This chapter shows Emilia tightening under the pressure of secrets. It is also showing us (and herself) that she’s not the fragile girl who was once sold off.
Chapter 154 – Whispers in the DarkThe burner phone buzzed again. Emilia’s hand snapped over it instinctively, silencing the sound before anyone else could hear. She tucked it deeper beneath the folds of her robe, her pulse pounding.Another message.You belong with me. Lucien moretti will never keep you safe. Blood calls to blood. Join me, Emilia.Her stomach twisted. She hadn’t even deleted the last one. Every night since the Vulture revealed himself, the phone had been alive with his words. Each message was like a hand dragging her back into a past she thought was buried with her mother’s lies and hatred. She sat at the edge of her vanity, staring at her reflection. She looked the same, but she didn’t feel the same. Something inside her had cracked wide open, and she was fighting every second to hold the pieces together.A soft knock at the door jolted her.“Emi?” Lucien’s voice, low, commanding.She swallowed hard and shoved the phone inside the drawer. “Yes?”The door opened. Luc
Emilia’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she left Dario estate. Every step back toward Moretti’s estate felt like walking with blood on her hands, though the blood wasn’t Lucien’s, it was hers. Her history. Her secrets. The face of the man she had sworn was dead still lingered in her vision, sharper than firelight, sharper than memory.Her father.The Vulture.She almost wanted to scream, to tear it out of her chest before it devoured her. But she couldn’t. Not here. Not when eyes lingered everywhere.When she reached the corridor near the kitchens, Rosa was already waiting. Arms crossed, expression tight, eyes burning with something between worry and fury.“You’re late,” Rosa said in a harsh whisper. “Now tell me who the vulture is? .”Emilia froze. Her throat was dry, but she kept her chin high. “And if you know I am late, then you know why I can’t stand here and talk.”Rosa stepped forward, blocking her path. “No, we will talk. I told you when you're going, Emilia. If you came b
The room spun. Emilia couldn’t find her breath, couldn’t steady her legs. The fire hissed, spitting sparks into the silence, but even that sound felt distant, drowned under the weight of the words still echoing inside her.I am your father.Her hands trembled against the armrest of the chair, nails biting into the leather. She wanted to deny it again, scream it back into the shadows, but his face, older now, sharper, but familiar in a way she couldn’t scrub from memory, had already carved through every defense she had.“No,” she whispered, shaking her head hard. “You don’t get to stand here and claim that. You don’t get to walk back into my life after burying yourself in the ground of my childhood.”The Vulture didn’t move. His eyes followed her, steady, unreadable. “I never buried myself. I was buried for you. For your survival.”Her chest caved, fury rising with the words. “Survival? You call leaving me with her survival? Do you know what she did to me? How she resented me every sing
The room shrank around her. The fire hissed in the hearth, smoke twisting upward like questions she was terrified to answer.Emilia’s throat ached. She forced herself to breathe, to speak, though the words clawed out of her like glass.“Who are you?” Her voice wavered. She straightened, sharper this time, as if daring the shadows. “Show me your face.”For a long, suffocating moment, nothing moved. Then, slowly, almost deliberately, the hood shifted. A hand lifted, steady, unhurried.The firelight stretched across features she should never have seen again.Her world stopped.Her breath fractured into a gasp, ragged, tearing at her chest. Her knees weakened beneath her. No—no, it wasn’t possible. The lines of his face were older, harsher, but the jaw, the eyes… they belonged to a ghost.“No,” she whispered, stumbling back a step. “No, you can’t..."Dario turned sharply toward her, his voice edged with confusion. “Emilia? What the hell is it?”She shook her head violently, trembling, eyes
Betrayal.That word clung to her like a stain. Even though she told herself she wasn’t betraying Lucien, she was only searching for truth, she couldn’t scrub the thought away.The blindfold came off, leaving Emilia blinking into the dim glow of firelight. The same estate, the same study, but this time, it felt different.Dario was waiting. He didn’t greet her with charm tonight, only a measured glance that gave away nothing. His gaze lingered, almost protective, before it shifted to the corner of the room.To the shadow.She froze.He was there. Cloaked in black, hood drawn low. The Vulture.He didn’t step forward, didn’t announce himself. He only watched.Her pulse hammered in her throat.“Emilia,” Dario said smoothly, inclining his head. “You came.”She swallowed. “I didn’t exactly have a choice.”One corner of his mouth twitched, though it never quite reached a smile. “We all have choices. Even when they cut us open to make them.”She didn’t reply. Her chest felt tight, her body tor
The halls of the Moretti estate lay heavy with silence, the kind of silence that made every step feel like a trespass. Emilia slipped through them with careful precision, her fingers brushing the wall as though the touch could anchor her trembling nerves. She had done this before, crept out under the cloak of night with Rosa at her side, but tonight felt different. Heavier.Rosa waited near the back door, arms folded, shawl drawn close against the chill. Her eyes, sharp as knives, tracked Emilia’s every movement. “You’re late,” she muttered.“I couldn’t risk being seen,” Emilia whispered back.Rosa opened the door, and the night air swallowed them whole. The garden smelled of damp earth, roses closing themselves against the dark.Every step she took toward the world outside this mansion was another thread pulling her away from Lucien.They moved in silence until the estate walls were nothing but shadows behind them. Then Rosa stopped. She turned abruptly, blocking the path, and fixed Em