Bound to the Ruthless

Seraphina Voss is a kind, ordinary 22-year-old college student who only dreams of a quiet, peaceful life. But everything shatters the night she is kidnapped on her way home. Her first defiant cry rings out: “Sino ka?! Bitawan mo ‘ko!” — yet no one answers, as she is taken away and locked inside a cold, luxurious room that is nothing more than a gilded cage. Her captor is Dante Moretti: ruthless, powerful, and wealthy enough to own almost everything and everyone in the city. He took Seraphina simply because he wanted her, believing he has the right to claim anything his eyes set on. Seraphina begs every maid and guard for help, but no one dares assist — they value their jobs, families, and lives too much to cross Dante. To break her spirit, Dante slowly makes her life miserable: freezing cold room, barely enough tasteless food, lights kept on 24/7 so she can never rest, and closed curtains that keep all sunlight away. He wants her weak, helpless, and completely dependent on him. He reminds her again and again that she belongs to him entirely — body, life, and will. He cruelly claims the world has forgotten her; her family thinks she ran away, no one is looking for her, and only he holds her fate. All suffering will end, he promises, the moment she submits and accepts she is his. But even as she grows weak, sick, and hopeless, Seraphina refuses to surrender. He may have trapped her body, but she will never let him own her heart, her spirit, or her identity.