Page 58 of Ivory Crown

She was going to try to escape.

But I also knew there was no place for her to go.

So when she started to run, I just let go.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Jade

Iran.

My heart hammered in my chest, a frantic drumbeat urging me to flee. I stood there, in the middle of Dante’s penthouse, scantily clad in just a t-shirt and panties, the air thick with an urgency that clawed at my throat. I scanned the room I had instinctively ran to—the lab with its sterile beakers and metal surfaces offered no secrets, no hidden escapes.

Dante’s bedroom door was slightly open, a dark void beyond. My gaze flitted over to his office; the door ajar, spilling out shadows and the clutter of papers I knew were more sinister than they seemed. Three bathrooms, each one checked in desperation, all dead ends. No windows to climb through, no vents large enough for escape.

Not that I would do that. That would be crazy.

I bolted again, bare feet slapping against the cool marble floor. The sound of my own breath was loud in my ears, punctuated by the ominous cadence of Dante’s measured footsteps somewhere behind me. He wasn’t running. He didn’t need to—he owned every inch of this place, and he knew it. The penthouse felt like a labyrinth designed to ensnare me at every turn.

“Jade,” his voice echoed, a low rumble that sent a shiver down my spine despite my resolve not to fear him. “You can’t outrun me.”

But I couldn’t stop—I wouldn’t. So I kept running, the maze of rooms folding in on me, making me dizzy with terror and defiance. Every corner I turned, I half-expected him to be there, waiting. But he remained unseen, his presence lurking in the periphery, a ghostly predator playing with his prey.

The chase seemed endless, a cycle of hope and despair as I searched for some way out of this nightmare. But deep down, I knew the truth. There was no escaping Dante Moretti—not from his penthouse, and perhaps not from whatever twisted fate he had in store for me.

I couldn’t let myself think about it.

My mind was racing, every neuron firing in search of an exit strategy as I dashed through the endless corridors of his penthouse. But my scientific precision was useless here; there were no equations to solve, no data to analyze, only the cold hard fact that Dante’s world was one I couldn’t navigate with logic.

The balcony. It lured me with its illusion of escape, the vast city sprawled beneath the high-rise a testament to freedom just beyond my reach. I burst through the balcony doors, gasping for air, the frigid outside breeze a sharp contrast against my heated skin. For a fleeting moment, I considered the railing—considered the impossible.

But I was pregnant. I had to worry about more than just myself.

“Jade,” the voice came again, closer now, and I turned.

Dante stood there like some ancient god, his nakedness unashamed and raw. The sight of him struck me—a man in his purest form, stripped of all pretense, yet still draped in power. His jaw was tight, muscles coiled like a lion ready to pounce, and I could read the anger written in the tense lines of his body, in the ink on his skin.

His anger…at me.

My breath hitched. He didn’t move towards me, didn’t need to. That electric charge that always seemed to surround him pulled at me, despite my better judgment. In that moment, he was both the most vulnerable I had ever seen him and the most dangerous.

“Running, Jade?” His voice was a low thrum that vibrated through the space between us. “You should know by now...there’s nowhere you can go where I won’t find you.”

His words were a reminder of the reality I faced. Here, on this balcony, the city below might as well have been another planet for all the good it did me. And Dante, standing before me, was the undisputed ruler of the universe I was trapped in.

“Dammit, Dante,” I managed to say, my voice steady though my heart was anything but. “What is this? What do you want from me?”

He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he took a measured step forward, closing the distance between us, forcing me to acknowledge the raw intensity that seemed to emanate from him.

“Look at me, Jade,” he commanded softly, and I did.

I swallowed hard, my resolve wavering under the weight of his stare. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked, the words slipping out shakily, betraying the fear that knotted in my stomach.

I swallowed hard, my resolve wavering under the weight of his stare. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked, the words slipping out shakily, betraying the fear that knotted in my stomach.

My breath hitched at the thought. Bound? Tied? Yet there was something in the way he said it, something that made it sound less like a threat and more like a twisted form of care.

And I mean…fuck it. Where was I going to go?

“So you’re going to tie me up all day…and what?”