Chapter 49

Aurora POV

“Okay,” I tell her with a firm nod. “Whatever you can get me, I’ll take it.”

“Good.” She says, smiling for the first time. “This is excellent. Once you’re out of the picture, Dominic won’t be blinded anymore. He’ll finally see me just like he should’ve been this entire time. But you’re too much of a black cloud, no one can see past it.”

I scoff, unable to help myself. “Camilla, you can’t honestly tell me you’re in love with him.”

“Yes,” she says without a hint of hesitation. “I am.”

That’s what makes me laugh. Not a small, polite chuckle. A full-blown, almost maniacal burst of amusement that rattles in my chest. “You poor thing… If you had any idea what kind of psychotic monster Dominic really is. You’d run the other way.”

“Don’t act like you’re better than me,” she hisses. “You’ve slept with him. Don’t deny it. You’ve played your part in this too.”

“Believe me,” I mutter, the humor now long gone. “I know exactly what I’ve done. That’s how I can confidently tell you exactly that.”

Her chin lifts. “Do we have a deal or what?”

“Yes, we have a deal.”

She turns on her heel to leave, strutting toward the door triumphantly like a woman who thinks she’s just won the war. But something grabs me before she makes it out the door.

“Wait.”

She spins, annoyed. “What now?”

“It’s not just me,” I say quickly. “I need the same for Gianna. A passport, tickets, everything.”

She groans audibly. “Seriously?”

“I’m not leaving her behind. She’s coming with me. Or there’s no deal.”

Camilla stares at me for a long moment, her annoyance radiating off her in waves. Then, with a loud scoff, she throws her hands up. “Fine. If it gets you out of my hair faster, then so be it.”

And with that, she slams the door shut behind her.

I stare at the empty space she just vacated.

Did that really just happen?

I sit down on the edge of my bed amongst the mess of my room, my heart racing with something dangerously close to hope. It feels fragile like it’ll shatter the second I breathe too hard. But it’s there.

I might actually have a way out after all.

The rest of the afternoon passes in a blur. My nerves spike every time someone walks past my door, every time I hear footsteps or distant voices. I half expect Camilla to come storming back in and call it all off. Or worse, tell my father I’m planning on running.

But no one comes.

When the twins finally tell me it’s time to head back to the safehouse, I go with a buzzing in my veins.

Gianna talks most of the ride back, but I barely register what she’s saying. I’m stuck in my head, chasing all the possibilities and pitfalls at once. There’s a good possibility I’m getting my hopes up for nothing and this is all simply Camilla’s way of torturing me by dangling a future in front of my face like I’m some starved animal.

It wouldn’t be the first time she’s done something evil to me.

By the time we pull up outside the safehouse again, the hope I’d been riding on earlier has started to crash.

Gianna notices immediately.

“You’ve been quiet the whole way back,” she says as we step inside.

“I’m just tired,” I lie.

“Bullshit,” she replies, shutting the door behind us. “What happened? Did your dad say something again?”

“No. I didn’t even see him.” I bite my lip and glance around to make sure we’re alone. “Something… weird happened.”

She raises a brow. “Define weird.”

I sit on one of the ends of the couch, gesturing for her to sit too. “I saw Camilla.”

“That’s not shocking,” she mutters, crossing her arms.

“No, like... she was going through my stuff.”

“Classic.”

“And then she told me something. Well, offered.”

Gianna leans in. “What was it?”

I take a deep breath. “She said... if I really want out, she can get me everything I need. Fake ID, passport, tickets. Cash. All of it.”

Gianna’s eyes widen. “Wait. What?”

“She wants me gone,” I say, almost laughing. “She wants Dominic all to herself and she’s convinced that if I disappear, she’ll have a shot with him.”

Gianna stares at me, mouth slightly open.

“She’s serious,” I say. “I think she actually meant it.”

“And you believe her?” she asks, skeptical.

“I didn’t at first but I don’t know… something about the way she said it felt like she wasn’t bluffing. At least, I don’t think she was.”

Gianna falls quiet.

“Before she left,” I continue, “I told her I wouldn’t go without you. I said if she was going to help me, she had to help you too.”

Gianna exhales slowly. “Wow.”

“I know.”

It’s a while before either of us says anything. My fingers work worried marks into the hem of my shirt while I wait for her response or for anything for that matter. But Gianna remains quiet, her brow pulled together in deep thought while she stares at nothing in particular.

I ask, more hesitant than I want to sound, “You still want to come with me? If this all works out, if she actually delivers, would you really go like you said you would?”

She doesn’t even hesitate. “Yeah, of course I would.”

I blink. “Really?”

“I told you I would, didn’t I?” she says, giving me a small smile. “And if this is real I’m not going to let it slip away. I’m trapped in this shithole too, remember? Just because my dad loves me doesn’t mean I won’t eventually be shoved off to marry some man for political gain. That’s how our world works unfortunately.”

A thousand emotions crash into me at once. Relief. Gratitude. Fear.

“I just don’t know how we’re going to do this without your dad,” I whisper.

“Don’t worry about my dad,” she says eventually. “Let me worry about him.”

I nod, unsure, but it’s enough for now. She leans in and pulls me into a hug, squeezing tight.

“We’ll get out,” she says into my hair. “One way or another.”

For the first time in a long, long time I want to believe her.