Reign of a Billionaire : A Dark Mafia Enemies-to-Lovers Romance

Chapter 51Kingston

Louisa fell back asleep in my arms, her mouth tight and her breathing shallow. I smoothed a hand over her brow, still not believing she was Lou.

My Lou.

All this time, she was alive and breathing. So she didn’t remember me or our shared past, fine. I’d help her remember—someway, somehow. The main thing was that she was here. With me. In my bed.

Her sick mother must have put her through some extensive torture for her mind to be so damaged. Her trauma, combined with Sofia’s brainwashing, had convinced Louisa she was her twin. Did that mean Liana was dead?

There was no telling what torture Sofia put Lou through. She might have injected Lou with so much guilt that her mind snapped, and the only way Lou could cope was by convincing herself she was Liana.

My jaw clenched.

Guilt gnawed at me at the realization that I’d failed her, not once but twice. I couldn’t protect her in the dungeon, and then I left her at her mother’s mercy. It didn’t matter that I thought she died in front of me, witnessing her brutal torture at the hands of Sofia and her men.

I ran a hand through my hair and pulled on the ends. What the hell should I do? I could tell her she wasn’t Liana, that she was my Lou, but I didn’t think she was in any state to hear it.

Reaching for my phone on the nightstand, I quickly typed a message to Dante Leone, a member of the Thorns of Omertà, the organization I usually did bidding for.

Me: I need the name and number of your therapist.

His reply was instant despite the time of night.

Dante: I don’t have a therapist.

I rolled my eyes.

Me: Just send me the name and number.

Dante: Are you finally dealing with your shit? I’m proud of you.

Dante Leone could be such a prick. Fun to hunt and kill pricks with, but thoroughly annoying.

Me: Stop wasting my time.

Dante: Why did you ghost us?

Me: Are you sending me the fucking name and number or not?

Dante: Don’t get your panties in a twist. Coming right up.

The next message was a shared contact. Dr. Violet Freud, PhD from Harvard. I didn’t waste any time booking Lou for an immediate session.

By morning, I’d talked the shrink into flying out here—well, I made her an offer she couldn’t refuse that involved many zeros, but that was neither here nor there.

Careful not to wake Louisa up, I slid out of bed, showered, then got dressed and made my way to the helicopter pad. The sun was just rising over the horizon, and no matter how many times I came to my property in the Mediterranean, the sight never failed to impress me.

Today, it meant more than ever. This was what the two of us dreamt about. Living on the beach where the cold would never find us. Away from the world. Safe from the world.

The rich tang of the slightly salty air swirled around me. I loved this island. It had become the only place I considered home, now more than ever.

I heard the helicopter before I saw it. I watched Alexei, the only man I trusted with the coordinates, land the bird on the helipad. The moment it touched down, Dr. Violet Freud emerged.

“Mr. Ashford,” she greeted me. “Next time you pull this shit, don’t expect me to come running. I don’t care how much you offer me, I don’t appreciate being strong-armed.” Alexei came up behind her, and she shot him a glare. “And don’t send scary people like him to pick me up.”

Putting my hands behind my back, I dipped my chin. “I’ll take that into consideration.”

“You do that,” she snapped, pushing her gold-rimmed glasses up her nose and meeting my gaze. “Now tell me more about the patient.”

“Louisa seems to be struggling with some sort of deep memory loss.” From my periphery, I saw Alexei’s body lean forward, his expression curious. I gestured for the doctor to walk ahead, then steered us in the direction of the house. “She has.” I cleared my throat before continuing. “Had a twin. She seems to think she’s her.”

“Identical twins?”

“Yes.”

“How long has she thought this?”

I pushed my hand through my hair, forcing my feet to keep moving. “I don’t know.” I pretended all this wasn’t cutting through me. “Until last night, I thought Louisa was dead.”

Dr. Freud reached for her glasses, her hand shaking. She must feel out of her element, but to her credit, she hid it well.

“Are you certain she’s the twin you believe her to be?”

“Yes, damn it.”

“How can you be so sure?” My jaw clenched and it took everything in me not to snap. “After all, you believed her to be the other twin until yesterday. It’s easy to confuse identical twins.”

“Because she has the tattoo I gave her.” I held on to my cool. I couldn’t afford to lose the only shred of hope Lou had. “Nobody knew about it. Not even her sister.”

I stopped and took in the shoreline, the crystal blue water shimmering with rays, and fuck if it didn’t give me hope.

“I’m confused why you didn’t recognize her right away, then,” she pointed out.

“I saw her die… I thought I saw her die in front of me.” The memories of her torture shredded through me, tearing my fucking chest to pieces all over again. “She was beaten and tortured.”

My voice cracked. I’d never gotten over it. Louisa was my soulmate. As children, we started as friends. I was her rock and she was mine. Our friendship grew right along with us.

“It sounds like she’s dissociating, Mr. Ashford.” Somehow, it didn’t surprise me. After all the shit I’d seen and survived, I knew our minds dealt with trauma differently than our bodies. “From what you’re telling me, she endured trauma and abuse. It’s possible she’s blaming herself for her twin’s death.”

“How do I get her back? How do I stop her from believing she’s her sister?”

“You can’t.” She stressed the words, narrowing her gaze on me. “She needs to do that work on her own.”

“That could take years.” My hands curled into fists, and her eyes dropped to them before meeting my gaze in disapproval. I didn’t give a shit what she thought. “We don’t have years. You’ll talk to her and fix this,” I gritted. “The house is that way, just follow the path.”

“Good thing I didn’t wear my heels,” she said with a hint of annoyance.

It wasn’t until she was out of earshot that Alexei said, “Are you okay?”

I nodded, more worried about Louisa than my own state of mind right now. “When you came for me,” I said, meeting his gaze, “I was the only one in the room. Right?”

“You were,” he confirmed. “You kept pointing to a spot, asking me to save her, but there was nobody there.” Fucking Sofia and her sick games. I would have never thought she’d be capable of torturing her daughter to the point of madness. “I have some news you probably won’t like,” Alexei added pensively.

“Oh how I love starting my day with bad news,” I retorted wryly, facing him.

“Well, it seems you haven’t slept much as it is, so consider it yesterday’s news.” Alexei hesitated before he continued in a low voice. “The girl we saved… Louisa. It turns out her name wasn’t Louisa at all. She was beaten until it was the only name she responded to.”

Interesting… Initially, I thought it a strange coincidence, but with everything that’d happened, with how fucked up the past few months had turned, it didn’t feel crazy to believe it played a part in all of this.

“Do we have her real name?”

He shook his head. “No, she refuses to talk to anyone.”

A long sigh left me. I suspected as much. She hadn’t uttered a word on the drive from the warehouse, but she’d clung to Liana—correction, Louisa the whole time. Alexei watched me intently. Waiting, it seemed.

“She’ll talk to Louisa.”

He nodded. “I thought it’d be our best bet.” His gaze darted in the direction of my home. “But how will you handle everything else?”

“I’ll help her remember.”

Because we’d been in love almost as long as we’d been alive.