouth water involuntarily, even though I knew it came with a price.

“Good morning, sunshine,” she said cheerfully, setting the tray on a small table just out of my reach. “Or is it afternoon? It’s so hard to tell down here.”

I didn’t respond. I’d learned that engaging with her only gave her more ammunition to use against me.

“The strong, silent treatment again? How boring.” Victoria sat down and began eating from the tray, making exaggerated sounds of pleasure. “Mmm, scrambled eggs. Bacon. Fresh orange juice. When was the last time you had a proper meal?”

My stomach answered for me with a loud growl that echoed off the concrete walls.

“I thought so.” Victoria took another bite and studied my face. “You know, I’ve been thinking about our conversation yesterday. About Dominic and his pattern of discarding women when he gets bored.”

“There was no conversation. You talked, I ignored you.”

“Ah, she speaks!” Victoria clapped her hands together mockingly. “I was starting to worry you’d lost your voice from being…alone.”

She stood up and walked closer to me, close enough that I could smell her expensive perfume mixed with the scent of food.

“I want to show you something,” she said, pulling out her phone. “This is security footage from Dominic’s penthouse. From last week.”

The screen showed a grainy black and white image of Dominic’s living room. I watched myself moving around the space, cleaning, arranging flowers.

Normal, domestic activities that looked surreal on the small screen.

“Notice anything interesting about this footage?”

I stared at the screen, trying to figure out what she wanted me to see.

“Look at the timestamp,” Victoria said helpfully. “This was taken while you were supposedly sleeping. But there you are, wide awake, going through his things like a good little spy.”

“I wasn’t spying.”

“No? Then what were you doing rifling through his desk drawers at three in the morning?”

I remembered that night. I’d been looking for aspirin because my head was pounding, but on the screen it looked suspicious, secretive.

“See how easy it is to twist the truth?” Victoria pocketed the phone and walked back to her chair. “I could send this to Dominic right now. Make him think you were working for his enemies all along.”

1/3

Chapter 200

“He wouldn’t believe you.”

“Wouldn’t he? Men like Dominic don’t stay alive by trusting people. Especially not desperate little dancers who conveniently fell into their Lays rea when their enemies needed an inside source.”

The doubt crept in despite my best efforts to push it away. Would Dominic believe her? How well did I really know him, after all?

“I can see the wheels turning in your head,” Victoria said with satisfaction. “Good. Doubt is so much more effective than physical pain. It eats at you from

the inside out.”

She picked up the tray of food and held it closer to me, letting the smell fill the small space.

“All you have to do is admit the truth. Tell me what Dominic’s real weaknesses are, where he keeps his most sensitive information, and you can have all

of this, Plus a hot shower and a real bed.”

“I already told you, I don’t know anything about his business.”

“Everyone knows something. Pillow talk, overheard phone calls, documents left lying around. Don’t tell me you never wondered what he was really doing when he left you alone in that penthouse.”

The truth was, I had wondered. There were times when Dominic would disappear for hours, coming back with blood on his clothes and darkness in his eyes. Times when he’d get phone calls that made his jaw tighten and his hands clench into fists.

But wondering wasn’t the same as knowing, and knowing wasn’t the same as betraying.

“I won’t help you hurt him.”

Victoria’s expression hardened. “Then you’ll starve.”

She walked toward the door, taking the food with her. At the threshold, she paused and looked back at me.

“Oh, and Aria? The next time you see Dominic, it’ll probably be at your funeral. If there’s enough left of you to bury.”

The door slammed shut, leaving me alone with the flickering light and my growing hunger.

Hours passed. Or maybe days. The light above me flickered more frequently now, casting dancing shadows on the walls that started to look like faces. ! tried to sleep, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw Tommy bleeding out on the floor of Victoria’s warehouse.

That’s when I heard his voice.

“Aria.”

I opened my eyes, and Dominic was standing in the corner of the room. Not a shadow or a trick of the light, but actually him. Dark hair perfectly styled, expensive suit immaculate, watching me with those intense eyes.

“You’re not real,” I whispered.

“I’m as real as you need me to be.” His voice was exactly right, down to the slight roughness that came from too many cigarettes and too much whiskey.

“Victoria’s messing with my head. Drugs in the water, maybe. Or I’m just losing my mind.”

Dominic stepped closer, and I could smell his cologne, that masculine scent that had become so familiar.

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