Bad Blood

Chapter 3

Kane Rizzo had never faced rejection. Not like this.

Emily stood before him, her arms crossed, eyes filled with sympathy, but no warmth. Her voice was calm but firm, like a blade wrapped in velvet.

“Kane,” she said softly, “I’m sorry. But this isn’t going to work.”

He blinked, as if the words hadn’t fully registered. “What do you mean?” he asked, his voice quieter than usual, a hint of desperation laced within it.

Emily sighed, taking a deep breath. “You’ve been sweet. And I see you’re trying to change. But this... whatever this is between us—it can’t happen.”

Kane’s heart tightened in his chest, a knot forming in his throat. “Is it because of who I am? Is it because of my family?” he asked, his voice rising with frustration, but also a flicker of vulnerability.

Emily shook her head slowly, her expression full of understanding but also something darker—regret. “It’s not that,” she whispered. “There’s something I haven’t told you.”

Kane’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I’m already betrothed to someone else.”

Those words hit Kane like a punch to the gut. For a moment, the world around him seemed to slow, the sounds of the bustling campus fading into the background. He stared at her, his chest heavy with disbelief and anger.

“Betrothed?” he repeated, his voice barely above a whisper, as if saying it out loud might make it less real.

Emily nodded, her face clouded with guilt. “It’s been arranged for a long time. My family and his—this was decided before I even came here.”

Kane took a step back, his mind racing. His heart pounded in his chest, a mix of rage and betrayal boiling inside him. How could this be happening? How could she have kept something like this from him?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded, his voice trembling with a mixture of hurt and fury.

“Because I didn’t think it mattered,” Emily replied, her voice steady but strained. “I never intended for this to go anywhere, Kane. I didn’t want to hurt you, but I thought you understood.”

“Understood?” Kane’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. “How could I understand something you never told me? You let me think there was something between us!”

Emily flinched slightly, but her resolve remained. “I didn’t mean for it to happen this way. I didn’t want to lead you on. But this is my life, Kane. I don’t have a choice.”

The words “I don’t have a choice” echoed in his head. Kane had always been in control of his world. He bent people’s will to his, shaped his surroundings to fit his needs. But this… this was something he couldn’t control.

His chest heaved as he took another step back, shaking his head. “Who is he?” he asked, his voice icy, laced with anger.

“It doesn’t matter,” Emily said softly. “What matters is that this is my reality. I can’t change it.”

Kane’s jaw tightened, the rage inside him bubbling over. The thought of someone else having her, being promised to her, drove him mad. She was slipping through his fingers, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

Without another word, Kane turned on his heel and walked away, his fists clenched, his body trembling with fury. His friends, who had been watching from a distance, called after him, but he ignored them. His vision was blurred with anger, his mind a whirlwind of emotions he couldn’t control.

He had fallen for her, given her something no one else had ever gotten—his vulnerability. And now, she was telling him it had all been for nothing. That she belonged to someone else.

Back in his dorm, Kane slammed his fist into the wall, the sound echoing through the room. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think straight. His father had always told him that love made a man weak, and now Kane understood why. He had let himself care, and now he was paying the price.

He paced the room like a caged animal, his thoughts dark and twisted. He imagined this faceless man Emily was promised to—his rival, his enemy. Kane’s mind raced with violent thoughts, fantasies of breaking this stranger in half, of taking Emily away from him by force. He wanted to destroy whoever this man was, to erase him from existence.

But deep down, Kane knew that wouldn’t change anything. Emily had made her choice. She had known about her betrothal all along, and she had never let him in, not really.

As the hours passed, Kane’s anger turned into a simmering rage, cold and calculated. He couldn’t let this go. He wouldn’t let someone take her away from him, not after everything he had felt, everything he had given. But this wasn’t just about love anymore—this was about control, about power.

That night, Kane made a decision. He would find out who this man was, and he would make sure that the betrothal never happened. He would fight for Emily, even if it meant burning the world around him to the ground.

But as the rage surged within him, there was a part of Kane—buried deep inside—that whispered a darker truth. Emily might never be his, no matter what he did. And that truth, more than anything, terrified him.

Kane had never lost before. But this time, he wasn’t sure if winning was even possible.