“I know who you are.”
He didn’t deny it.
“I’ve done dark things,” he said quietly. “But this… this is about my daughter.”
Three days later, Bella said yes.
Life inside Gabriel’s Long Island estate was tightly controlled. Cameras. Security. Rules.
But Mia began to laugh again.
To draw.
To celebrate her birthday with pink balloons and homemade cake.
One afternoon, Mia showed Bella a drawing: three people holding hands.
“My family,” she said. “Daddy, me… and you.”
Gabriel stood in the doorway, watching.
Tears in his eyes.
But danger never fully disappeared.
One night, Bella overheard violence in a forbidden wing of the house. A reminder of the world she had entered.
The breaking point came when a rival abducted her grandmother to get to Gabriel.
Bella volunteered to be the distraction.
Inside an abandoned Brooklyn warehouse, she stood face-to-face with the man who held her grandmother hostage.
“You think he loves you?” the rival sneered.
Bella didn’t flinch.
“You don’t understand love,” she said calmly. “You only understand hate.”
Gunfire erupted.
Gabriel stormed in before the trigger could be pulled.
Her grandmother was saved.