He tilted his head slightly, almost imperceptibly. "You are alone Daniella."
Daniella's lips parted. A soundless plea formed, but it went nowhere.
He said nothing more. Not a hint of sympathy. Not a reassurance. Not a denial.
And in that silence, the weight of her reality pressed in: no allies, no escape, no understanding, no hope.
She was so small and cornered. Trapped in a world that was designed to crush her, and Santiago's quiet, deliberate inaction made it all feel inescapably real.
She looked at him, searching for any crack. Any flicker of softness. Anything that might give her a lifeline.
There was nothing.
Only the cold, unflinching certainty in his gaze, and the knowledge that she was completely at his mercy.
"You should know, walking out of this compound means losing freedom."
Daniella sank lower into the chair, her hands pressed to her stomach as if she could shield the small, fragile life within her from everything that had just happened.
