aide

sion a mask of pure adoration and concern. Cinnamon, who looked perfectly fine aside fro

I'm so hungry. The smoke... it made my throat all dry. I want... I want some o

o concern in his eyes. No shock. No pity. Just cold, hard impatience

eg to my pale face, and his voice w

m. Get up and

t. My head was spinning from the concussion, my bo

ispered, my

ence gone. "Cinnamon wants your pastries

uced haze. It was a dam breaking. Five years of swallowed tears, of silent scream

t. "I'm bleeding! My leg is broken! Your men dragged me out of an

reckless. I didn't care abo

as your wife! I loved you, I respected you, I gave you everything I had, and you treated me like

the air, echoing

His face remained an u

yed. "Lonzo, she's so loud. Sh

w, my love, I'm sorry," he soothed, his voice dripping with ten

ng like a thundercloud. He looked down a

his voice dangerously soft. "Y

tranger. A monster. The last vestiges of my shattered heart turned t

ing out of me, replaced by a profou

smile that held no humor. It

rds. "Take her to the cold storage in the hospital's

, walk-in freezer kept at sub-zero temperatures. For a person in

he floor, the movement sending daggers of

kicked with my good leg, I screamed until my voice was raw, but i

re too intimidated to intervene, and into the cavernous hospital kitchen. They wre

rigid darkness. The heavy thud of the bol

n, my muscles, my bones. The metal brace on my leg felt like a block of burning ice. Every n

ld, the dark, and the pain. I could feel my body s

ught. He's finall

nt nothing in the face of death. A primal, d

nd raw. "Please!" I begged, my voice a pathetic, frozen croak. "

le

d, and the blinding light of the kitchen flooded in. One of the bodyguards looked d

t him, unable to stand. He half-carried, ha

our sifter. My vision blurred in and out of focus. Blood from the gash

ved on autopilot, following a recipe I knew by heart, a recipe I had onc

n and glistening with honey, the bodygua

didn't look at me. He glanced at the past

turned to the bodyguard. "She's serv

ards the operating room I had been stolen from, I saw Alonzo pick up

me, a single, solitary tear escaped the corner

of sadness. Or an

arewell to the foolish girl who had

e had broken

ull me under, a tiny, cold thoug

something that

in its place, something new, something h