ABSOLUTE INSANITY: A forbidden bond-Chapter 201: Three girls, one truth
Chapter 201
THIRD PERSON
Romeo Salvatore had timed it down to the second—because the moment the elevator doors opened, he intended to drag the traitor out by force.
How could he have been so blind?
He tapped his foot against the marble floor, jaw tight. He was certain she hadn’t left the level. How could she have? He had locked down the entire estate.
The elevator doors slid open with a muted chime after he keyed the final command into the tablet.
Katya’s body pitched backward as the support behind her vanished, exhaustion and adrenaline finally giving way.
She would have hit the floor hard if Romeo hadn’t already been there.
The sneer vanished from his face as instinct took over. He moved without thinking, catching her around the waist and grounding her before gravity could finish what fear had started.
Katya sagged against him, shaking violently. Blood streaked her cheek. Her breath tore in and out of her chest in shallow, uneven pulls.
Romeo felt it all—the tremor in her body, the heat of her skin, the way she clutched his sleeve like a lifeline without even realizing it.
The silence that followed the elevator’s chime was heavier than the scream Adelasia had let out moments before.
Katya looked up, her vision blurring with blood and tears, straight into the Don’s face.
His pupils were blown wide with a dark, terrifying rage. His jaw was locked so tightly the muscles in his neck stood out like cords.
There was no warmth in his eyes. Only cold, jagged betrayal.
"You," Romeo rasped.
Katya flinched, still trapped in his arms. Her fingers tightened in his silk shirt as if it were the only thing keeping her upright.
"You?" she whispered back, panic bleeding into the word.
Romeo’s grip tightened, his fingers bruising the soft skin at her waist. He didn’t hear her—he was already reconstructing the scene in his mind.
Katya.
The scattered papers.
Adelasia standing too close.
Poisoned by Marco’s warning, it looked like a handoff. A clean exchange. Katya as the bridge between his house and his enemies.
Then his gaze swept the room again.
And for the first time, doubt cracked into something colder.
Marina.
She was supposed to be locked in his basement.
Marina saw his eyes on her and immediately slipped toward the darker stretch of the hallway—but it was too late. He had already seen her.
Romeo looked back down at Katya. She was still shaking in his arms. He couldn’t tell if it was fear, shock, or rage—but her face was bleeding.
Nothing made sense.
How had Marina escaped?
And why the hell was Adelasia still in his house—on his top floor?
"Cousin."
Adelasia broke the silence.
Romeo’s eyes snapped to her. In that split second of distraction, his grip loosened.
Katya felt it immediately.
She tore herself free and stumbled back, shoes skidding against the polished floor as she put distance between herself and all of them.
Her lungs burned. Her vision swam. Survival drowned out everything else.
She backed toward the wall near the elevator. A glass vase stood there.
Tall.
Thick.
Heavy.
Her fingers wrapped around its rim as she positioned herself behind it, breath ragged, eyes wild.
She didn’t trust Romeo.
She didn’t trust Marina.
She sure as hell didn’t trust Adelasia.
If they rushed her, she’d break it.
If they cornered her, she’d fight.
She’d already bled in this house. She wouldn’t die quietly in it.
Romeo noticed the movement from the corner of his eye—but he didn’t turn.
He would deal with her later.
His attention was locked on Adelasia.
She stood perfectly still, shoulders squared, her metal hand cradled against her chest by her real one.
Romeo’s gaze dropped to the prosthetic.
Then lifted back to her face.
"Why are you still here?" he asked slowly, each word measured and dangerous.
She had asked for permission long before the lockdown. She hadn’t been on his floor when the estate sealed.
So how?
Adelasia swallowed. Her jaw tightened, but she didn’t look away.
"I... I—"
A muscle ticked in Romeo’s jaw.
He remembered Katya’s escape.
Adelasia had been involved then. Now the system was in overdrive—and she was standing at the center of the crime scene.
Were they working together?
His mind churned, cold and ruthless. The only question that mattered now was this....
How the fuck was Marina here too?
And why were both women dressed in black The air in the hallway was thick enough to choke on now.
Katya stood like a cornered animal, the heavy crystal vase clutched in her hands. To Romeo, she looked like a conspirator caught in the act.
To Katya, he looked like the executioner who had finally arrived to finish what the others had started.
Romeo’s hand moved with lethal grace of a man who had lived his entire life around triggers.
His fingers slid beneath the lapel of his back jacket, closing around the grip of his Beretta. The sound of the safety clicking off was small, but in the silent hallway, it rang out like a death knell.
He didn’t point it at Katya. Not yet. He leveled the barrel at the space between Marina and Adelasia, his gaze flicking between the two women who were supposed to be under his control and the girl who was bleeding for a reason he didn’t yet understand.
"Someone better start talking, and they better start fast, because I’m about three seconds away from turning this hallway into a morgue."
Adelasia winced, her real hand tightening over her broken wrist. "Cousin, listen—"
"No," he snapped, the barrel of the gun shifting an inch toward her forehead. Was this girl dumb? "You don’t get to speak first, Adelasia. You were supposed to be gone. Instead, you’re here, in the middle of my lockdown, with a broken hand and a face that looks like it went through a meat grinder."
He cut his eyes to Marina, who was trying to merge with the shadows. "And you. My basement isn’t a suggestion, Marina. It’s a cage. How did you get out?"
"That girl!" Marina cried, her voice high and frantic, pointing at Katya. "She has the codes, Romeo! She let me out to help her get to the elevator! She and Adelasia were fighting over the papers!"
Katya’s grip on the vase tightened until her knuckles turned white. "Liar!" she screamed"I didn’t let anyone out! I was sleeping! They attacked me!"
Romeo’s eyes snapped back to Katya. He saw the way she held the vase—not like a thief clutching loot, but like a survivor holding a shield.
Get a grip, he scolded himself. He saw the jagged cut on her cheek and the way she was shaking, but his mind kept fighting with his conscience that it was all pretend.
"You think I’m behind this?" Katya suddenly rasped, her eyes locked on Romeo’s. She could see that he wasn’t among them but that seems to make it worse now because he was definitely going to side them.
But she would try saying her truth. "You think I’d choose them after what they did to me?"
Romeo didn’t lower the gun, but his finger eased slightly off the trigger. He looked at the floor again—at the scattered papers.
They were shipping manifests. Valeros manifests. The kind of documents Marina’s father— if he was still alive would have used to move money.
If Katya were a traitor, she wouldn’t be standing here with a vase. She’d be in the elevator.
"Marina," Romeo said, his voice dropping into a terrifyingly calm register.
"If you don’t tell me the truth in the next five seconds, I’m going to shoot you in the kneecap. Then I’m going to do the other one. Then I’ll move to Adelasia."
He took a step forward, the light from the hallway making his silhouette look like a demon’s. "Who gave you the codes?"
Marina paled, her eyes darting to Adelasia. The silence stretched, agonizing and heavy.
"It was the girl!" Marina shrieked again, her voice cracking.
BANG.
Romeo fired.
††
Well well well, guys, it literally 6 am and I had been re writing this Chapter, I want all your thoughts on it because this has been the hardest for me.
