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CHAPTER 72
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2026-01-12 15:00:48The gala ended without incident and that outcome alone should be an enough warning.
In the Valtieri world, silence is never considered an absence.
It’s a preparation.
When the last remaining guests drifted out beneath chandeliers and polite smiles, the Valtieri machinery had already begun to turn.
No dramatic exits or any public scenes. Any retaliatory gestures that could not be traced back to the family name.
Escalation, the Valtieri way, was subtle.<
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Morning arrived too quietly for the kind of fear Althea and Dominic had carried into the night.The curtains shifted gently from the soft wind slipping through the slightly opened balcony doors, pale sunlight stretching slowly across the room from the gaps on the boarded windows. It touched the tangled sheets, the discarded clothes on the floor, the crumpled paper still resting on the bedside table beside Dominic’s gun.Nicholas’ drawing.Althea woke first.Her eyes opened slowly as awareness settled back into her body, and the first thing she felt was Dominic’s arm around her waist.His arm was heavy and protective.Possessive even in sleep.She remained still for a moment, listening quietly to the steady rhythm of his breathing against the back of her neck.But the moment her gaze shifted toward the bedside table toward the folded paper Dominic had stared at half the night, the tightness returned to her chest immediately.Nicholas.The drawings.The patterns.The terrifying brillian
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The room had long fallen quiet by the time Althea finally stopped trying to outrun her own thoughts.Outside, Blackstone remained awake.Guards moved through the estate.The war room still carried light beneath its doors.Somewhere in the medical wing, Helena was likely still operating.But inside their room, Time had slowed into something heavy and intimate.The sheets were tangled around them again, the air warm, carrying the lingering scent of skin, soap, and exhaustion.Dominic lay against the headboard now, one arm wrapped securely around Althea as she rested against his chest, her breathing finally beginning to steady after everything she had poured into him.Or maybe, into herself.For a while, neither of them spoke.Dominic’s fingers moved lazily along her bare shoulder, grounding more than teasing now.Althea’s hand is on his chest, her fingers drumming lightly.He had stopped teasing her after the second time she kissed him like she was afraid of losing him.Because he under
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Althea kissed him again before Dominic could ask another question.Harder this time and with a bit of need.She kissed him like that because she wants to silence every thought inside her head through the warmth of his mouth against hers.Dominic caught her immediately, his hands settling firmly at her waist as she pressed herself against him. He could feel the tension in her body beneath the urgency, the way she clung to him not out of desperation, but out of needing something real.Something solid.Something alive.“Thea…” He murmured softly against her lips, trying once more to search her face.But Althea only shook her head and kissed him deeper.“No talking, Dom.” She whispered breathlessly. “Not yet. It could wait.”That finally made Dominic stop asking.A faint exhale escaped him, almost amused, almost helpless.“You’ve become bold, amore.” He muttered lightly as his hands slid slowly along her back. He unfastened the hook of her bra and watched it fall on the floor since it has
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The walk back to her room felt longer and heavier than it should have.Althea moved through the halls quietly, but her mind continued to work.Nicholas’ drawings.The patterns.The way her mother had aligned the papers so calmly. Marianna’s action conveyed that she had expected something like that all along.And worst of all, the familiarity.The moment Althea saw one of Alessandro’s structures reflected instinctively in her son’s interpretation of fear and movement.It unsettled her more than the attack itself because gunfire could be stopped. Men could be killed and wars could end.But a mind like Nicholas’ would only continue evolving.Her chest tightened slightly and she stopped for a while, breathing in and out slowly and deeply before continuing on. Before she realized it, she was already pushing the door open to their room.Dominic was there.Of course he was.He stood near the window, sleeves rolled slightly, one hand resting against the desk as several papers lay spread besid
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Nicholas didn’t want to stop talking and that unsettled Althea the most.Not the drawings.Not the patterns.Not even the frightening precision hidden beneath the innocent way he explained movement and strategy.It was the excitement especially the way his eyes brightened when he connected things. He looked so proud when he discovered something that others missed.She had seen that look before.In mirrors.“Mama!” Nicholas said, still kneeling beside the scattered papers. “I think they wanted the loud sounds first because—”“That’s enough for now, sweetheart.” Althea interrupted gently.Nicholas blinked at her in surprise and his face suddenly became perplexed at her interruption.“But I’m not done.” He pointed out.Her chest tightened because she knew that his mind was still moving, processing and building.Marianna watched quietly from beside the table, her expression unreadable in the soft afternoon light.Althea forced herself to smile slightly.“You need to rest.”Nicholas frowne
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The halls of Blackstone had quieted again by the time Althea left the war room.Since last night, peace was no longer present along the halls.Just quieter.The kind of silence that followed after too many decisions had been made and too many people were already moving behind them.Guards remained stationed at every major corridor now, more alert than before, their hands closer to their weapons, their eyes tracking every movement with sharpened instinct.The estate had changed overnight and so had everyone inside of it.Althea walked slowly this time.Not because she was tired though she was inside.But because her mind was still moving and connecting. She still keeps on replaying the maps, the networks, the intersecting structures Alessandro had left behind.And beneath all of that, Nicholas.Her chest tightened slightly at the thought.She hadn’t seen him since breakfast.After everything that happened last night, the gunfire, the fear, she needed to see him.She needed to make sure
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For the next two days, Althea will wake up ahead of him and started to prepare their coffee and will take her bath. She would then put a call to order room service for their breakfast. By the time the staff had arrived and placed their meal by the balcony, Dominic will be stepping out from the vi
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Twelve months.It’s been twelve months since Paris, a few months since she accepted the apartment.It didn’t feel like a year, not when their time moved with her gently. Slow but sure and constant. Dominic sometimes would pause, startled by how natural it felt having Alt
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It had been four months since their first date in Paris. Since the glittering lights reflected in Althea’s eyes as Dominic whispered his first, trembling confession.In the months that followed, the sweetness of that night mellowed into something deeper, easier, rooted in gentle routine. Dates were
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