Chapter 2 - The Collision
I slipped my hand through the crook of his arm. The warmth and solid muscle beneath his tailored suit jacket sent a shockwave of electricity through my fingers. As we began to walk slowly around the perimeter of the dance floor, the effect was immediate.
People moved out of Nico Rossi's way instinctively. But tonight, they weren't just looking at him; they were looking at us. The murmurs started within seconds.
It didn't take long for the noise to reach the Rossi table.
Amber saw me first. I watched her perfectly painted smile falter, her eyes widening as she took in the red dress, the styled hair, the absolute lack of the broken woman she had left on the floor last night. Then, she nudged Liam.
Liam turned around.
The color drained from his face so quickly I thought he might pass out. He stood up from his chair, his mouth opening and closing in silent shock. He didn't just see me looking beautiful; he saw me holding the arm of the one man in the world he was absolutely terrified of.
Amber, however, was too arrogant and too foolish to read the danger in the room. She stood up, grabbing Liam's hand, and pulled him directly toward us, cutting us off near the edge of the VIP seating.
"Luna!" Amber laughed, her voice shrill and grating over the elegant music. "I can't believe you actually showed up! And you wore... that." She looked me up and down with exaggerated pity.
If anyone wants to understand the exact, devastating shift in power that occurred in that ballroom, they only need to look at the file 7_2.jpg. It captures the turning point flawlessly. The top frame shows the unbearable arrogance of the betrayal—Amber laughing, pointing a manicured finger at me, with Liam standing weakly behind her, while I brace myself against the cruelty. But the bottom frame is the execution. It shows Nico stepping firmly to my side, his presence a towering wall of lethal authority, wrapping his jacket over my shoulders as Liam looks on in absolute, paralyzed horror.
"Are you lost, Luna?" Amber continued, oblivious to the silence dropping over the immediate area. "Did you really come here alone just to stalk us? It's pathetic."
I didn't say a word. I didn't need to.
Nico, who had been standing half a step behind me, moved forward. He didn't raise his voice. He didn't make a scene. He simply looked at Amber with the cold, dead eyes of a predator looking at an insect.
"She is not alone," Nico stated. His voice was quiet, but it carried the weight of an executioner's blade.
Amber froze. She looked at Nico, finally registering who he was, and the smug smile slid off her face, replaced by sudden, instinctual terror.
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Liam finally found his voice, though it cracked pathetically. "Dad... what are you doing? Why are you with her?"
"I am accompanying a beautiful, intelligent woman who was entirely wasted on a boy incapable of appreciating her," Nico said smoothly, sliding his hand from my arm to rest firmly, possessively, on the small of my back.
