I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. One second I was cutting through the alley behind the restaurant where I worked. The next I was watching a man die and the man responsible was watching me. Dante Romano. The Don. The most feared name in the city. He didn’t kill me. That would have been kinder. Instead he took me. “You’ll stay,” he said, like it wasn’t a cage he was locking me into. Like I had a choice. Like I was anything more than a loose end he hadn’t decided what to do with yet. I told myself I would not break. I told myself I would find a way out. What I didn’t tell myself what I refused to admit even in the dark when he was all I could think about,was that some cages start to feel like home. And some captors start to feel like the only person who has ever truly seen you.