The Navarro estate loomed like a shadow against the blood-orange sky. Steel gates, ten feet tall, wrapped in barbed wire and guarded by men in black. No one approached this fortress unless they wanted to disappear. But Isabella Deville wasn't thinking about survival. She was thinking about her father.
She stood at the gate, hands trembling, voice cracked and raw from screaming.
"Let me see him! I need to see Rafael Navarro! Please! Please.....my father!"
The guards didn't flinch. But after the sixth scream, a call crackled through an earpiece. One nodded, opened the gate just wide enough and she was seized.
Two guards grabbed her by the arms and dragged her across the gravel. She kicked, screamed, thrashed, but it only earned her bruises.
"Get off me! I'm not a criminal! Let me go!" She said trying to wriggle herself off their grip.
"He's waiting," one of them muttered. "You asked for him. Now you got him."
They shoved her inside the grand mansion. Cold marble floors, gold-lined chandeliers, velvet silence. The air smelled of cigars and blood money.
At the end of a hallway, double doors opened.
Rafael Navarro sat behind a wide black desk. No guards flanked him. He didn't need any. His presence alone could freeze fire.
He was beautiful in the most dangerous way with dark hair slicked back, shirt unbuttoned just enough to show the tattooed cross on his chest. A glass of whiskey in one hand, a pistol lying casually on the table.
He didn't stand. He just looked at her.
"You're loud," he said, voice low and silk over razors.
Isabella stumbled forward, arms still shaking. "Please. I'm sorry....I didn't know where else to go. My father....Cassimo took him. He's going to kill him....please, I'm begging you...."
"Begging doesn't impress me."
She froze.
"He worked for Cassimo," Rafael said. "And he stole from him. Spied on him. That makes him a traitor in both camps."
"He was only trying to protect me," she whispered.
Rafael stood. He moved like smoke...fluid, controlled, dangerous.
"And what are you willing to give to protect him?"
Her breath caught. "Anything."
"What's your name?" He asked,voice hoarse.
"Isabella.....Deville" She answered looking at the floor in fear.
He smiled. No warmth. Just pure evil. "Isabella .....Anything is expensive"
She nodded, tears streaking her cheeks. "I'll do it. Whatever it is."
"Marry me."
The silence hit like a gunshot.
"W-what?"
"Marry me," he said again. "You become mine. And in return, I'll pay for your father's release." His eyes pierced through her skin.
She backed up a step. "Why would you want that?"
He moved closer. She could smell his cologne now....something dark and wickedly expensive.
"Because I want ownership, not gratitude. And a wife is easier to kill just like a mistress."
She sobbed once, hard. "You're a monster."
"I know."
"What if I say no?" She asks tears streaming down her eyes.
"Then Cassimo returns your father's head in a box" He said and moved away from her.
"Pls....you're the only one that can help us, El diablo" Isabella cried.
"You know what to do" He said.
"No....I can't"
She refused. Said no. Shaking, crying.
"Throw her out " He said and turns his back against her.
"Pls.....pls El Diablo" She screams and pleads at the same time but all to know avail as the guards that brought her in forcefully grabbed her and threw her out of the estate.
The Next Day...
Isabella didn't sleep. She spent the night on the couch, trembling, listening to the city hum with life while hers crumbled. Her phone sat dead. Her heart even deader.
The thought of her father, alone in some filthy cell, bloodied or worse, clawed through her chest. She wanted to scream. But there was no one left to hear her.
"I can't believe this is the only way out" she said pained.
She returned to the Navarro estate at sunrise. No more shouting. No fighting. She stood in front of the gates with her arms at her sides and her soul gutted.
The guards exchanged a look. One of them, the older one from yesterday, said nothing...just called in to the people inside to let them know of her presence. Two minutes later, the gates opened.
This time, no one dragged her.
She walked, step by step, into hell.
Rafael was waiting in the same place. Sitting in that throne-like chair behind his desk, sipping coffee, dark hair still perfect, shirt ironed crisp. As if he hadn't moved since she left.
He didn't speak. He just looked at her.
"I couldn't sleep," she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
He raised an eyebrow. "So you came back."
She nodded. "You said the offer was marriage. For his life."
"It hasn't changed."
She hesitated. Her hands shook again, but this time she held them in front of her like a shield.
"If I marry you... will you keep your word? Will he really be safe?"
Rafael stood. He circled the desk slowly, approaching her with silent steps.
"I never break a deal. Not with allies. Not with enemies. A Navarro never breaks a promise."
She swallowed hard. Every vein in her body threatening to explode.
"Then yes," she said. "I'll marry you."
He stared at her for a long moment. His eyes were unreadable.
Then he walked to the bar, poured a drink, and turned his back to her.
"Good. The wedding will happen in two days. You'll be picked up from your house.. I'll make the call to Cassimo. Your father will be returned once the deal is sealed."
She flinched.
"What do you want from me beyond a signature in form of marriage?"
He turned his head slightly. "Everything."
And with that, he dismissed her with a flick of his hand. Like a dog.
She didn't argue. She didn't even ask how he'd be able to get to her address because she knew he owned and operated everywhere. She just turned and walked out, each step heavier than the last.
Two days.
She had two days left to be free. Two days to be a Deville and the rest of her life to be a caged Navarro.