NO ONE’S POV

"The culprit still hasn’t been found, Master," the nameless girl replied, slowly turning around to face him. Her voice was flat, but her posture was tense under his gaze.

Enzo’s grip tightened around the edge of the food tray. He set it down roughly on the nightstand, stood up, and marched directly over to her. The gentle, sweet facade he had shown Vivien just a moment ago was completely gone.

"Why is it taking you so long, hmm?" Enzo shouted, his voice echoing against the wall. "Don’t tell me you’re slacking off!"

He stepped close to the girl, leaning in until his lips were right next to her ear. He lowered his voice to a whisper, making sure it was too quiet for Vivien to hear from the bed. "If that’s the case, I can just return you to the cruel world I bought you from. Remember where you belong."

The girl didn’t flinch, though her bandaged arm stiffened. She lowered her head respectfully and nodded. "Do not worry, Master. I won’t disappoint you again. I will find the traitor."

"Good," Enzo snapped, pulling back and smoothing down his jacket. He turned his back to her, his tone switching back to coldness. "Now, go and prepare everything as soon as possible. We cannot delay our plans anymore. Dominic has already started his searching, and he is moving much faster than I anticipated. He probably reached the country X by now."

Enzo’s jaw clenched as a dark rage passed over his features. "Since someone inside my own circle has been helping him and leaking my locations, I will personally chop that bastard’s head off the moment I find them."

The girl nodded silently. Before she opened the door to leave, she turned her head slightly and gave Vivien a single glance. There was a strange unreadable emotion hidden deep in her dark eyes before she finally stepped out and closed the door behind her.

On the bed, Vivien lay completely still. She hadn’t been able to hear the quiet whispers between Enzo and the girl, but the moment she caught the name Dominic slipping from Enzo’s mouth, her heart did a badum inside her chest.

Dominic.

He was alive. He was looking for her. He hadn’t given up on her, even after the horrific explosion. For the past few days, she had been drowning in confusion and terror, but hearing that Dominic was tearing the world apart to find her changed everything. For some strange reason, instead of feeling scared of his wrath like she used to, a sudden genuine happiness washed over her. She gripped the bedsheets tightly, her mind screaming a prayer. She wanted him to find her. She wanted him to hurry up, break through those doors, and take her far, far away from this psycho maniac who was smiling at her.

"Now, now... why do I feel like you are thinking about another man, hmm? Babygirl," Enzo said, turning around slowly. He walked back over to the bed, his eyes locking onto Vivien’s wide, expressive eyes. He could read her expressions too well.

As he got closer, a wave of panic hit Vivien. She tried to slide away and shrink back against the headboard, but before she could move an inch, Enzo lunged forward. He grabbed both of her injured shoulders tightly, pinning her down.

"Yelp!" Vivien let out a painful groan, her face twisting in agony. He was pressing down directly on her raw wounds. He was hurting her badly, and he didn’t even seem to care.

"Now, be a good girl and learn to love my touch," Enzo hissed, his face hovering just inches from hers, the sweet classmate persona completely gone.

He pulled his hands back, picked up the bowl from the tray, and scooped up a large spoonful of the hot food. He held it to her lips, expecting her to open up, but Vivien tightly shut her mouth and turned her head away, refusing to take it. Enzo’s eyes darkened instantly. He dropped the spoon back into the bowl, reached out, and brutally grabbed her jaw with his bare hand, forcing her mouth open. He forcefully shoved the food down her throat.

Vivien coughed and sputtered, but she couldn’t speak much. Her body was still entirely exhausted, and her throat still burned painfully from the smoke inhalation of the explosion. Unable to fight him off physically, she could only glare at him with pure hatred and rage in her eyes.

Enzo didn’t care about her anger at all. He kept a tight grip on her face and kept feeding her, completely ignoring her silent resistance. Once the bowl was finally empty, he took a white cloth, gently wiped the stray food from her mouth, and instantly smiled sweetly again, as if he hadn’t just assaulted her.

"Aren’t you curious, babygirl? Or maybe you have so many questions running through that pretty little head of yours?" Enzo chuckled softly, leaning back. "Questions about how me- the sweet, harmless little classmate from your college turned out to be the mysterious stalker who kept texting your phone every single night?"

He paused, tilting his head as his smile turned incredibly twisted,

"Oh, wait. No... after all, you already knew who I was... didn’t you, Vivien?"

Vivien’s eyes widened in absolute surprise, her heart freezing in her chest. She stared at him, her mind racing. So he knew. He knew this entire time that she had already figured out his secret identity.

"You’re right, I knew," Vivien breathed out, her voice raw and shaking.

The moment she admitted it, the sweet look vanished from Enzo’s face completely. "The moment you found out, you started avoiding me. Your smile became so cold. Just like before!" he shouted suddenly, his loud echoing in the empty room. He jumped to his feet. "You always gave me the cold shoulder! No matter what I did for you!"

"It’s because you fucking ruined my life! And toyed with it!! I was living so peacefully but you decided to ruin it by tangling me in your novel!!" Vivien screamed back, using every ounce of energy left in her lungs. The sudden outburst made her throat burn like pure fire, and she choked back a painful cough, tears pricking her eyes.

Enzo’s eyes burned with a psychotic rage. He stormed back over to the bed, looming over her. "I ruined your life?? I toyed with it??!" he screamed, his face twisting with madness. "You’re the one who toyed with my feelings! I loved you, and you treated me like dirt! I just gave you a simple punishment which you completely deserved!"

He was breathing heavily, shaking with pure anger. But then, just as quickly as he had exploded, he stopped. He took a deep breath, calmed himself down, and that sweet smile crept back onto his face.

"But it’s fine now," he murmured softly, brushing a strand of red hair away from her face. "Since you have been punished enough. It’s finally time you learned your lesson, right babygirl?"

Vivien didn’t say a single word. She only glared at him, her eyes filled with absolute disgust.

Enzo didn’t seem to mind her glaring. He walked over to a dark wooden cabinet, picked up a thick album, and walked back to the bed. He sat down right beside her, pressing his side against hers, and cracked the album open on his lap.

When Vivien looked down at the pages, her entire body shuddered with pure horror.

The book was filled with hundreds of pictures of her. There were photos of her walking to high school, photos of her sitting in class, and some were infact taken through the windows of her own house while she was sleeping or reading. This creep had been documenting her entire life from the shadows for years.

"See how much I loved you, hmm?" Enzo whispered lovingly into her ear, his warm breath making her skin crawl. He pointed a finger at a photo of her laughing with a friend from years ago. "Look at this picture. You looked so adorable here. I’ve kept every single memory of us."

"We looked so adorable..." Enzo’s voice suddenly dropped, the warmth vanishing in an instant. "I did so many things for you. I watched over you, I protected you from the shadows, yet you had to go and fall for him!" he said angrily, his fingers digging into the edges of the photo album.

Vivien’s eyes widened. Her heart missed a beat as she stared at his twisted expression. "You... you knew about that?" she whispered, her voice trembling.

"Of course I do! I know exactly why you rejected me in front of everyone that day!" Enzo snapped, absolute jealousy burning like an unquenchable fire inside his chest. "You thought you were hiding it so well, but I saw the way you looked at him. I saw how your eyes lit up whenever he was around!"

Vivien felt a cold, realization wash over her. Pieces of a painful past that she had never understood suddenly began to fall into place.

"That means..." she muttered, her breath shaking. "It was you. It was you who made up everything back then... the rumors, the scandals, the lies that ruined my reputation and forced me away..."

A victorious smirk played on his lips. He didn’t even try to deny it. "Yes," he confessed smoothly, leaning closer to her. "If I can’t have my love, how come I should let you have yours? If you weren’t going to choose me, then I had to make sure you couldn’t choose him either."

Vivien looked at him, her eyes turning completely blank and heartless. She stopped glaring. The sheer disgust in her veins turned into a numb, hollow ache.

He was right. Long before Dominic had locked her in his mansion, and long before Enzo had stalked her, there was indeed someone she had loved. She had been so young back then. She hadn’t even known his name or anything about his true background. She only knew he belonged to that ultra-wealthy, elite circle of society- a world completely out of her reach. Because of that, she knew she never stood a real chance. It was her first ever love. A completely innocent, one-sided love that she had kept locked deep inside her heart.

And Enzo had brutally crushed it before it could even begin.

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TO BE CONTINUED