No Longer Your Rose Chapter 04
I was woken by urgent knocking in the early hours before dawn.
Theo stood outside my door with Santoro bodyguards behind him. His eyes were bloodshot and his voice was hoarse. “Isabella, Sophia’s in serious trouble. She was driving and hit someone. They’re dead.”
I leaned against the doorframe and looked at him in silence.
“The victim’s family has already gone to the police. Sophia can’t go to prison. She’s carrying my child.”
“And what do you want from me?”
He took a deep breath. “Take the rap and plead guilty. Your sentence’ll be short; I’ve got connections to cut your time short.”
I looked at him and laughed.
This was the same man who had sworn to love me forever and promised he would never hurt me.
“What if I refuse?”
Theo dropped his gaze and stayed quiet for a long moment.
“Your foster folks are getting up there in age. Accidents can happen out of nowhere, you know.”
“Theo, you…”
On what was supposed to be my wedding day, I went to prison in Sophia’s place.
On my first day inside, an inmate grabbed my jaw. “Miss Sophia sends her regards. She says to make sure you never play piano again.”
They pried each of my fingers open one by one before crushing them flat.
From that day on, the hands that had once danced across black-and-white keys and won international awards could no longer grip anything tightly.
Time slipped by. Five years had passed.