Dominic’s POV 

The silence in the car was suffocating 

Ana stared out the window, her reflection ghostlike against the rainy streets of Beldova Her grief lingered heavily in the small space between us, raw and untouchable. The pain she carried was beginning to feel dangerously like distance, a distance I couldn’t control 

My fingers clenched, knuckles white. Control was everything, yet right now it was slipping through my hands like sand. “I know you’re hurting I finally said quietly, trying to bridge the gap. ‘Till make it better. Whatever you need” 

She scoffed softly, humorless. Still, she didn’t look at me. 

“Better?” Her voice was empty, defeated. “Can you bring them back, Dominic?” 

I tightened my jaw. “No. But I can make sure you never experience that again.” 

She turned sharply toward me, eyes glistening. “You know what? Plan my funeral next, then.” 

“What?” I stared at her, heart hammering. “Aria-” 

“You heard me,” she interrupted bitterly, voice shaking. “You’re so good at funerals, aren’t you? Protecting what’s already gone. Well, I’m already halfway there anyway” 

“That’s not funny,” I snapped, unease curling around my heart. 

“I’m not joking, she whispered, glaring at me, her voice harsh but breaking. I’m dying, Dominic. Chemotherapy every week. Every day another piece of me fades away. Hair, weight, energy. Soon there’ll be nothing left. You’re fighting for something that’s already slipping through your fingers. So just prepare for my death and be done with it. Shame I can’t have a little but of freedom before I died.” 

My chest tightened painfully. Her words were knives, cutting deep. But I forced my expression steady, cold, controlled. “Don’t talk like that. I won’t allow it.” 

“You don’t have a choice!” She snapped louder now, her chest rising and falling sharply. “Youvtreated me fair once. Then the moment things went wrong I became your prisoner once again. You are playing with me and I am sure you laugh secretly in your room knowing that you are dribbling me like a ball. You think expensive dresses, jewelry, and lavish rooms changes that? Do you think guards outside my door and tracking my every step does anything but suffocate me? I have cancer Dominic! Get it into that thick skull of yours. Soon, I will drop dead right in front of you. All these gifts? They’re meaningless. Vanity. Empty distractions.” 

I stared at her, fists tightening until my nails dug painfully into my palms. 

“They’re not distractions,” I growled, voice low and furious. “They’re to make you feel good and the guards are for your protection.” 

She laughed bitterly, wiping tears roughly from her eyes. “From what? Death? You’re powerful, but even you can’t buy that away.” 

Her voice cracked at the end, and the raw vulnerability broke through, her pain so vivid it seared me from the inside out. “I won’t lose you,” I whispered dangerously. “I told you that.” 

She shook her head, turning back to the window. “You can’t lose what you never really had. Your Obssession and narcissism is just over in your head.” 

Those words struck deeper than any blade. I could face bullets, betrayal, wars in the shadows of Beldova–but losing Aria terrified me more than anything else. 

“Aria, look at me.” 

She didn’t move. 

“Look. At. Me.” 

Slowly, reluctantly, she turned again. Her eyes were red–rimmed, her expression both fierce and fragile, challenging me. “I’ll fix this,” I promised darkly, my voice a low threat against fate itself. “Whatever treatment, whatever doctor, whatever I have to do to keep you alive-” 

“You think it’s that simple?” she whispered brc Successfully unlocked! te. You can’t threaten it with guns or money.” “I can try, I insisted. 

“You’re delusional.” 

termined” 

Chapter 03 

Her eyes searched my face, desperate, pleading for something I wasn’t sure I could give her “Why Dominic? Why me? Why cling to something that’s already fading away? I have no house no money. I am not even a politician. So why Dominic? Why obsess and try to possess a dying stripper? 

I reached for her hand, and this time, she didn’t pull away Her skin felt too fragile beneath mine, the veins delicate, vulnerable 

“Because you’re the only thing I’ve ever wanted this badly, yes at the beginning the goal was to fuck and leave you, but I grew attached. And I can’t just imagine you not there. I am not a demon Ana I might be crazy at times but I am not. I care for you and I can’t let you die unfairly.” I confessed hoarsely “I’ve taken everything force–money power, respect. But you 

you’re the one thing I need to stay” 

She laughed softly, bitterly. “Need or own?” 

I hesitated, choosing honesty. “Both.” 

“You can’t own someone who’s dying.” 

“I won’t accept that,” I growled. 

Her expression softened, and for one fleeting moment, she looked at me not with hatred, but with exhausted pity “Dominic. please. Let me go. et me enjoy my last days scrolling through a beach. Entering the water and let it carry me into the deep sea and I lay to rest there. Is it that hard?” 

The images entered my mind. I couldn’t. Itade my chest tighten more way than I wanted. 

I can’t….she can’t die. No. 

If only she knows. 

I shook my head slowly. “I can’t.” 

“Then you’re more selfish than I thought,” she whispered, turning away once more. Her tears slipped silently down her cheeks. 

The remainder of the ride passed in silence. When we finally pulled into the driveway of my mansion, she didn’t wait for me to open her door. She stepped out quickly, heading toward the house without looking back. 

I followed closely behind, barely restraining the urge to pull her back. I walked past Matthias and Lorenzo at the entrance. “Double the guard around her room tonight,” I commanded quietly. “Report directly to me. I don’t want anything getting close without my permission.” 

Matthias nodded sharply. “Understood.” 

Aria heard me. She spun back suddenly, eyes narrowed, her grief replaced momentarily by rage. 

“More guards? Seriously, Dominic? Didn’t you hear anything I said?” 

“I heard everything,” I said darkly, stepping closer to her. “And what I heard was that you don’t understand how important you are to me.” 

“I don’t understand?” She laughed bitterly, her voice rising. “I’m the one who’s dying, Dominic. You’re just refusing to accept reality.” 

I grasped her wrist, pulling her gently but firmly toward me. “I’m creating reality. Mine. Yours. Ours.” 

She stared up at me, lips trembling, eyes wide and tear–filled. “You don’t get it. You’re only hurting both of us.” 

“Then we suffer together,” I whispered harshly. “Because I will not let you go.” 

For a long moment, she just stared at me, something broken and hopeless flashing across her face. Her shoulders slumped slightly, as if exhausted. 

“I’m tired, Dominic,” she finally whispered, voice soft and defeated. “I’m tired of fighting you, tired of fighting this illness, tired of being scared all the time. You have to let me breathe.” 

I stepped closer, gently cupping her jaw in my hands, forcing her gaze to mine. “Breathe all you want. But do it Because whether you understand it or not, losing you would end me.” 

She closed her eyes, tears slipping free. “Then you’re already lost.” 

I leaned forward, pressing a gentle, possessive kiss to her forehead, breathing in her scent, memorizing her warmth. “Maybe I am,” I whispered. “But I’d rather be lost with you than without.” 

side. 

I released her slowly, watching as she turned and walked silently toward her room, leaving me standing in the foyer, chest aching, pulse roaring in my ears. 

Once she was gone, I turned to Matthias, voice quiet but deadly. “Call our medical contacts. Every expert you can find. If money doesn’t buy life, then find me something that does.” 

Matthias nodded sharply, leaving immediately. 

Chapter 93 

I stood alone, fists clenched, feeling the last threads of control slipping away like shadows at dawn. 

Aria was mine. 

I wouldn’t lose her. Not to illness. Not to enemies. Not even to death itself. 

And if fate tried to take her from me, I’d burn the whole goddamn world down first and sign my soul to the devil to make me be with her again. 

C