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Elena & Enzo Chapter 1

Author: Samantha Ely
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-16 05:44:45

Elena Moretti

Grief doesn’t announce itself.

It doesn’t always crash through the door or scream its way into the room. Sometimes it arrives quietly, settles into your bones, and refuses to leave. It becomes the way you breathe. The way you stand. The way you learn to keep moving even when something essential has gone missing.

The night my mother died, the Moretti estate felt hollow.

Not empty — hollow. Completely hollow.

The house still hummed with the sounds of guards. Whispered conversations, radios crackling somewhere deep in the corridors, doors opening and closing softly as people tried to be useful. But the sound had changed. It echoed too much, like the walls themselves had lost something they couldn’t replace.

I couldn’t stay in my room. I had to get out.

Every surface smelled like her. Lavender and bergamot. Ink and old paper. The faint sweetness of the tea she drank every night before bed. I stripped off the dress I’d worn through the endless hours of condolences and closed
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  • The Chosen Bride   Elena & Enzo Chapter 1

    Elena MorettiGrief doesn’t announce itself.It doesn’t always crash through the door or scream its way into the room. Sometimes it arrives quietly, settles into your bones, and refuses to leave. It becomes the way you breathe. The way you stand. The way you learn to keep moving even when something essential has gone missing.The night my mother died, the Moretti estate felt hollow.Not empty — hollow. Completely hollow.The house still hummed with the sounds of guards. Whispered conversations, radios crackling somewhere deep in the corridors, doors opening and closing softly as people tried to be useful. But the sound had changed. It echoed too much, like the walls themselves had lost something they couldn’t replace.I couldn’t stay in my room. I had to get out.Every surface smelled like her. Lavender and bergamot. Ink and old paper. The faint sweetness of the tea she drank every night before bed. I stripped off the dress I’d worn through the endless hours of condolences and closed

  • The Chosen Bride   Chapter 100

    BellaSunlight spilled over the Hudson Valley estate, gilding the perfectly manicured lawns and the flower-laden aisle that led to the small, elegant ceremony we had gathered for today. The air smelled faintly of jasmine and roses, drifting through the open windows of the main hall where we’d spent so many sleepless nights planning, fighting, and surviving. I stood near the entrance, Viviana tucked snugly in my arms, her dark eyes blinking sleepily at the commotion. She was eight months old now—curious, strong, and impossibly beautiful, her tiny fingers curling around mine.The last year had been surreal. Every day since the end of Chiper’s war, since we had finally closed the chapter on that endless darkness, had felt like a gift we were learning to unwrap carefully. The estate had changed hands in a way it never had before. Aristide and I had moved into the main part of the house, the one that had once belonged to his father, Matteo, and to Elena. Elena and Enzo now lived in Aristid

  • The Chosen Bride   Chapter 99

    AristideThe island rose out of the mist like a jagged crown, dark and silent. My boots hit the gravel dock with a quiet thud, but my mind was already elsewhere, calculating, predicting. Every step was precise, every command measured. This was the last time. I could feel it in my bones.Enzo was beside me, eyes scanning the shadows of the warehouse that loomed ahead. “Only a few of his men here,” he murmured. “The rest—gone, scattered.”I nodded. That made sense. Cipher had fled from the last confrontation. He wasn’t stupid; he knew when he was outmatched. But arrogance and fear made him dangerous. Even with fewer men, we couldn’t underestimate him.Marco’s hand brushed against mine briefly—a silent acknowledgment. The three of us moved forward, weapons ready, the moonlight casting long, jagged shadows across the dock.The warehouse doors were closed, but the boards had been kicked in, signs of recent movement. I could smell it: dust, smoke, and the faint metallic tang of blood.“Stay

  • The Chosen Bride   Chapter 98

    AristideThe damp corridor air clung to my skin as the metal door sealed shut behind us, locking away what remained of that cramped safe room—Bella’s fear, Elena’s steadiness, the exhaustion etched into all their faces. The relief of having Bella back in my arms was still fresh and raw, like a wound that hadn’t finished bleeding. But the moment had already passed. I couldn’t afford to hold onto it.Not yet.“Move,” I said quietly to the men. My voice came out harder than I intended, but nobody challenged it. Boots shuffled on uneven stone as we climbed the narrow steps leading up into the alley behind the safehouse.Enzo kept glancing over his shoulder toward Elena. I caught the look—half worry, half something else he wasn’t bothering to hide right now. She caught him staring and shot him a glare sharp enough to carve glass. It should’ve made me smile.Instead, all I could think about was Cipher’s face when he realized he’d been misinformed. The flicker of confusion. The drop of his s

  • The Chosen Bride   Chapter 97

    BellaThe world blurred into movement and adrenaline.Elena didn’t waste a second the moment we slipped out of Cipher’s collapsing perimeter. She dragged me down a narrow corridor, her grip iron around my wrist, her eyes sharp and calculating even as the floor shook with distant explosions.“This way,” she hissed.I didn’t ask. There wasn’t time.We hit the exit door shoulder-first, bursting into the sharp, cold night air. The docks stretched out in a maze of shadows and rusted rails. Water slapped against wood. Voices shouted in the distance—Cipher’s men scattering, regrouping, hunting.My heart thundered so hard it made my stomach twist. The baby squirmed, sensing my fear.“Elena—where—”“Quiet.” She pressed two fingers to her lips, then pointed. “We go down.”Down?But I trusted her, and trust was the only currency that mattered right now.We slipped between two massive shipping crates, then crouched beside a drainage grate. Elena hooked her fingers under its rusted edge and pulled

  • The Chosen Bride   Chapter 96

    AristideFor a split second, Cipher froze.Not a full-body stillness—just a micro-hesitation. A blink too slow. A breath caught where it didn’t belong.But for a man like him, who choreographed every word, every smirk, every false note of confidence, even that fraction of a pause was enough.He’d been misinformed.And he had just realized it.“My men assured me—” he tried again, tone sharpening.“I know what they assured you,” I cut in. “But your assurances don’t match reality.”The last of his smile bled away.There it was.Panic, raw and thin and pulsing under his skin like a fever.He tried, with pathetic determination, to collect himself. Straightened his jacket. Re-squared his shoulders. A leader repositioning himself on a crumbling throne.“You think you caught me off balance?” Cipher said. “You haven’t. My network is bigger than you ever imagined.”“I don’t need to imagine,” I answered. “I’m dismantling it.”Enzo stepped slightly forward behind me, silent, steadying.Marco adju

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