Cold.

Valeria was different.

She was cold. She turned her shoulder away from me, so her back was facing me.

We were currently driving God knows where.

I just had to get her out of there no matter what she had done. There was no excuse for how Giovanni handled it or treating her.

She said hurtful things to me, but we could get one of them. I knew she would never say anything like that and mean it. We have been through this and thin. She would never do that to me, no matter how mad she was at anybody.

We would get over it.

Like we always did.

We have never fought this big and problematic before. However, I am worried about how Valeria was doing since she didn't look so good.

Sleep wants her friend at the moment, just like she said I wasn't. I still don't understand where she came from with the meaning of her words. I've always been preoccupied in my life that I never bothered to ask her. She was right; I am a terrible friend.

She had never mentioned anything about it before. I never realized I had ever done anything to make her feel like that.

We arrived at a house. It looked abandoned and tarnished. Was this where Valeria lived or something?

I looked behind my shoulder to find Valeria was nowhere to be found. I shook my head in the other direction in panic. Where could she have possibly gone? I was confused. Valeria told her she had a place to go, but she left her there without telling her anything.

I saw Valeria. Her mouth was covered by a large hand with black gloves. Her eyes were wide as saucers that were trying to warn me about something.

Her screams grew louder but were muffled from the unknown hand.

It was too late.

I felt a hand cover my mouth and nose before I inhaled a strong scent. My head felt dizzy and light-headed. I feel my legs shake from underneath me as I fall onto the hard ground. My sight was blurry, but I could make out Valeria. The man wasn't near her anymore. Instead, she took a knife out of her pocket and sliced a clean cut on his neck.

The man fell to the ground, similar to me, although blood spurting from the wound. She left him there. She did that to him then left him there to die.

She approached me.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't scream.

I felt paralyzed.

At that moment, I wasn't sure who Valeria was anymore.

Her eyes were violent. They reminded me of Giovanni whenever he would kill.

I was wrong about Valeria all along.

I woke up to my head screaming in pain. My eyes were fuzzy, and I couldn't hear anything out of my ears.

She made a person knock me out, killed the man.

I groaned. I looked around the room. My eyes searched the familiar place as my brain racked where I had seen this place before.

Then it hit me.

The party. The basement. The worst day of my life.

I panicked, a scream ripped through my throat. Why was I here? What did Valeria want from me that she brought me to the worst place of my life? The place where my nightmares started.

"Oh, shut up, darling," Valeria said, "you're hurting my ears." Valeria covered her ears.

"Valeria," I said harshly. "How could you do this to me?"

"I had just begun."

"Let me go," I whined. I tugged against the restraints.

She took a roll of tape and covered my mouth. No! Why was I always in this position? She placed the tape on my mouth. My hands were tied together as my back was against the stone wall.

I couldn't look around the room. My eyes saw the mattress on the floor.

"Don't tell anyone," the boy who raped me threatened. "If I hear you told anyone. I will kill you, and I'll kill that pretty little faceoff yours. No one would care about you since your just a slut."

He spat in my face. "You asked for this. This is what you wanted."

No, it wasn't what I wanted.

"Did you think you could live happily ever after with the most feared man in the world?" Valeria asked. "Because that would be cute and naive."

I blinked back tears.

I knew I would never get an ending where Giovanni and I were in a good, healthy relationship. We tried, and that failed.

"Sit tight and be patient before I come back," Valeria said. "I need to go find that useless boyfriend of yours and finally get things even with him."

She left the room. She looked over her shoulder.

She smiled. "Oh, and thank you for helping me escape. I owe you one, sugar."

I frowned.

Darkness met me, and my eyes closed once again. I felt so weak.

•••

I heard rustling in my surroundings. My eyes snapped open.

I saw him.

His eyes held the same icy glare. Giovanni quickly untied the ropes. His hands fumbled as he tried to do it quickly.

"Let's get out of here before he comes back," Giovanni snarled.

I tried to say something, but tape covered my mouth. I needed to warn Giovanni it was Valeria all along.

He looked at me furiously. He was about to open his mouth, probably to yell at me, but another voice cut him off.

"You mean me," Valeria spoke.

I turned around to see Valeria by the door frame. A knife in her hand. She dragged her finger against the edge. My mind released the memories in my head when she killed that man. So calmly as if it was nothing.

Giovanni looked surprised.

How could he have never seen it coming? I thought he was smart. I have an excuse that I didn't know she would be capable of such a thing. She was my best friend.

"You," Giovanni snarled. His tone was cold and as sharp as the knife in Valeria's hand.

"That's right. I'm your enemy, Giovanni. I have been all along."

She twirled the knife.

"I planned everything," Valeria spoke viscously. "Especially that desperate whore who has been pining over you since forever. Tell me, how did you enjoy that kiss, Giovanni."

"That was you," I cried out.

"All me, sweet cheeks."

"Enough with the weird names, Valeria. Everything from the start was a lie. You didn't care about me. You cared about yourself."

"Could you blame me? You're pathetic. You always have been. Crying to everyone about your problems like the world resorts around you," Valeria said.

My eyes widened.

"And Aleksei, remind me never to leave my job in the hands of a man again," Valeria sighed darkly. "God, you're all so pathetic."

"Where are your men?" Giovanni asked harshly. "Where are the girls?"

What girls?

Valeria gave him a blank stare. "Be more specific, darling."

"You know what I'm talking about. How else do you get your money. Derrick told me all about your underground trafficking ring. You made it seem like it was Aleksei who ran it, but it was you all along."

It made sense the reason why Derrick and Giovanni wanted to get revenge on her. She was the one who ran the whole Russian mafia. Whatever she said went whether that was drugs, killing, sex trafficking. She could do whatever she wanted, just like the power Giovanni had over the Italian mafia.

But Giovanni would never do what she had done.

Giovanni handed me the gun.

I stood back—the cold metal in my hand. One wrong move, and I could end a life.

I aimed the gun at Valeria.

She rolled her eyes. "You won't shoot me, Chanel. You could hardly shoot your father."

I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Tell me where the girls are?" I spoke coldly. "And you won't have to find out."

She held the knife tightly in her hand.

I followed her eyes which levelled with a wooden panel that stood out of the ground.

"There," I ushered Giovanni. My head nodded to the haphazard floor. "Check there, Giovanni, now!"

Giovanni lifted the wood, revealing stairs going deeper underground.

I saw Valeria move in the corner of my eye. I pressed the trigger vastly. The bullet hit her leg, sending her tumbling to the ground. A scream escaped her lips.

"Bitch!"

Valeria threw the knife at me. The blade whirled in the air. She missed my face by an inch. The knife knicked my ear. I felt blood trickle down my neck.

"They're here," I heard Giovanni scream.

"You sick bitch," I yelled at Valeria.

She clutched her knee.

"I can't believe you could do something like this," I fumbled over my words. "I can't believe I was your friend. How could you fake it for so long? What about Toby? Was he a game to you too?"

"This isn't a game, Chanel. This is life," she said.

My eyebrows furrowed. What did that even mean?

"You wouldn't know anything about it because you're going to end up just like me. you are your father's daughter, after all."

"I am nothing like him," I growled out. My hand clutched the gun that I now aimed at Valeria's chest, one shot, and she'd be dead.

"You are everything like him. I could see it in your eyes."

"I'm not," I repeated.

If I didn't shoot the gun, then those poor girls will continue being sold. If I don't kill Valeria, she will kill me. And Giovanni.

Killing her was for the best.

I pointed at her cold, dark, and empty heart.

I pulled the trigger.