Chapter 261

Dante stood over her for several seconds.

He listened to the footsteps outside and the voices.

He crouched and pressed two fingers against her neck, confirming what he already knew: she was unconscious.

He had not planned to spend this much time dealing with Selena.

He had not expected her to fight him with such determination.

It irritated him.

It also told him something he had not bothered to consider before arriving.

Selena had no idea what he had become.

He straightened and looked down the hallway towards Emilia’s room.

The door stood open.

He walked inside.

The room was neat, although the signs of Emilia’s life were everywhere. Books on the shelf. A framed photograph on the dresser. A small box of keepsakes beside a lamp.

Dante surveyed the room with little interest.

He had not come for memories. He had come for the necklace. He opened the first drawer, and then the second.

He searched through the contents with growing impatience, setting aside papers, old photographs, and a small velvet pouch.

There was nothing there.

He checked the bedside table, and the necklace was not there.

His jaw tightened.

He had known Emilia once.

He had known the little girl who had followed him from room to room, who had asked endless questions, who had believed every promise he made.

He knew the necklace had mattered to her.

But time had passed.

People changed.

The necklace was not merely a keepsake.

He needed it.

And if Selena had hidden it somewhere else, she would tell him when she woke.

He glanced towards the doorway.

She was still lying where he had left her. He returned to the hallway and crouched beside her.

"Selena."

No response.

He touched her shoulder.

Her head shifted slightly.

He checked her breathing, then slid one arm behind her back and the other beneath her knees.

For a moment, he paused.

There had been a time when carrying Selena would have felt natural. When she would have rested her head against his shoulder and trusted him to take her wherever she needed to go.

That memory stirred nothing in him now.

He lifted her. Her body sagged against him, entirely unresponsive.

He adjusted his grip, then changed his mind and shifted her across his shoulder, her upper body draped over him, one arm hanging loosely down his back.

It was an ugly, undignified way to carry someone. He did not care.

Selena’s hand brushed the floor as he walked past the table.

The framed photograph beside the door had fallen during their struggle. Its glass had cracked, splitting Emilia’s smiling face into several uneven pieces.

Dante glanced at it.

Then he stepped over the broken frame. He carried Selena to the front door, opened it, and looked outside.

The street was quiet.

A few houses down, a television flickered behind drawn curtains. Somewhere in the distance, a car horn sounded and faded.

Ordinary life continued.

Dante stepped outside. He pulled the door shut behind him, the lock clicked, and the house went silent.

...

The first thing Selena heard was a door closing. She did not know how much time had passed.

Her head hurt.

Her thoughts were slow and scattered, and when she tried to open her eyes, the world shifted unpleasantly around her.

She was moving.

The realization came in fragments.

A rough surface beneath her. The smell of a man’s coat. Her stomach lurched.

She tried to lift her head.

A hand pressed firmly against her back.

"Stay still."

Dante.

The name struck her mind like a bell.

She was over his shoulder.

He was carrying her out of a car. The understanding tore through the haze, and panic erupted inside her.

She struggled.

Dante’s grip tightened.

"Don’t move."

She struck his back with the heel of her hand. "Put me down!" Her voice was hoarse, barely recognizable.

He kept walking.

"Put me down!" She twisted, trying to slide off his shoulder.

He caught her before she could fall, his arm locking around her thighs.

"You’re going to hurt yourself."

She stared at the ground swinging beneath her. She was nowhere near her home. This place looked entirely different.

"Help!" she screamed.

Dante stopped.

For a terrifying second, Selena thought he might put her down.

Instead, he turned his head towards a silent house in the woods. A curtain shifted in one window.

Selena hit his back. "You’re insane!"

He said nothing.

"You’re a monster!"

His pace did not change.

"Emilia will find out what you’ve done!"

That made him stop.

He shifted her weight, then turned his head enough for her to see the hard line of his jaw.

"Emilia is exactly why we’re having this conversation."

Selena’s blood went cold. "What have you done to her?"

"Nothing."

"Don’t lie to me!"

"I haven’t touched her. Yet!"

Dante looked at her for a long moment.

Then he continued towards the waiting house.

Selena fought harder.

She twisted, kicked, and tried to wrench herself free, but her body was weak and her head throbbed with every movement.

He reached the house, opened the door, and pushed her in.

"No!" She grabbed at the doorframe. "Dante, please!"

For the first time, her voice broke into something close to pleading.

"Please. Whatever you want, take it. Take the necklace. Take anything. Just leave Emilia alone."

He looked at her.

For one foolish, desperate second, she thought her words might reach him.

He might remember the child they had raised together. He might remember the woman who had once trusted him with her life.

He might remember being human.

Then he said, "I need the necklace."

Selena stared at him.

"And I need you to tell me where it is."

"I told you, I don’t—"

"Then you’ll help me find it."

He closed the door behind him, locking it.

She tried to scramble across the wooden floor, but he caught her wrist and pulled her back before she could reach the other door.

"Let go of me!"

He fastened a restraint across her and stepped back.

Selena stared at him, horrified. "You can’t do this."

Dante looked at her through the open window. "I already have."

He shut it.

The sound was final.

Selena lunged towards him. "Dante!"

He walked upstairs without looking back.

She pounded on the floor. "Don’t do this! Please! Emilia has done nothing to you!"

He ran a hand through his hair.

"She’s your daughter!" Selena’s hands trembled against the floor. "She’s your little girl!"

For a fraction of a second, Dante’s feet flattered. Then he continued walking again.

Selena watched him disappear through the stairs, her breath catching as the familiar man slipped away behind them.

She had spent years believing that losing Dante was the worst thing that could happen to their family.

She had been wrong.

The worst thing was that he had come back.

Selena swallowed the fear rising in her throat and fixed her gaze on the road ahead through the glass window.

She was terrified. She had never been more terrified in her life.