I watch in utter silence, pain and fear pounding through my heart as Luke is led down the steps and into a five-year imprisonment. Five years. This can't be happening. I don't know how long I stare at the place where he was last, but I don't move until a guard asks me to leave the courtroom. I push through the doors, not looking at my surroundings as I make my way outside. I stop to take deep breaths as I lean on a stone pillar, letting the cold air fill my lungs. Yet it does nothing to calm me down. In this moment, I regret meeting Luke King. I regret it all. My shaky hand goes to my stomach, flattening out as I realise something I will never regret. Even if my heart hurts and the fear I feel makes me want to throw up more than the morning sickness.

"Emilia? What’s wrong?" I hear a familiar voice ask, just before a hand lands on my shoulder and I almost jump back. I look over my shoulder before turning around, seeing long red hair and Tilly's calming smile. Tilly’s daughter is the reason Luke is gone. And I know it’s wrong to think that way. Tilly and Hope didn't ask for anything that happened to them... I just hate that Luke has paid the price. I think back to two months ago, when Luke's lips were on mine, whispering promises of our future as he told me he loved me. That night was everything. We had everything planned, and now no one can save either of us. I wish it was just us that needed saving. There’s someone else now. Someone so much more important.

"I'm pregnant. The baby is Luke's, and it's so much more complicated than even just that. If Arthur finds out I am pregnant, he’ll kill me. If my fiancé finds out, I’ll wish I was dead. I told you my job, but there is more to it. A lot more," I blurt out, before taking deeper gasps of air to try to calm myself. I don’t even look at Tilly’s reaction; I just can’t.

"Then I suggest you tell me everything and we figure it out, Emilia," Harley’s dark voice shocks me as he steps out of the shadows of the pillar and wraps an arm around Tilly's waist. Tilly looks shocked as she stares at me, but Harley... Harley looks furious.

"There is no figuring this out!" I snap. "Arthur owns me. He sold me to a man named Eric who I have to marry next week. Luke was going to take me away from all this. He was going to save me...but now, now he can't save himself, let alone me."

"Why do you owe Arthur?" Harley asks.

"It’s more than a debt. Arthur owns me. My dad gambled me, and brothers’ lives away as children. He gambled my mother away, too, and Arthur...he keeps her as a pretty pet. I haven’t seen her in years. My father remarried this year to a wealthy widow as per Arthur’s demands. I have to marry her son. Arthur wants the money they have. If I leave without my mum, my dad and my brothers, they’re all dead. Luke said he knew where Arthur is keeping my mum, and he had a plan. There was a plan so we could leave," I blurt out, taking a deep breath. “I have to marry a stranger and this baby…Eric will know it’s not his. We haven’t slept together.”

"Oh, Emilia, we’ll help you,” Tilly says, pulling me into a tight hug. “I'm so sorry."

"Luke is gone," I whisper. He was my…well, everything. One night turned into so much more than that. We fought our attraction, we fought each other, but there was always something leading us back together. As soon as I finally decide to accept it, it’s over.

"I'm so sorry. Luke is locked up because he saved my Harley and my baby, and for that, I will look after you for as long as you need it," Tilly promises, but there isn’t anything they can do.

"You have our word that we will try to help however we can. If Eric won’t pretend the baby is yours, we’ll figure out a way to keep you both safe," Harley adds in, but it doesn't feel like anything, because I remember that I won't see Luke for years, and neither will our baby.

I feel nothing but a deep pain in my chest as I realise Arthur will always have me now. There is no escape.