New York was just like I remembered it to be.

Dull, cold, with patches of snow mixed with dirt on the sidewalk and cars blocking the roads.

We waited for an hour in traffic where I had to listen to Dante and Cade talk about their fantasy crap. They two got on my nerves just like everyone else did, and I wouldn't have brought them but I'd known them since childhood and they were my most trusted men.

The car finally stopped outside a tall and dark building making the two shut up.

On the side walk sat a tall and dull building, one that resembled a wall. The place barely had any windows, and was in the shadiest part of New York. I knew because my base was being ran nearby and there was nothing shadier than me.

The place smelled like medicine and dead souls as I walked in. Jesus, this was the last place I would imagine that women to be.

Everything about it was grim. Hell it sucked the life out of me and that was saying something. I was used to stuff like this, even worse.

"Alexandra Vitale." Santo spoke to the receptionist as I swiped a palm over my jaw.

After telling me she was going to get married and do all that other couples shit there was a reason she was in here. And like the De Luca I was I knew I'd investigate it dry.

"Alex. She is in...room 306." The receptionist started typing on the computer before headed out from behind the counter. "Come with me."

I told the men to stay downstairs and followed the old woman towards the elevator that went up 40 floors. It took a painful amount of time to get up there, enough to let the 50 year old receptionist look me up and down and tell me she was single.

She lead me through a corridor, walking so slow I was about to snap. "Can you walk any fucking slower."

She rolled her eyes before stopping in front of a door.

"If there are any problems, tell the nurses. Or me."

My expression hardened when she winked before she left.

I didn't hesitate before opening the door. A part of me thought it wouldn't be her, that it was someone else with the same name and description.

Another part of me knew, and feared what would happen to me if it was her, because I already brought myself here and I fucking hated it. I didn't need another responsibility to deal with.

I stepped inside, a clean and gray room looking back at me. It was a prison. Vinyl floors, a barely there window with bars, and one lightbulb.

At the sides were metal beds, with practically no mattresses. The blonde sitting on one bed stared at me with her mouth open, but my focus was set on the

~Alex~

The flavour of the blueberry yoghurt burst on my tongue in an unsatisfying way. I asked for strawberry but the mean woman told me I had no room to ask for anything.

You might be wondering what the hell I was doing here. Anyone would, and the blame was all on my Fiancé.

Kegan visited me today. His visits were starting to get less frequent, like I cared. I didn't want to see him at all, I hadn't said a single word to him since I got in here and that angered him a lot.

I shoved another spoonful of yoghurt into my mouth, though these pills made me sick to the stomach. They made me sleepy and not as talkative as I used to be, I mean I had a roommate and I barely spoke to her.

With the spoon still in my mouth, the door pushed open and my eyebrows knitted with confusion. The nurse only came by twice a day and that was to drop off food.

I thought it'd be Kegan again, but then I met with a pair of stormy eyes and recognition shot down my spine.

A gasp jumped out of my mouth. This wasn't real, these pills were making me hallucinate. I convinced myself I was seeing things, but when the tall body stepped closer to me I jumped and clung onto my blanket.

Leo's expression was emotionless as always, but when I flinched he focused more on my face and let his eyes drop to my lip. My bruised lip.

And his eyes darkened like I'd never seen before.

I remained still as he walked over to me, towering over my bed with his hands in his pockets. He looked away from my face, a muscle tensing in his jaw. He'd occasionally glance at my lip just to do the the same all over again.

"Get up."

I shook my head. "No."

"Alex-"

"No. I'm not leaving." I crossed my arms and stayed in my place. This was my home now, even though tears formed in my eyes at the thought of what I'd been through here. "Just go away."

His jaw clenched. He pulled the yoghurt from me and tore my blanket off, his stare hard enough to make me rethink my words.

"You're going home. Get the fuck up before I do it for you."

My mouth opened to speak, but I had no energy arguing. I got out of bed and put on my white bunny slippers which he looked at like they were stupid.

I then picked up my backpack and followed him out of the building, opening the door of the SUV parked outside. When I saw men sitting in the back staring at me, I just blinked and tried to get in, but one of them wouldn't move.

I stared at him and he signalled towards the middle seat, which made dread knot in my stomach. I slid in, trying not to sit on his lap and plopping onto the middle seat.

The men were large and crushed me in my seat, and a little handsome I'll admit. Us Italians were either incredibly good looking or ugly as a toad and there was no in between.

Leo got in at the front and the driver started to move off. The car ride was dead silent.

The only thing that made it worse was that the two men were looking at me intrusively. I should have been embarrassed about the fact that I wore pyjamas and had my hair into a ratty bun but I was too disorientated to care.

New York buzzed with life as we drove along a highway to God knows where. I spent my time staring into space and wondering how Kegan would react when he got to the institution and realised I was gone.

Would he be sad? Would he look for me? Why did I even give a damn, he was a sick bastard and got on my nerves just as bad as the prying eyes that watched me did.

I shot my head to the side, glaring at the one of the men. "Do I look like a fucking tv set?"

A smirk tipped the brown haired mans lips. "You were right boss."

"Right about what?"

Wait- boss?

Of course he was called boss. Until now I had forgotten who he really but I guess I was reminded seeing the finely dressed men with pressed suits and expensive watches.

Maybe it was his money that made him find me, but I didn't know why.

My only assumption was that Kegan had something to do with this, no doubt. He wanted me to go home.

————

When the car pulled up outside a jet, all the energy I was lacking suddenly shot me against the window. I stared outside like I'd never seen such a thing as we drove onto a runway.

On it sat a private jet twice as big as the one that took me to New York. Once the car stopped one of the men nudged me to get out.

I elbowed him back, pushing him away as I slid from the car and as I stared at the jet, I felt a gaze heat the side of my face. Leo stood as if he were in deep, evil thought.

"How did you find me?" I asked without any emotion in my voice. The men were getting inside the plane, and it made me ask myself what was going on. I was still loopy from pills and didn't know if this was real.

But as always, I never got a response from him. So I sat inside the plane with a handful of strange men and watched New York fade away like a lucid dream.

I let the sight of the building dig at pit in my heart, and once it disappeared under thick clouds I knew it - everything I ever dreamt of had been crushed, reminders crumbling down and hitting me hard enough to bruise.

I didn't even want to go to New York. It was that bitch Kegan who told me it would be amazing in America.

Tears welled up in my eyes but I dared not to let them fall. The men sat on the other side of the plane so they would still be able to see and there was no doubt they'd scrutinise me with those scary eyes.

I already felt like a lamb in a wolves den.

Even the flight attendant could see that as she gave me a look of pity, and she didn't even know my situation.

She simply looked at my red eyes as she brought the men food, earning a few snide comments about her body. Leo didn't say anything though, he just sat back with that sober expression on his face.

I couldn't face him. I didn't even want to fave my family. How pathetic must it sound hearing I didn't get married like I planned, and instead got shoved into a mental institution by my fiancè?

I was a disgrace, a disappointment, a loser. A tear rolled down my cheek and slid into the corner of my mouth, salty and cold. I quickly wiped it away and faced the window more, but heard a rustle.

Footsteps thudded towards me, his eerily empty presence somehow lighting up my skin like he were fire.

"You gonna tell me what the fuck got you into a nuthouse?"

"Why should I? You already know."

I ignored his gaze and focused on the sun setting over the horizon. There were so many colours. Yellow, and orange and the most vibrant strokes of pink. If only New York had this kind of sky.

The longer Leonardo stared at me the more uncomfortable I got under the emptiness of his eyes. It was when I met his gaze, did I see the confusion within it.

Did Kegan not tell him to take me home?

My eyebrows furrowed slightly. "You don't know? I thought Kegan got you to do this?"

Seeing the cluelessness on his face made me lower my chin with disappointment. I should't have expected anything from my ex-fiancé.

"Who the fuck is Kegan?"

"The man who put me in that place."

Leo's gaze dropped to my burst lip and narrowed, before he forced himself to look away. His jaw ticked and just thinking of how Kegan hurt me, my eyes balled with tears.

God, why did I keep crying? 

"I gave him everything." I admitted. "And in return he took me to the worst place I could imagine when he knew how I felt about it."

My words trailed off but Leo just stood there, hand in his pockets and his mind elsewhere. I should have gotten a hint that he didn't give a damn but I was so annoyed with Kegan.

"He knew I'd hate it after what happened to her, and still he-"

There was a slight shift in his demeanour. "Her?"

My palm swiped the tears on my cheeks. That would have to be the last of them, I hated crying in front of people. My head turned to the window and I knew he was waiting for an answer, but when he didn't get it he walked away.