Ray Lin –
The hallway was darker than usual.
It was past midnight. The house was silent. Not even the marble floors dared to echo under my bare feet.
I hadn't meant to be out of bed.
I just… couldn't sleep.
Again.
The nightmares came back — like they always did. My stepfather's voice, the feel of those damn chains, the sound of auction gavel echoing like a death sentence.
So I got up.
Maybe I'd grab a book from the library. Or walk around a little. Sometimes moving helped.
That's when I heard it.
A voice — low, sharp, and almost angry.
I paused near the half-open door of Sebastian's study.
"…you should've left that night," a man was saying. "You were a kid, Sebastian. You shouldn't have had to clean up your father's mess."
There was a pause.
Then his voice. Calm. Dead calm.
"I couldn't leave her."
I leaned closer, heart pounding.
"Your mother chose him," the first voice snapped. "She let him turn you into this—this thing that doesn't feel."
Silence.
Then Sebastian again, quieter now.
"She didn't choose him. She was scared. And I didn't stay for her. I stayed for Luca. He was eight. Someone had to protect him."
My breath hitched.
I didn't know who Luca was.
But I knew that voice. That weight.
That haunted exhaustion.
I pressed my hand to my chest, feeling it ache.
Sebastian wasn't just rich and ruthless. He wasn't just the mafia king who could end lives with a phone call.
He had been a kid too. Trapped in a house like mine. Trying to survive someone else's evil.
Trying to protect someone smaller.
I backed away slowly, careful not to make a sound.
And for the first time, I didn't feel scared of him.
I felt something else.
Something warm.
Something terrifying.
I think I was starting to trust him.