---- Chapter 6 Ariel Payne POV: The drive back to the house was a blur. My mind was a maelstrom of shock and betrayal. By the time | walked through the front door, Desmond was waiting for me. The concern from the hospital, the fury from the cafe-it had all hardened into something cold and cruel. + "You' ve become a liability, Ariel," he said, his voice devoid of any emotion. He grabbed my arm, his grip like steel. "Desmond, you have to believe me, it was a setup!" | cried, struggling against him. "She cut herself!" "Enough," he snarled, dragging me down the hallway towards the basement. "I' ve been too patient with you. You need a time-out. To think about what you' ve done." He shoved me into the dark, musty space and slammed the heavy door, the lock clicking shut with a terrifying finality. The darkness was absolute. My breath hitched in my throat. | 've had claustrophobia since | was a child, a deep, primal fear of small, enclosed spaces. Desmond knew this. He was the one who had held me through countless panic attacks, whispering that he would never let anything bad happen to me. ---- "Desmond, please!" | screamed, pounding on the door until my good hand was raw. "Don't do this! You know | can't... | can' t breathe in here!" There was no answer. | heard his footsteps walking away. Panic, cold and sharp, clawed at my lungs. The walls felt like they were closing in, squeezing the air from my body. | sank to the floor, curling into a tight ball, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. The darkness pressed in. | could feel it, a physical weight on my skin. My vision tunneled. Black spots danced before my eyes. A memory surfaced, sharp and vivid. A fire, years ago, in our old apartment building. The hallway was filled with thick, black smoke. | had frozen, paralyzed by fear. Desmond had thrown me over his shoulder and carried me down five flights of stairs, his face black with soot, his lungs raw from smoke inhalation. He had saved my life, without a second thought for his own. That man would never have locked me in a dark basement to die. That man was gone. The tears that came were silent, hot trails of surrender on my cold skin. | was going to die here, abandoned by the man | had given my life to. And he wouldn' t even care. | don' t know how long | was in there. Hours? A day? Time ---- ceased to have meaning. At some point, | must have passed out. The next thing | knew, the door was wrenched open, and harsh light flooded the space, blinding me. Desmond stood there, looking down at me with contempt. He dragged me to my feet. "Have you learned your lesson?" he asked, his voice cold. "Stay away from Aurora. If you cause any more trouble, | promise you, the basement will be the least of your worries." | just stared at him, my body limp in his grasp. A strange, hollow laugh escaped my lips. A lesson? Oh, | had learned my lesson. | had learned that my love, my life, meant absolutely nothing to him. He shoved me away from him and turned to leave. "I'm going to see Aurora. Don' t wait up." He didn't even glance back. | had to get out. | stumbled out of the house, my only thought to get to the airport, to my aunt. | hailed a cab, my body trembling. But before the car could pull away from the curb, a black van screeched to a halt in front of us. Two large men ripped the door open and dragged me out. | screamed, but one of them clamped a hand over my mouth. They threw me into the back of the van, and the world went dark. When | came to, | was in a dusty, abandoned factory. My hands were tied to a metal chair. Across from me, tied to another chair, was Aurora Quinn. Her perfect hair was ---- disheveled, her expensive dress was torn, and her face was streaked with tears and genuine terror. A man emerged from the shadows. He had a jagged scar across his face and cold, dead eyes. He looked at us, then at his phone. "He's on his way," he grunted. Minutes later, Desmond burst through the factory doors, his face pale with panic. "Let them go!" he yelled. "I' Il give you whatever you want!" The scarred man laughed. "Oh, Desmond. Always trying to solve things with money." He stepped into the light, and | saw a flicker of recognition, of fear, in Desmond' s eyes. "You don' t remember me, do you? You screwed over my brother in your first startup. Drove him to bankruptcy. To suicide." The man' s face twisted into a mask of grief and rage. "Money can't bring him back. But | can take something from you. Something you value." He pulled out a wicked-looking knife. He walked between me and Aurora. "So, tell me, Desmond. You can only save one. Your future, the brilliant, powerful heiress who will secure your empire? Or your past, the pathetic little ghost you' ve been trying so hard to get rid of?" Aurora let out a terrified sob. "Des! Save me! Please, Des, save me!" Desmond stared, his face a mask of agony. He looked at Aurora, his golden ticket to the future. Then he looked at me, ---- the woman who held his past. The kidnapper grew impatient. He lunged forward, the blade of his knife slicing a shallow but painful cut across Aurora' s arm. She screamed. Then, he turned and did the same to me, the sharp sting of the blade a jolt to my system. "Choose!" the man roared, pressing the knife to Aurora' s throat. "Or they both die!" Desmond's eyes were wide with terror. He looked back and forth between us, his jaw clenched, his body trembling. The choice was tearing him apart.