Two days after bringing Valeria home, Dominic was still thinking about what Valeria had said regarding her mother, who had taken her own life because she felt unloved by her husband. He kept recalling every word, every facial expression, and even the way Valeria had spoken to him.
The woman who usually spoke harshly and defiantly sounded different that night. So empty, filled only with the pain of losing the one person most precious to her.
The more he remembered it, the more Dominic grew to like her.
"Her softened voice, her vacant and melancholic gaze… It truly makes me even more eager to possess her. An intriguing woman—after this wedding... I'll make her entirely mine. Mine alone and only mine."
Dominic chuckled as he looked toward the open door of his office. He saw his right-hand man step into his office.
"Rogan, what's up? Is there something interesting this time?" Dominic asked.
"I brought you your favorite thing, boss." Rogan handed Dominic a brown envelope, which he immediately greeted with a smile.
Without a second thought, the man opened the envelope, which contained photos of a beautiful woman with ginger hair and piercing blue eyes—a woman who was none other than Valeria.
The photos were even taken from different angles, with not a single one showing Valeria looking at the camera.
"Our photographer managed to capture Mrs. Lawrence's beauty," Rogan said with a smile, referring to Valeria as Mrs. Lawrence even though they weren't officially married yet.
"Right, ohh, my goodness… So beautiful…"
The man looked at each of the photos of Valeria that his henchman had obtained. He smiled at how beautiful the woman was, the one who would soon be his.
This explained Valeria's feeling of always being followed; it turned out it was all because Dominic had sent a professional to photograph her in secret.
"Double the payment—this shot is absolutely stunning…" Dominic examined one of the photos he found particularly beautiful.
A photo of Valeria sitting on the back of a man who was in a kneeling position. His palms and knees pressed against the floor, could be see how the man was suffering, but Valeria seemed indifferent.
"Haa… Truly extraordinary. Her cruelty, her sharp, condescending gaze, and that triumphant smile. Truly extraordinary…" Dominic praised the photo with a smirk on his handsome face.
Rogan, Dominic's right-hand man who had worked with him for years, was seeing for the first time just how crazy his boss was about a woman. Previously, Dominic had been known to be very cold.
He had never even paid attention to the women around him. No matter how beautiful or sexy they were, no matter how much they flirted with him, Dominic never gave them a second glance.
But when Dominic saw Valeria that night, he was as if hypnotized by her beauty and her ruthlessness.
'That very night, he immediately paid an informant to find out about that woman, who turned out to be the daughter of the leader of the Scarlet. She wasn't just any woman...' Rogan thought at the time.
"Rogan, is the dress I ordered ready yet?" asked Dominic, who was still staring at the photo in his hand.
"Yes, boss. The red dress you ordered just arrived this morning," replied Rogan.
"Good. Call one of her friends to come here and give her the dress. Make sure she gives the dress to my fiancée... Tell her, this is a wedding gift from them."
The exact same words Cassey, Valeria's friend, had said when she gave her the gift. The bracelet.
Dominic opened his laptop and launched one of the apps installed on it. Seeing his boss open the laptop, Rogan walked behind Dominic and looked at the screen.
A red dot could be seen moving rapidly across a map, as if it were a tracking device showing that the owner was heading somewhere at high speed, like in a car.
"Looks like she's still out having fun, boss. Even though the wedding is just two days away. I suspect she hasn't prepared anything for the wedding yet, boss," said Rogan.
Seeing Valeria's attitude, Rogan sometimes doubted whether she was serious about her marriage to Dominic. Especially since she had been entrusted with decorating the party and handling everything according to her wishes. As their wedding drew closer, neither Dominic nor Donn, her own father, knew where the venue Valeria had chosen was.
"What if she's deliberately doing nothing so this wedding gets called off?" he continued to ask.
"There's always a way to Rome, Rogan. There's always a way to make her mine, no matter what it takes, no matter how much I have to do to make her mine," Dominic replied confidently.
"Because no one else is allowed to have her. Only I am allowed and able to conquer a dangerous woman like her."
*****
Meanwhile, Valeria was driving her sports car at breakneck speed toward a place far away from the bustling city. Her car entered a small forested area until she finally stopped it just before it reached the edge of a cliff.
"Phew… Lucky my dad didn't take my car keys away," she muttered irritably as she got out of the car.
She climbed onto the hood of her sports car and sat down, enjoying the view from up there. The wind was blowing quite strongly, ruffling her auburn hair. Her blue eyes harmonized with the vast ocean view stretching out before her.
Valeria sighed because the day after tomorrow was her wedding day with Dominic. She desperately wanted to run away as far as possible, where no one could find her.
But Dominic would surely always show up without her knowing.
"I haven't decorated anything for the day after tomorrow. Surely, if it's not canceled, it's just postponed." She leaned back and closed her eyes.
"Come to think of it, he's not as bad as I thought. He acts mature, is smart in business, and is also a cool guy. I can see how he is around women," she muttered.
"It's just… I don't want to get married. I don't want to get trapped in something I don't want. He must want me to have his child; the Lawrence family needs an heir for that. I'll take care of his child and… get trapped in the same situation as my mother?"
For a moment, Valeria fell silent, thinking about what the future held. What would she face if she and Dominic actually got married?
"Will I… end up like my mother?"
All those nightmares came flooding back into her mind. How much she had loved her mother, all their sweet laughter together—until that nightmare happened. A terrible incident that tore her away from her mother.
Her eyebrows furrowed and her teeth clenched in frustration; her hands even clenched into fists as she thought about it.
"No, I won't die. I'm not that foolish to believe in love—it's nothing but a fuckin stupid fairy tale!"