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The Gilded Cage

last update Last Updated: 2025-12-30 00:08:58

Chapter 14

Alessia's POV

The world didn't return with a bang; it returned with the smell of expensive lilies and the sterile hum of a high-end ventilation system.

My eyelids felt like they were weighted with lead. As the haze of the sedative cleared, the first thing I felt was the softness beneath me, a mattress too plush, silk sheets too cool. This wasn't a dungeon. It was a palace. But as I tried to sit up, the sharp clink of metal against metal echoed through the silence.

A cuff. Fine, poli
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