005

CHAPTER FIVE

CALISTA

THREE YEARS AFTER 

Three long, agonizing years of watching the world move behind my room.

I stood by my bedroom window, resting my palm against the cool pane, staring out at the expansive Donati estate. 

Three years ago, when Rheyes turned the key in my door, I thought I would suffocate in this room. 

In those early months, he had been distant, rarely speaking to me and keeping me locked under strict twenty-four-hour surveillance, treating me less like a person and more like a fragile artifact he was obsessed with keeping safe.

I had read the books in my room a hundred times over, as I had nothing else to do. The guards never spoke to me, because they were working on Rheye's orders. 

A sudden movement near the marble fountain drew my attention down to the garden.

My chest tightened, a familiar ache piercing straight through my ribs.

Rheyes was walking down the stone pathway, and walking beside him, with her delicate hand resting lightly on his forearm, was Lui Lanchi—the Second daughter of the Lanchi family, and Rheyes’s arranged fiancée.

The match had been orchestrated by his father two years ago to solidify an alliance between two of the most powerful families in the syndicate.

Watching her laugh at something he said made my stomach twist into a bitter knot. She was everything this world wanted: refined, born into money, and pure-blooded. 

Everything I wasn't.

As if sensing the violent shift in my pulse, Rheyes stopped abruptly mid-stride.

Without a word to his fiancée, his head tilted upward. His dark eyes cut through the afternoon light, locking directly onto mine through the glass.

 The air in my lungs vanished. For a second, the distance between us melted away, replaced by that heavy, suffocating tension that had always bound us together.

I yanked myself back from the glass, retreating into the deep part of my room, my heart hammering like a trapped bird against my chest.

Clang!

In my haste to step back, my shoulder clipped the edge of the side table. 

A heavy crystal vase wobbled before crashing down onto floor, shattering into a hundred jagged pieces.

Before I could even process the noise, the heavy oak doors of my room were violently thrown open.

“Calista!”

Rheyes breached the doorway like a bullet. He had abandoned his fiancée on the garden trail, sprinting up the second the sound echoed through the compound.

 His dark eyes were wide, frantic with panic as his gaze swept the room, checking every corner for a threat.

“I’m fine!” I gasped, stepping back. “It was just an accident, I—”

“Don't move,” he commanded, his voice low and raspy.

He didn't care about the guards lingering nervously in the hallway. 

He didn't care about the rules. In three long strides, he crossed the room, dropping to one knee right in front of me. 

He reached out, his hands gently grasping my ankles to ensure no stray shards of glass had cut through my skin.

“You’re shaking,” he murmured, his hands sliding up, lifting me slightly to set me safely on the edge of the bed away from the glasses.

“Rheyes, stop,” I whispered, my voice trembling as his touch sent a wave of electric heat straight through my blood. “The guards... your fiancée...”

He ignored me entirely. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and gently wiped a speck of dust from my knee, his thumb lingering against my skin far longer than necessary. 

The proximity was unbearable. The scent of leather, and dark cedarwood filled my senses, making my head spin.

“I told you to be careful,” he rasped, his eyes darkening as he stared up into mine, his face inches from my knee. “If you get hurt in this room, Calista, I will lose my mind.”

“Rheyes?”

A soft, melodic voice echoed from the doorway.

Lui Lanchi stood on the foyer, but her face completely pale. 

She watched Rheyes kneeling at my feet, his hands cradling my legs with tenderness he had never once offered her.

I saw the exact moment the realization hit her. I watched her eyes track the unspoken, suffocating heat between us.

Lui’s expression hardened, a flash of bitter envy sparking in her eyes. 

She looked at my simple nightgown, my messy hair, and the effortless hold I had over the future Don.

 Suddenly, Lui pressed a hand to her forehead, letting out a soft, breathless gasp. 

Her eyelids fluttered, and before anyone could move, her knees buckled. She collapsed onto the floor of the corridor with a sharp thud.

"Miss Lanchi!"

Heavy, frantic footsteps echoed down the hall as three guards rushed forward, surrounding her in a panic.

"Don Rheyes! She's fainted! She isn't breathing properly!" the lead guard shouted, looking into the room with terrified eyes.

Rheyes froze, his thumb still resting against my skin.

His jaw clenched, every muscle in his body became  rigid. His gaze remained locked on mine.

"Rheyes..." I whispered, pulling my leg back from his hold, severing the contact between us. "Go."

"Calista—" he rasped, his voice dropping into a rough growl.

"Go to her," I choked out, a bitter smile touching my lips as I gestured toward the door. 

"Your sister will be fine. But your fiancée won't."

The word fiancée hung in the air like a blade. I could notice the moment his eyes twitched when I said Sister. 

He looked at my cold, distant face, then back at the guards crowding around Lui in the hallway.

Slowly, he stood up. He didn't say a word, but the silent promise lingering in his gaze was suffocating. 

He turned on his heel and stepped out into the corridor, leaning down to scoop Lui's limp body up into his arms.

As he carried her away down the grand staircase, I remained sitting on the edge of my bed in the quiet room, watching the

door click shut once more as tears rolled down my eyes.