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Allison’s eyes widened. She tried to scream, twisting violently as she fought to free herself, but the grip only tightened. Before she could make another sound, darkness swallowed her vision, and her body went limp.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself lying in a strange, unfamiliar place.

Her eyelids felt unbearably heavy, and she struggled to force them open. The first thing she noticed was the darkness. Metal walls surrounded her, stretching upward to meet a high metal ceiling. The space was enormous, empty, and cold. It took her a few moments to realize she was inside a warehouse.

She tried to move, her limbs sluggish as she pushed herself to look around. A single lamp hung from the ceiling, illuminating only part of the vast room. Beyond its weak pool of light, shadows swallowed everything, leaving the far corners of the warehouse shrouded in darkness.

The sheer size of the place made her heart sink. Even if she screamed, there was no guarantee anyone outside would hear her.

A sudden clatter broke the silence.

Allison’s head snapped toward the sound of something striking the floor. Her gaze followed it, and she froze.

A man stood a short distance away, casually playing with a gold object in his hand as though he had all the time in the world.

For a moment, Allison couldn’t breathe. Her body stiffened, and her heart began pounding so violently that she could feel each beat against her ribs.

The man looked older than she remembered, but she recognized his face immediately.

Justin looked Allison straight in the eyes, a mocking smile tugging at his lips. “What was the point of having so many people protecting you and Shane? You’ve gone to so much trouble trying to keep me away from you, yet look where we are now. I still managed to get my hands on you.”

He threw back his head and burst into loud, mocking laughter. But as he stepped closer, his eyes sharpened, and his smile grew more unsettling.

Under the dim light, his face came fully into view. His features looked more sunken than she remembered, and he had aged over the years, but Allison recognized him immediately. Ten years had passed since she had last seen him, yet he was still unmistakably the same man.

Justin stopped in front of her, studying her with a disturbing satisfaction. “And now, after waiting for so many fucking years, I finally have you in my hands.”

Allison glared at him, her face tightening with disgust. “No matter what you do, I will never give you my company. Even if you kill me, the entire business is already in my husband’s name. And you know who my husband is, don’t you? He won’t let you get away with this. He’ll find me, and you’ll pay for everything you’ve done.”

Justin’s expression twisted with resentment.

“I almost forgot about your sweet little relationship.” He tilted his head, looking her over with contempt. “Aren’t you tired of it? I can’t stand seeing you flaunt your closeness with that asshole, but no one will ever convince me that what you have with him is real.”

He suddenly strode toward her and planted both hands on the arms of her chair, leaning so close that Allison instinctively jerked her head back. His face was only inches from hers when he glared at her and snarled, “I met you first! I claimed you first. You were supposed to be mine. Yet you let him touch you!” His jaw tightened, and his fingers curled around the chair’s arms. “I told you I wanted to marry you. I was going to marry you. Why couldn’t you just wait for me?”

Allison’s mouth twisted with revulsion. She could hardly believe the entitlement in his voice, as though he had ever had the right to decide whom she should marry. She turned her face away, unable to bear looking at him, but Justin continued, his resentment spilling out with every word.

“You hid from me for years. I was trying to convince your parents to let you marry me. If they’d agreed, the entire fucking business would have been mine by now, and you would have been mine too. I could’ve had everything without lifting a damn finger. Do you have any idea how easy you could’ve made this for me?”

He shook his head, his expression darkening as he recalled what had happened.

“But then they had to get themselves killed in a fucking car accident.” He gave a bitter, mocking laugh. “How could you run away from me? I told you that you and I were meant to be together, but you had to make everything so fucking complicated.”

Before Allison could respond, Justin reached for her face and leaned in to kiss her. She immediately turned her head away, twisting in the chair as she tried to escape his touch. He followed her movement, pressing his lips against her cheek.

Allison recoiled with a sharp flinch, her stomach turning with disgust. “Get the fuck away from me!” she shouted, trying to wrench her face out of his grasp. “Stop touching me!”

Justin kept his hands on Allison’s face, forcing her to look at him as he spoke with unsettling conviction. “I’ve been in love with you since the moment I laid eyes on you. So stop fighting me and accept that you belong with me. We can get rid of Shane for good, take control of the entire company, and finally live the life we were meant to have. Just you and me, Allison. No one standing between us. Doesn’t that sound fucking wonderful?”

His face dipped closer to hers, his gaze fixed on her lips as he tried to kiss her again.

Allison reacted instantly. She sank her teeth into his mouth and bit down hard.

Justin let out a sharp cry of pain and jerked away from her, one hand flying to his mouth. His expression twisted with fury as he glared at her, his eyes blazing.

“Listen to me! Don’t force me to do something you’ll regret!” he shouted. “Haven’t you made me wait long enough? Either you and I sleep together tonight, or we die together. I’m not letting you leave me any other way.”

Allison stared at him in disbelief before her expression hardened into open defiance. “I’m never sleeping with you, and I’m certainly not dying with you. If you wanted to die so badly, you should have done it ten years ago instead of wasting all this time chasing me. Aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Have you even looked in the mirror? You’re an old man! How could you possibly have expected to marry me when I was practically a child compared to you?”