Taken

The church doors exploded inward.

I was adjusting my veil. The priest was mid-sentence. Christian stood at the altar, handsome and impatient, waiting for me to become his wife.

Men poured through the doors. Black suits. Black weapons. Moving with military precision.

Screaming. My mother. The guests scattering like startled birds.

Christian's face went white.

The man leading them walked down the aisle like he owned it. Tall, dark-haired, moving with a predator's grace. He ignored the chaos around him. Ignored me.

His focus was entirely on Christian.

"Christian Marchetti." His voice was calm. Almost pleasant. "You took something from me."

Christian stumbled backward. "This is, you can't..."

"Her name was Maria." The stranger stopped three feet away. "You destroyed her."

Something flickered across Christian's face. Fear, yes. But also recognition.

He knew this man.

"That wasn't..."

"She was twenty-four." The stranger's voice didn't change. Same calm. Same control. "She trusted you. Loved you. And you broke her until there was nothing left."

My stomach dropped.

Maria.

The name meant nothing to me. But the way Christian looked, cornered, terrified, told me everything I needed to know.

"I'm taking something from you." The stranger finally looked at me. Dark eyes. Cold. Assessing. "Her."

"No." Christian moved forward. "You can't have her. She's mine..."

One of the armed men stepped between them. Christian stopped.

"She's not yours yet." The stranger held out his hand to me. "Come with me, and this stays bloodless."

I should have screamed. Run. Done something a normal person would do.

Instead, I looked at Christian.

At the man I'd been about to marry. The man I'd ignored warning signs for. The man who, right now, looked more afraid of this stranger than concerned about me.

He didn't even try to protect me.

"Alessia." Christian's voice was shaking. "Do something. Tell them..."

Tell them what? That I was an innocent bystander? That I knew nothing about a girl named Maria?

I didn't know her.

But looking at Christian now, I realized I didn't know him either.

"Miss Bellini." The stranger's hand was still extended. "I don't have patience for hesitation."

I looked at the church full of frozen guests. At my parents, held back by armed men. At Christian, sweating in his expensive suit.

I took the stranger's hand.

The car was black. Armored. The kind you don't notice until you're in the back of one.

He sat across from me. Watching.

"I'm going to ask you questions." His voice was level. "You're going to answer them honestly."

"Or what?"

Something flickered in his expression. Surprise, maybe.

"Or this becomes much less pleasant for you."

I was still in my wedding dress. Tulle and silk crushing against the leather seats. I felt absurd. Terrified. And strangely clear.

"Who are you?"

"Nico Valenti." He said it like the name should mean something. It didn't.

"And Maria?"

His expression hardened.

"My sister."

I closed my eyes.

"What did he do to her?"

"Everything." The word came out raw. "Charmed her. Used her. Discarded her. She took her own life three months ago."

The world tilted.

Three months.

I'd been planning this wedding for eight months. Christian had been attentive, charming, everything a fiancé should be.

While a woman was dying because of him.

"I didn't know."

"Would it have mattered if you did?"

The question hit like a slap.

Would it?

I thought about all the times Christian's smile had felt wrong. The way his charm felt practiced. The moments I'd explained away, ignored, refused to examine.

"I don't know." Honest. Horrible. "I should have."

He studied me for a long moment.

"Most people in your position would be crying. Begging. Promising anything."

"Would it help?"

"No."

"Then what's the point?"

Silence stretched between us.

The car stopped.

"Welcome to your new home, Miss Bellini." He opened the door. "You'll be staying indefinitely."

I stepped out of the car in my ruined wedding dress, into a world I didn't understand, held captive by a man seeking revenge for a woman I'd never met.

And somehow, it felt more honest than anything in my life before.