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بيت / Romance / OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28 / CHAPTER 22 — THE PRICE OF A PROMISE

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CHAPTER 22 — THE PRICE OF A PROMISE

مؤلف: Blessing
last update تاريخ النشر: 2026-07-20 16:18:32

POV: LaurabethThe hospital air tasted like old metal and dying flowers. It was quiet in there, the kind of quiet that felt like it was waiting for something bad to happen. My chest felt tight, not just from the baby, but from the weight of the letter tucked under my pillow. It was a messy, tear-stained thing, but it was the only part of me that was still honest.Vinicio was out in the hallway. I could hear him, his voice low and jagged, snapping at his security men like a whip. He was furious. H
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  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 36 — THE GHOST IN THE RAIN

    POV: VinicioThe weight of him in my arms was the only thing tethering me to the earth.Thomas.My son.He was thinner than he should have been, his breath a hitching, jagged rasp that tore through my chest like a dull blade. I held him against my heart, trying to press my own strength into his failing body, but he was barely there. He was a flickering candle in a hurricane.I stood beneath the harsh, buzzing security lights of the estate, my boots planted firmly on the concrete as though I could anchor the entire world from drifting away. The silence of the night was deafening, broken only by the steady drum of rain striking the metal roof of the gatehouse."Alex!" I roared.The sound was feral, a command that vibrated against the iron gates.My head of security was at my side within seconds, his weapon drawn, his eyes scanning the tree line with professional, lethal focus. He stopped when he saw the bundle in my arms. He stopped when he saw my face."Get the car," I commanded, my vo

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 35 — THE LAST LOOK

    POV: LaurabethThe night air was thick with the scent of damp earth and coming rain, a smell that dragged me back a decade. I was walking down the long, winding road toward the Rossini estate, my boots silent against the pavement. Ten years. I had spent ten years convincing myself that this road didn't exist, that the man who had built this fortress didn't exist, and that the woman who had once walked through those gates as a wife was someone else entirely.Every step felt like a betrayal of the life I had built for Thomas. But every step was also the only way to save him.My arms ached. Thomas was ten, but in my arms, he felt like the same fragile infant I had carried out of the burning safehouse. His breathing was a wet, hitching rattle that synced with the frantic thumping of my own heart. He was so pale, his skin looking like parchment under the sliver of moonlight, and the realization that his life was slipping away made my vision swim with black spots.I reached the massive wrou

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 34 — THE IMPOSSIBLE DISTANCE

    POV: LaurabethThe hospital room in Zurich felt like a cage made of glass and fluorescent light. Thomas was fading. Every beep of the heart monitor was a drumbeat marching us toward an ending I refused to accept. The lead surgeon, a man with tired eyes and a grim mouth, had just left. He had told me, with the clinical detachment of a man who saw death every day, that the surgery Thomas needed, a complex, experimental repair, wasn't just expensive. It was a specialty practice.The only clinic in the world capable of performing it, the only team with the success rate to save him, was in the heart of the city I had spent ten years fleeing.It was under the jurisdiction of the Rossini Medical Trust.I stood in the sterile hallway, my bank account empty, my identity a carefully constructed lie that would crumble the moment I walked into a high-end hospital. I had nothing. No empire, no security detail, no leverage. I was a ghost with a dying son.I reached into my bag and pulled out the sm

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 33 — THE SILENT YEARS

    POV: LaurabethTen years was a long time to live as a ghost.I stood by the window of our small apartment in Zurich, watching the snow fall over the cobblestone streets. Everything there was precise, clean, and utterly foreign. It was the perfect place for a person who didn't exist to build a life.My hands, the same hands that had once been tied to a chair in a shipping container, were steady as I poured a cup of tea. No more blood. No more gunsmoke. No more the smell of rot and expensive cigars.But sometimes, when the wind hit the eaves a certain way, I could still hear the roar of the fire. I could still see the Zippo lighter dancing in Teresa's hand.I hadn't just faked our deaths; I had amputated my own soul.Felicia had been my savior that night, the mole who had finally turned into a guardian angel. She had smuggled us out through the servant's tunnels before the first match was struck, handing me a heavy bag of cash and a stack of forged passports. She had stayed behind to ma

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 32 — THE ECHO OF A GHOST

    POV: VinicioTen years.They said time was a healer, but they were lying. Time wasn't a healer; it was a sculptor. It took your agony and chipped away at it until it became a cold, sharp statue you had to carry around in your chest every single day.I stood in the study of the new estate, the glass of scotch in my hand trembling just enough to make the ice click against the crystal. The house was too big, too silent, and too damn pristine. I had built it from the ground up, an empire of steel and concrete designed to keep the world out, but all it really did was trap the memories inside."Vinicio?"The voice was soft, melodic, and entirely empty.I didn't turn around. I knew the silhouette in the doorway. Vanessa. She had been in my life for four of those long, hollow years. She was beautiful, she was kind, and she was the perfect anchor for a man who had lost his moorings. She filled the silences with chatter about art galleries and gala invitations. She filled the bed at night with

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 31 — THE ASHES OF A LIE

    POV: VinicioSix weeks. That was how long the world had been spinning without my family in it. Six weeks of living in the crawlspaces of this city, eating dust and sleeping with a shotgun across my chest, waiting for the right moment to pull the pins on the foundation of Teresa’s new empire.Today, the foundation cracked.I stood on the periphery of the cordoned-off wreck that had once been a safehouse in the harbor district. The air was thick, choked with the smell of wet charcoal and scorched timber. Firefighters were still hosing down the charred skeleton of the building, the steam rising into the cold morning air like the breath of some dying beast.Two body bags were being loaded into the back of a coroner’s van.My heart did a stuttering, violent jump in my chest. Even knowing the plan, even knowing the stakes, the sight of those black bags made the world tilt."They're gone, Vinicio," a voice said.I didn't turn around. I didn't have to. I knew the cadence, the smug, honey-coat

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 4: THE PRICE OF SILENCE

    VINICIO POV“Are you alright?” I finally broke the tension immediately we got to the car. I knew how to handle boardrooms and blood-feuds, and a part of me wanted to simply crush whatever was eating her up so I could have my wife back to her normal self.“Yes-”“No. You’re not coming out of this ca

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 3: CONTROL

    VINICIO POVI knew striking a deal with this delicate young girl was a bad idea but she was fiery, as expected, as her father warned me two years back, in a party at her house, I guess she doesn’t recognize me. However, I was out of time and options; I needed to be able to access my inheritance and

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 2: WEDDING NIGHT

    LAURABETHThe moment he shut the door with his foot, he dropped me like frilled lace onto the bed; carefully, as though I were fragile. My thoughts were interrupted by the beige coloration of the room. It made the dim light from the window reflect effortlessly against a large portrait of Vinicio ha

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 1: WEDDING

    ELARA“Do you take Vinicio Teo Rossini as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health?”I stared wordlessly at the priest, lost in thought. How did I get here?I felt my heart burst in pain when I found our belongings piled outside the doorpost; my mother clinging t

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