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Short filmTranscript
00:00I'm going to tell you something I've never said out loud before.
00:03The night everything changed, I wasn't supposed to be there.
00:06I'm standing in my sister's apartment, her apartment, not mine,
00:10wearing her dress because mine has coffee stains down the front
00:13and I have a job interview in six hours that I can't afford to miss.
00:16The fabric clings wrong to my body, too tight in the waist, too loose in the shoulders.
00:22Nothing about this moment belongs to me, but that's the story of my life lately,
00:27taking up space that was meant for someone else.
00:29Borrowing time I haven't earned back yet.
00:32Maya's in the shower.
00:33I can hear the water running, hear her singing something off-key and happy.
00:38She doesn't know I'm here.
00:40I used my key, the one she gave me three months ago
00:43when I showed up at her door with two garbage bags of clothes
00:46and a face she pretended not to notice was bruised.
00:49She didn't ask questions then.
00:51She just pulled me inside and made up the couch
00:53and told me I could stay as long as I needed.
00:55As long as I needed turned into me sleeping on her floor
00:58because I gave up the couch.
00:59Turned into me stealing her clothes and eating her groceries
01:02and trying not to cry every time she smiled at me
01:04like I wasn't a burden she couldn't shake.
01:07The dress is red.
01:08That matters later.
01:10I'm staring at myself in her hallway mirror,
01:12trying to convince myself I look like someone who deserves a second chance
01:15when I hear the front door open behind me.
01:18Not open.
01:19Kicked open.
01:19The sound is so loud it doesn't register as real at first.
01:23My brain tries to make it something else.
01:25Wind, construction outside, a dropped pot in the apartment below.
01:30But then there's the splinter of wood,
01:32the crash of the door slamming into the wall,
01:34and my body knows before my mind catches up.
01:37Run.
01:38But I don't.
01:40I freeze.
01:42Like prey that thinks staying still will make the predator's eyes slide past.
01:45Like maybe if I don't breathe, don't blink, don't exist hard enough,
01:50this won't be happening.
01:52Three men flood into the apartment.
01:55Big men.
01:57The kind of big that isn't gym muscle.
01:59It's the kind that comes from a life spent breaking things.
02:03They move like water, smooth and certain,
02:05fanning out through the space like they've done this a thousand times before.
02:09The one in front sees me and stops.
02:11Our eyes meet.
02:13I should scream.
02:14I should run.
02:16I should do something other than stand here drowning in my own heartbeat.
02:20But all I can think is...
02:22Maya.
02:23Maya's in the shower.
02:25Maya doesn't know.
02:26That her?
02:27One of them asks.
02:29His voice is casual.
02:30Bored, almost.
02:32Like he's asking if I'm the pizza delivery.
02:34The one staring at me.
02:35Dark hair.
02:36Darker eyes.
02:37A scar cutting through his left eyebrow.
02:39Tilts his head.
02:41Studies me like I'm a painting he's trying to authenticate.
02:44Yeah.
02:45He says.
02:46But he doesn't sound sure.
02:48I find my voice.
02:50It comes out wrong.
02:52Too high.
02:53Too thin.
02:54Like it belongs to a girl instead of a 26-year-old woman who's survived worse than this.
02:58You have the wrong apartment.
03:00It's a stupid thing to say.
03:02Pointless.
03:02But it's all I have.
03:04Scarred eyebrow smiles.
03:05It's not a kind smile.
03:08We don't make mistakes, sweetheart.
03:10And then he's moving toward me and my body finally remembers how to work.
03:15I turn to run, but there's nowhere to go.
03:17The bathroom's behind me and I can't.
03:20I won't lead them to Maya.
03:21So I do the only thing I can think of.
03:24I lie.
03:26Okay?
03:28The word rips out of me.
03:30Okay, I'll go with you.
03:31Just don't hurt anyone else.
03:34Please.
03:35He stops.
03:37The other two stop.
03:38They're all looking at me now like I just said something in a language they don't speak.
03:43I'll go quietly, I say.
03:45And I'm shaking so hard the words vibrate.
03:47Just leave everyone else alone.
03:50Behind the bathroom door, the water shuts off.
03:53My heart stops.
03:54Scarred eyebrow's eyes flick toward the sound, then back to me.
03:58I see him calculating.
03:59See him weighing options I don't want to imagine.
04:02Please, I whisper.
04:04And I step toward him.
04:06Actually step toward the man who broke into my sister's apartment to take someone who isn't even me.
04:11I'm who you want.
04:13Right?
04:14So let's just go.
04:16For a second, I think he's going to call my bluff.
04:19I think he's going to walk past me and kick down that bathroom door and...
04:23But he doesn't.
04:24He grabs my arm instead.
04:26His grip is iron-wrapped in skin.
04:28Smart girl.
04:29I'm not smart.
04:31I'm terrified.
04:32But I let him pull me toward the broken door.
04:34Let him guide me past the wreckage of Maya's sense of safety.
04:37And I don't look back because if I look back, I'll scream.
04:40I'll fight.
04:41I'll do something that gets us both killed.
04:44The hallway is empty.
04:46Of course it's empty.
04:47This is the kind of building where people hear screaming and turn up their TVs.
04:50Where everyone minds their business because getting involved means becoming a problem yourself.
04:55I know because I've been that person.
04:59I've heard sounds through walls and told myself it wasn't my place to interfere.
05:03Karma's a bitch with perfect timing.
05:05They walk me down four flights of stairs.
05:08The elevator would be too exposed, I guess.
05:10Or maybe they just like the control of having me trapped in a concrete stairwell where my voice would echo into nothing.
05:16Outside, there's a black SUV waiting.
05:19Engine running.
05:20Windows tinted so dark they look like holes cut into reality.
05:24Get in.
05:25I get in.
05:27The interior smells like leather and something else.
05:30Something sharp and metallic that my brain identifies as danger even though I've never smelled danger before.
05:36Scarred eyebrow slides in next to me.
05:38The other two take the front seats.
05:40Doors slam like coffin lids.
05:42We're moving before I can process where we're going.
05:45I should be panicking.
05:46Should be crying or begging or trying to throw myself out of a moving vehicle.
05:50But instead, I'm just...
05:52Numb.
05:54Floating somewhere above my body.
05:57Watching this happen to someone who looks like me but can't possibly be me because this isn't real.
06:02This is a nightmare I'm going to wake up from any second now.
06:05Except I don't wake up.
06:06I sit there in my sister's red dress, in a car full of strangers who think I'm someone worth stealing, and I wonder if this is what I deserve.
06:14If all the bad choices I've made, all the people I've hurt, all the bridges I've burned, have finally caught up to me in the shape of three men and a black SUV.
06:23We drive for 20 minutes, maybe 30.
06:27Time stops meaning anything.
06:29When we finally stop, they don't blindfold me.
06:32Don't even seem concerned that I can see where we're going.
06:36That's when I realize they don't think I'm leaving here alive.
06:39The building we pull up to doesn't look like a place where people disappear.
06:43It looks expensive.
06:45Glass and steel and architectural ambition.
06:48The kind of place that has doormen and security cameras and people who ask questions.
06:53But the garage we drive into is empty.
06:56Private.
06:56The kind of space that exists in the gaps of the city where rules don't reach.
07:02Scarred eyebrow opens my door.
07:05Out.
07:06My legs don't want to work, but I make them.
07:09I stand on concrete that's too clean, under fluorescent lights that are too bright, and I wait for whatever comes next.
07:16What comes next is him.
07:18I don't hear him approach.
07:20Don't see him until he's already there, materializing out of shadows that shouldn't exist under these lights.
07:25He's tall, taller than the others, and wearing a suit that probably costs more than everything I own.
07:33Dark hair pushed back from a face that's all sharp angles and controlled violence.
07:38Eyes like smoke and ice.
07:40He looks at me, and I watch something flicker across his features.
07:44Confusion, maybe, or recognition.
07:48Who the fuck, he says quietly.
07:51Is this?
07:52His voice is deep, controlled.
07:54But underneath, there's an edge that makes my survival instincts scream.
07:59Scarred eyebrow shifts beside me.
08:01I feel his uncertainty like static in the air.
08:04Boss, this is...
08:05We got her from the apartment, just like you.
08:08This, the man interrupts, still staring at me, is not Melanie Zhao.
08:13The world tilts.
08:15Melanie.
08:16Melanie.
08:16Oh, God.
08:19Oh, God.
08:20They wanted Maya's roommate.
08:21The girl who moved out last month after some kind of falling out.
08:25The girl whose mail still shows up sometimes.
08:27Whose name is still on the lease.
08:30I open my mouth.
08:31I should tell them.
08:33Should explain the mistake.
08:34Should give them Maya's forwarding address and pray they forget I exist.
08:37But when his eyes meet mine, really meet mine, like he's looking past my skin and bones straight
08:44into the damaged parts I keep hidden, something stops me.
08:48No, I hear myself say.
08:50I'm not.
08:51And then I wait for him to kill me.
08:54Instead, he steps closer.
08:56Close enough that I can smell him.
08:58Expensive cologne and something earthier.
09:01Something that makes my traitorous body forget we're in a concrete garage with men who break
09:04down doors and steal women in red dresses.
09:08Then who?
09:09He asks softly, dangerously.
09:12Are you?
09:13I swallow.
09:15Taste copper and fear and something else I don't have a name for.
09:19I'm the girl, I whisper, who just saved your life.
09:24His eyebrow rises, just barely.
09:26But I see it.
09:28And I see the moment he decides not to let me go.
09:31Here's what I learn in the first hour.
09:33His name is Vincent Moretti, and I shouldn't be alive.
09:37He doesn't tell me the first part.
09:39I hear it when one of his men says, Mr. Moretti wants her in the North Suite, like it's a death
09:44sentence.
09:44The second part, though, that he tells me himself.
09:48We're in an elevator.
09:50Just the two of us.
09:52Scarred eyebrow and the others stayed behind in the garage, dismissed with a look that said
09:56more than words could.
09:57The doors slid shut, sealing me in twenty square feet with a man who's decided I'm worth keeping
10:03but hasn't decided why yet.
10:05You realize, Vincent says, watching the floor numbers climb, that you should already be dead.
10:10I'm pressed against the far wall, as far from him as this metal box allows.
10:16My heart's doing something arrhythmic and violent in my chest.
10:19Because I'm not Melanie.
10:22Because you saw.
10:23He turns those smoke and ice eyes on me.
10:26You saw our faces.
10:28You saw the car.
10:30You know I exist.
10:32That's three reasons to put a bullet in your head and forget this night ever happened.
10:36The elevator hums.
10:38My mouth is so dry I can barely form words.
10:42But you didn't.
10:44No.
10:45He's still watching me.
10:47Still trying to figure out what equation I'm solving in his head.
10:50I didn't.
10:52Why?
10:54The elevator stops.
10:56Fifteenth floor.
10:57The doors open onto a hallway that looks like it belongs in an upscale hotel.
11:01Textured wallpaper.
11:02Recessed lighting.
11:04Art that's probably worth more than my life.
11:07Vincent doesn't answer.
11:09Just walks out.
11:10Expecting me to follow.
11:12I do.
11:13Because what choice do I have?
11:15The north suite turns out to be a penthouse apartment that makes Maya's place look like a storage unit.
11:20Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city.
11:23Furniture that's all clean lines and expensive fabric.
11:26A kitchen with marble countertops that gleam under pendant lights.
11:30Sit.
11:31Vincent says.
11:32It's not a request.
11:34I sit on a leather couch that probably cost more than my car did before it got repossessed.
11:39My hands are shaking so I tuck them under my thighs.
11:42The red dress.
11:43Maya's dress.
11:44Feels obscene here.
11:46Too bright.
11:47Too loud.
11:48A bloodstain in a room full of neutral tones.
11:51Vincent pours himself a drink from a crystal decanter.
11:54Doesn't offer me one.
11:56Just stands there by the windows, backlit by the city, and drinks whiskey like he's got all the time in the world.
12:01You said you saved my life.
12:05His voice is conversational now.
12:08Almost curious.
12:09Explain.
12:10I don't know if it's the adrenaline crash or the insanity of the situation, but suddenly I'm angry.
12:16You broke into my sister's apartment to kidnap someone?
12:19Got the wrong woman and you want me to explain myself?
12:22He turns.
12:24Raises an eyebrow.
12:25Your sister's apartment?
12:27Shit.
12:28I was borrowing a dress, I say, and I hear how pathetic it sounds.
12:33For a job interview.
12:34Maya, my sister, she didn't even know I was there.
12:37She was in the shower when you, when they...
12:40My voice cracks.
12:41I hate myself for it.
12:52And you let them take you, he says slowly, to protect her.
13:01It's not a question, but I answer anyway.
13:04Yes.
13:06Even though you knew, must have known, what might happen to you.
13:11Yes.
13:12Why?
13:14The question lands like a fist to my sternum.
13:18Why?
13:19God, where do I even start?
13:22Because Maya's the only person who didn't give up on me when everyone else did?
13:26Because she took me in when I had nothing, asked for nothing in return, and deserves better than men with guns breaking down her door?
13:34Because I owe her everything and this was the only currency I had left to pay?
13:39Because she's good, I finally say.
13:42And I'm not.
13:43And if someone has to pay for whatever Melanie did, it should be me.
13:47Vincent stares at me for a long moment.
13:50Then, and this is the thing that breaks something loose in my chest, he laughs.
13:55Actually laughs.
13:56It's a rough sound, dark and surprising, like he's forgotten how.
14:00You think you're not good.
14:02He shakes his head.
14:04You just threw yourself on a grenade for your sister, and you think you're not good.
14:08You don't know me.
14:10No, he agrees.
14:12But I'm starting to.
14:15He moves away then, back to his drink, and I can breathe again.
14:20The anger drains out of me, leaving just exhaustion and confusion and something else I don't want to name.
14:25So what happens now, I ask?
14:29You keep me here until you find Melanie?
14:31Use me as bait?
14:34Melanie Zhao is dead.
14:36The words are so casual, so matter-of-fact, that it takes me a second to process them.
14:42What?
14:43She died three days ago.
14:45Car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway.
14:48Vincent picks up his glass again.
14:50Studies the amber liquid.
14:51Or that's what it was supposed to look like.
14:55My stomach drops.
14:57You killed her.
14:59I didn't.
15:00But someone did.
15:01He takes a sip.
15:03Someone who wanted me to think I did it.
15:06I'm trying to follow, but my brain feels like it's moving through concrete.
15:10I don't understand.
15:12Melanie worked for me.
15:13Ran numbers.
15:14Cleaned money.
15:14Kept her mouth shut.
15:16Two weeks ago, she came to me scared.
15:18Said someone approached her, wanted information about my operations.
15:22Wanted names, locations, financial records.
15:25He turns back to the windows.
15:27I told her to play along.
15:29Find out who was buying.
15:31And?
15:32And she got herself killed before she could tell me.
15:35His reflection in the glass is hard.
15:38Unreadable.
15:40But not before someone leaked information that I was the one who ordered her death.
15:44That I found out she was disloyal and made an example of her.
15:48Understanding clicks into place.
15:50So when your men grabbed me, they thought they were grabbing a dead woman.
15:54Thought someone was playing games with me, using Melanie's identity to draw me out.
15:59He laughs again, but there's no humor in it this time.
16:01Instead, they grabbed a woman in a borrowed dress who was trying to save her sister.
16:07So let me go.
16:09The words come out desperate.
16:11You know I'm not involved.
16:13You know this was a mistake.
16:15Just let me go home and forget any of this happened.
16:19Vincent turns around.
16:20Looks at me with something I can't quite read.
16:23I can't do that?
16:25Why not?
16:26Because whoever killed Melanie knows I sent men to that apartment tonight.
16:30Knows I pulled someone out.
16:31If I let you go, if you surface back in your normal life, they'll find you.
16:36They'll hurt you to get to me.
16:38To prove a point.
16:39What point?
16:40That I'm weak.
16:42That I make mistakes.
16:43He crosses back toward me, and this time when he stops, he's close enough that I can see
16:48the silver threading through his dark hair at the temples.
16:52Close enough that I can see the scar on his jaw that his five o'clock shadow almost hides.
16:57And they'll use you to prove it.
16:59I'm nobody, I whisper.
17:02I'm not worth...
17:04You became worth something the moment you got in that car.
17:08His voice is softer now.
17:10Almost gentle.
17:12Whether you meant to or not, you're in this.
17:14And the only way to keep you alive is to keep you close.
17:18I should be terrified.
17:20Should be screaming or crying or trying to run.
17:23But instead, I'm looking up at this man.
17:26This criminal who kidnapped me and is now saying he needs to keep me captive for my own
17:31protection.
17:32And some broken part of me wants to believe him.
17:36How long?
17:37I ask.
17:38Until I find who's after me.
17:40Could be days.
17:41Could be weeks.
17:42I have a job interview in the morning.
17:44I have...
17:45My voice breaks.
17:46I have a life, Vincent.
17:48A small, shitty life.
17:49But it's mine.
17:51Something flickers across his face.
17:54Tell me about it.
17:56What?
17:57Your small, shitty life.
17:59Tell me.
18:01So I do.
18:02I don't know why.
18:04Maybe because it's three in the morning and I'm so tired I can barely see straight.
18:07Or maybe because he's the first person in months to ask about my life like it matters.
18:12But I tell him.
18:13About losing my job six months ago when the company downsized.
18:17About my ex-boyfriend who stole my savings and disappeared.
18:20About the eviction notice and the maxed-out credit cards and the way I have to choose between
18:24groceries and phone bills.
18:26About sleeping on Maya's floor and feeling like a ghost in my own life.
18:31Vincent listens.
18:32Doesn't interrupt.
18:33Doesn't offer empty platitudes.
18:35Just listens like my words are something worth hearing.
18:39When I finish, he's quiet for a long moment.
18:42The job interview, he finally says.
18:45What's it for?
18:47Administrative assistant.
18:48Medical office.
18:49It pays $42,000 a year.
18:52I laugh and it sounds half hysterical.
18:55I was so excited about $42,000 a year.
18:59Vincent pulls out his phone.
19:01Types something.
19:03My phone, which I didn't even realize I still had in Maya's dress pocket, buzzes.
19:08I pull it out.
19:10Stare at the screen.
19:11It's a bank transfer notification.
19:14For $50,000.
19:16What?
19:17Missed the interview, Vincent says.
19:19Take the money.
19:20Consider it compensation for the inconvenience of being kidnapped.
19:24I'm shaking my head before he finishes.
19:26I can't.
19:27I can't take this.
19:29Why not?
19:30Because I don't—people don't just—
19:33I can't find the words.
19:36Can't explain that accepting money from a man who kidnapped me feels like crossing a line I can't uncross.
19:42I can't.
19:43He studies me for a long moment.
19:46Then he does something that stops my heart.
19:48He sits down next to me on the couch, close enough that our knees almost touch, close enough that I can smell that cologne again, feel the heat radiating off him.
19:57You said you're not good, he says quietly.
20:01Want to know what I think?
20:03I can't speak.
20:05Can only nod.
20:07I think you're the first honest thing I've encountered in ten years.
20:11His eyes find mine.
20:13Hold them.
20:14And I think that's why I can't let you go.
20:16The air between us feels charged, dangerous, like something's about to ignite.
20:22Vincent!
20:23The windows explode inward.
20:26Glass shatters everywhere, a thousand crystal daggers catching the light.
20:30Vincent's on top of me before I can scream, covering my body with his, and I hear gunfire, actual gunfire, tearing through the apartment.
20:38Then his weight lifts.
20:40He's up, gun in hand that appeared from nowhere, returning fire while dragging me toward a door I didn't notice before.
20:47Stay low, he growls.
20:49We're in a hallway, then a stairwell.
20:52Then he's pulling me down flights of stairs, his hand iron around my wrist, and all I can think is,
20:57this is real.
20:59This is really happening.
21:01We burst into another garage, different from the first.
21:04He shoves me into a car, a sleek black thing that roars to life before I've even closed the door.
21:11We're moving.
21:12Fast.
21:13The city blurs past.
21:16Vincent's knuckles are white on the steering wheel, blood seeping through his shirt sleeve.
21:21You're hurt, I gasp.
21:23I'm fine.
21:25You're bleeding.
21:26I'm fine.
21:28He glances at me, and there's something feral in his eyes now.
21:32Something that makes my breath catch.
21:35Are you hurt?
21:37I check myself.
21:39Realize I'm somehow intact.
21:41No.
21:42Good.
21:43He takes a corner too fast.
21:45Because now they know about you.
21:47And this just got a lot more complicated.
21:50My hands are shaking again.
21:52Where are we going?
21:53He doesn't answer for a long moment.
21:56When he does, his voice is rough.
21:58Somewhere no one will find us.
22:00Somewhere I can keep you safe while I figure out who wants me dead.
22:04And then?
22:05He looks at me.
22:07Really looks at me.
22:09And I see something in his eyes that terrifies me more than the bullets, or the shattered glass, or the blood on his sleeve.
22:17Then?
22:18Vincent says softly.
22:20We'll see if you still think you're not worth saving.
22:22Three weeks.
22:25That's how long it takes for the world to stop ending and start becoming something else entirely.
22:30We're in Montana.
22:31At least, I think it's Montana.
22:34Vincent won't tell me exactly where.
22:36Says it's safer if I don't know.
22:38All I know is we're in a cabin that's too nice to be called a cabin,
22:41surrounded by mountains that look like God's rough draft of forever.
22:44And I haven't seen another human being besides Vincent since the night the windows exploded.
22:49I should hate it here.
22:51Should hate him.
22:53But I don't.
22:55That's the thing nobody tells you about trauma.
22:57Sometimes it cracks you open wide enough that new things can grow in the spaces between your broken pieces.
23:02And sometimes those new things look like a man who makes coffee exactly how you like it without asking,
23:08who sits across from you at breakfast reading the news on his tablet while you sketch in a notebook he bought you from some online art supply store,
23:15who looks at you like you're not a mistake he's stuck with,
23:18but a choice he keeps making every morning when he wakes up.
23:21The first week was horrible.
23:23I cried a lot.
23:25Screamed at him once when the walls felt too close and my life felt too far away.
23:30He let me.
23:32Didn't try to calm me down or tell me it would be okay.
23:35Just stood there and took it until I ran out of words,
23:38then handed me a glass of water and said,
23:40Better?
23:41I wanted to hate him for that too.
23:44For being calm when I was falling apart.
23:46For making me feel seen in all my messy, broken glory.
23:50But I couldn't.
23:52The second week, I started asking questions.
23:54About his life.
23:56About how someone becomes the kind of man who runs an empire from the shadows.
23:59He answered some, deflected others.
24:02Told me about growing up in Brooklyn.
24:04About a father who taught him that power was the only currency that mattered,
24:08and weakness was a sin you paid for with blood.
24:10I was twelve, he said one night, both of us sitting on the porch watching stars I'd never seen through city smog.
24:18When I watched my father kill a man in our kitchen, over a debt.
24:22Three thousand dollars.
24:24The man begged, cried, promised he'd get the money.
24:27I waited, didn't push.
24:30My father shot him anyway, then made me help clean it up.
24:34Vincent's voice was distant, flat.
24:38Said I needed to learn that mercy was expensive.
24:41That in our world, you either make people fear you, or you become someone to be feared.
24:46Is that what you believe?
24:49I asked.
24:51He turned to look at me.
24:53I used to.
24:55And now?
24:57Now I think maybe mercy is the only thing that matters.
25:00The third week is when everything shifts.
25:03I wake up before him, rare, since he barely sleeps, and find him in the kitchen making breakfast.
25:10Just scrambled eggs and toast, nothing fancy.
25:12But he's moving carefully, favoring his left side where the bullet grazed him that night.
25:18The wound's healing.
25:20I've been changing the bandages, my hands steadier each time, learning the landscape of his scars.
25:26There are so many.
25:28A lifetime of violence written on his skin in silver and pink.
25:32You should still be resting, I say.
25:35He glances over his shoulder, smiles.
25:37And God, when did his smile start doing things to my pulse?
25:43So should you.
25:44I'm not the one who got shot.
25:47No, you're just the one who's been having nightmares every night for three weeks.
25:51He says it gently, without judgment.
25:54But it still makes my chest tight.
25:56I'm fine.
25:58Liar.
25:59He plates the eggs, hands me a fork.
26:02Eat.
26:02We eat in comfortable silence.
26:06That's new, too.
26:07The comfort.
26:08The way we've learned to exist in the same space without filling every second with words.
26:13When we're done, Vincent stands, starts clearing plates.
26:16I watch him move through the kitchen like he belongs here, in this quiet place so far from his real life.
26:22And I realize something that steals my breath.
26:25I don't want to leave.
26:26Vincent, I hear myself say, when this is over, when you find whoever's after you, what happens to me?
26:35He stops.
26:37Sets the plates in the sink.
26:39Turns around slowly.
26:41What do you want to happen?
26:43It's the question I've been avoiding.
26:45The one that keeps me awake after the nightmares fade.
26:48Because the answer is terrifying.
26:50I don't know.
26:52I whisper.
26:53He crosses the space between us.
26:55He stops right in front of me.
26:57Close enough that I can see the flecks of gold in his gray eyes.
27:01Close enough that I can count his heartbeats in the pulse at his throat.
27:05Yes, you do.
27:06And he's right.
27:08God help me.
27:10He's right.
27:11I want...
27:13My voice breaks.
27:14I want to not go back to my small, shitty life.
27:18I want to not feel like I'm drowning every second of every day.
27:21I want to feel like this.
27:22Like I matter.
27:22Like I'm more than just someone's burden or mistake.
27:26You were never a mistake, Vincent says quietly.
27:30Not to me.
27:31How can you say that?
27:32I ruined everything.
27:33Your plans.
27:34Your...
27:35You saved everything.
27:37He reaches up.
27:39Tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
27:41The touch is so gentle it makes me ache.
27:43That night, when you got in the car, when you looked at me and lied about who you were
27:50because you thought it would protect your sister, that's when I knew.
27:53Knew what?
27:54That I was tired of being the man my father made me.
27:58That maybe there was another way to live.
27:59His thumb traces my cheekbone.
28:04You reminded me what courage looks like.
28:07Real courage.
28:08Not the kind that comes from a gun or fear.
28:11The kind that comes from loving someone more than you love yourself.
28:15I can't breathe.
28:17Can't think.
28:19Can only feel his hand on my face and the weight of everything he's not saying pressing
28:23against my ribs.
28:25Vincent.
28:26I found him.
28:27He interrupts.
28:28Two days ago.
28:30The man who killed Melanie.
28:32Who tried to frame me.
28:33Who came after us.
28:35The world tilts.
28:37What?
28:38Marco DeLuca.
28:39My former business partner.
28:41Turns out he's been skimming profits for years.
28:44Building his own operation.
28:46Melanie figured it out.
28:47Threatened to expose him.
28:48So he killed her and tried to pin it on me.
28:51Turn my own people against me.
28:53And now?
28:54My voice sounds far away.
28:56Now he's no longer a problem.
28:59Vincent's face is hard.
29:00Final.
29:01It's over.
29:02You're safe.
29:04I should feel relieved.
29:05Should feel like a weight's been lifted.
29:07But instead, all I feel is grief.
29:10So, I can go home.
29:12Yes.
29:13Back to my sister's floor.
29:15Back to job interviews and...
29:17And everything.
29:18Yes.
29:19His hand drops from my face.
29:22Unless...
29:23Unless...
29:24What?
29:25He steps back.
29:26Runs a hand through his hair.
29:28I've learned this gesture.
29:29It's what he does when he's trying to find the right words.
29:32Unless you stay.
29:34My heart stops.
29:36Stay.
29:37With me.
29:38Not here.
29:39I have a house in Seattle.
29:40I have a house in Seattle.
29:41Quiet.
29:41Private.
29:43Far enough from my business that you'd be safe, but close enough that I could.
29:47He shakes his head.
29:48I'm doing this wrong.
29:50Doing what wrong?
29:52Asking you to take a chance on a man who kidnapped you.
29:55Who pulled you into his world without your permission.
29:58Who's probably going to spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder.
30:01Making enemies.
30:03Living in the kind of gray area where good and bad don't mean much.
30:07Vincent.
30:08But I'm asking anyway.
30:10Because these three weeks with you have been the most honest I've been in my entire life.
30:15Because you look at me like I'm not a monster, even though we both know I am.
30:19Because I think...
30:21His voice cracks.
30:23Actually cracks.
30:25I think I could be better.
30:27With you.
30:28I think maybe we could both be better.
30:31I'm crying.
30:32When did I start crying?
30:35You can't...
30:35You can't just say things like that.
30:37Why not?
30:39Because I'm nobody.
30:41I'm broken and broke and I don't know how to be what you need.
30:44He closes the distance between us in two strides.
30:47Takes my face in both hands.
30:50And his eyes are so intense.
30:52I feel like I'm burning.
30:54You're already what I need.
30:57You've been what I need since the moment you stepped toward me in that garage instead of running away.
31:02Since you changed my bandages with hands that were shaking but steady.
31:05Since you sat on that porch with me and listened to the worst parts of my history without flinching.
31:11I'm scared.
31:12I whisper.
31:13So am I.
31:16What if this is just...
31:18What if it's not real?
31:19What if it's just trauma and proximity and...
31:22He kisses me.
31:24It's not rough or demanding.
31:26It's gentle.
31:28Questioning.
31:29Like he's asking permission with every breath.
31:31And when I kiss him back.
31:34When I let myself finally...
31:36Finally admit that I want this.
31:38Want him.
31:39It feels like coming home to a place I've never been.
31:43When we break apart, we're both breathing hard.
31:45That feel real enough?
31:48He asks.
31:49I laugh.
31:50Actually laugh.
31:52And it feels like something breaking open in my chest.
31:55Something that's been locked up tight for so long I forgot it was there.
31:58Yeah, I say.
32:01Yeah, it does.
32:03So stay.
32:04Not because you owe me.
32:06Not because you have nowhere else to go.
32:08But because you want to.
32:09I think about Maya.
32:12About my small, shitty life.
32:14About all the ways I've been surviving instead of living.
32:17And I think about waking up to coffee made exactly how I like it.
32:21About sketching in notebooks while Vincent reads the news.
32:24About learning that violence and gentleness can exist in the same hands.
32:28The same heart.
32:29About being seen.
32:30Really, truly seen.
32:32For all my broken pieces and sharp edges and scared, stubborn heart.
32:36Okay.
32:37I whisper.
32:39Okay.
32:40I'll stay.
32:41I'll.
32:42I take a shaky breath.
32:44I'll stay and we'll figure it out.
32:46Together.
32:47Whatever that looks like.
32:50Vincent pulls me against his chest.
32:52I can hear his heartbeat.
32:53Fast and strong and alive.
32:55Can feel his arms around me like a promise he intends to keep.
32:59Together.
33:00He repeats.
33:02I like the sound of that.
33:05We stand there in that kitchen in Montana or wherever the hell we are.
33:08Holding on to each other like we're the only solid things in a spinning world.
33:12And maybe we are.
33:14Maybe that's enough.
33:16Later.
33:17Days or weeks or months.
33:19I don't know yet.
33:20We'll go to Seattle.
33:21We'll build something that looks like a life.
33:24It won't be perfect.
33:25It won't be safe.
33:27But it'll be ours.
33:29Vincent will teach me about his world and I'll teach him about mine.
33:33We'll learn to navigate the spaces between light and shadow.
33:36We'll have fights and makeups and moments when the past comes knocking.
33:40But we'll face it together.
33:41And slowly.
33:43Carefully.
33:44We'll both learn what it means to be more than the sum of our damages.
33:47To be healed not because the wounds disappeared.
33:49But because someone saw them and stayed anyway.
33:52That's what I want to tell you really.
33:54That's the story I promised never to tell but I'm telling anyway.
33:57Anyway, the mafia boss ordered a kidnapping and got the wrong woman.
34:01But maybe, just maybe, she was exactly the right woman after all.
34:06The one who reminded him what mercy looked like.
34:09The one who taught him that survival and living are two different things.
34:13The one who was brave enough to step into danger for someone she loved.
34:17And crazy enough to stay for someone she was learning to love.
34:21Me.
34:22I'm still here.
34:24Still learning.
34:25Still choosing him every morning when I wake up.
34:27Still choosing myself.
34:29And that, that's the real ending.
34:31Not perfection.
34:33Not safety.
34:34Just two people who were broken in different ways.
34:37Learning to be whole together.
34:39Learning that sometimes the wrong woman is exactly who you need to find your way home.
34:44So, that's my story.
34:47The one I swore I'd take to my grave.
34:49The one that sounds absolutely unhinged when you say it out loud.
34:54Yeah, so I got kidnapped by the mafia.
34:56I fell in love with my captor.
34:58And now we're basically living in a romance novel except with more therapy and fewer billable hours.
35:04Wild, right?
35:05But here's the thing.
35:07And I need you to really hear me on this.
35:09I want to know your take.
35:11Did I lose my mind somewhere between the kidnapping and the kissing?
35:13Am I the poster child for Stockholm Syndrome or the patron saint of plot twists?
35:18Drop a comment below because I need to know if your team, girl, run, or team girl, get it.
35:23And listen.
35:24If you made it this far, if you stuck with me through bulletproof glass and existential crises
35:29and a man who makes scrambled eggs like they're a love language, hit that subscribe button.
35:34Because trust me, my life didn't suddenly become boring just because I fell in love with a criminal.
35:38There are stories, honey.
35:41So many stories.
35:43Smash that like button if you're sitting there thinking,
35:45I would have done the exact same thing.
35:47Or, I would have done the opposite, but I'm weirdly invested now.
35:51Either way, I see you.
35:53I appreciate you.
35:54And I'm probably going to tell you about the time Vincent's mother showed up unannounced
35:58and I had to explain that, yes, I was technically kidnapped, but, like, in a romantic way.
36:03But that's a story for another time.
36:05Comment.
36:06Subscribe.
36:07Like.
36:08Do it for the chaos.
36:10Do it for the plot.
36:11Do it because you need to know what happens when you fall in love with the wrong man who
36:15turns out to be exactly right.
36:17I'll be here.
36:18Waiting.
36:19Probably drinking coffee Vincent made and wondering how my life became a Wattpad story.
36:23But make it cinematic.
36:25Now go.
36:26Comment below.
36:27I'm Nosy and I have time.
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