Chapter Two: Bound by Walls

The next morning arrived with pale light seeping through the tall windows of the villa. Lucy hadn’t realized she'd fallen asleep in the study until she woke curled under the same blanket, her neck stiff and her thoughts worse.

Outside, the birds sang as though the world hadn’t turned upside down.

She padded back to the bedroom, still in the soft robe she’d been given. The sheets on the bed were untouched. Gabriel had never come back.

She didn’t know why that stung.

Downstairs, the housekeeper a quiet woman named Elena offered her breakfast on a tray. Lucy carried it to the sunroom, where vines climbed the stone walls and the windows framed a view of olive trees swaying in the breeze.

She picked at the toast. Her stomach twisted in knots. The tea had gone cold before she took a single sip.

"You should eat," came Gabriel’s voice.

Lucy looked up. He stood in the doorway, shirt crisp, jaw freshly shaved, but eyes still shadowed. She hated that he looked so collected when she felt like shards.

"Not hungry," she said.

He walked over and sat across from her without asking. For a moment, they both stared at the food between them.

Then Gabriel said, "Your father sold me part of your family company six months ago. The marriage was his way of sealing the rest of the deal."

Lucy blinked. "What?"

"You didn’t know?"

"Of course not," she whispered. "They told me Serena had run away, and that if I didn’t take her place, we’d lose everything."

He leaned back, eyes narrowing. "So they used you."

"Does that surprise you?"

Gabriel didn’t answer.

"Why did you agree?" she asked. "If you didn’t want a wife, why marry at all?"

His lips tightened. "Because your sister did more than run. She humiliated me. And I wanted your father to feel the cost."

Lucy recoiled. "So I was punishment."

"At first," he admitted. "Now? I don’t know."

Their eyes locked. Something unspoken passed between them. Not forgiveness. Not yet. But recognition. That they were both bound by chains they hadn’t forged.

"I’ll stay out of your way," she said quietly. "If you want to go back to your life, your women, your silence, that’s fine. Just let me keep pretending I matter."

Gabriel’s expression shifted, flickered with something that might have been pain.

"I never asked for this," he murmured.

"Neither did I."

He stood. "We’ll be leaving for the vineyard in Spain by the end of the week. My assistant will arrange what you need."

And just like that, the walls rose again.

But this time, Lucy wondered if he was hiding behind them or protecting something inside.

Later that day, Lucy slipped into the library with her phone pressed to her chest. She closed the heavy door behind her and leaned against it before calling the only person who’d ever made her feel safe.

John answered after one ring.

"Lucy? Are you okay?"

Her throat closed. She sat in the farthest corner of the room and let her voice drop to a whisper. "I don't know. It’s beautiful here, but it feels like a prison."

He sighed. "I had a feeling. I wanted to come to the wedding. They wouldn’t let me."

"They wouldn’t even let me choose my dress. Serena’s was already altered. They’d planned this."

"Of course they did," he muttered. "I’ve been going through some of Dad’s old files. Something isn’t right, Lucy. He’s more connected to Gabriel than he ever told us."

"Gabriel said he already owned part of the company."

"It’s worse than that. Gabriel owns three of the shell companies our father used to fund his deals. He could’ve destroyed us at any moment. Instead… he married you."

Lucy went quiet. That strange ache in her chest throbbed again. "I don’t know what that means."

"Maybe he’s not the monster they painted him to be."

She closed her eyes. "He looks at me like I betrayed him. Like I remind him of someone who did."

John’s voice softened. "Then make him see who you really are. Not them. You."

That evening, she passed by Gabriel’s study. The door was half-open, and candlelight flickered inside.

She paused.

He sat at a desk, sleeves rolled to his elbows, his tie discarded. His head was bowed, hand resting on a thick file of documents.

She knocked gently.

"Do you ever take a break?"

He didn’t look up. "Do you ever stop wandering this house like a ghost?"

She leaned against the doorframe. "Maybe I am a ghost. I feel like one."

He lifted his gaze. Something flickered across his face guilt, maybe, or something older.

"Why did you come in here?"

"I don’t know," she admitted. "Maybe I just wanted to be where the silence wasn’t so heavy."

Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "It’s not silence that hurts, Lucy. It’s what fills it."

"Then tell me what’s filling yours."

The words surprised even her.

He didn’t answer. But he didn’t tell her to leave either.

She stepped closer, slowly, as if the wrong move would make him vanish. Her eyes drifted to the paper in front of him legal contracts, acquisition notes. Her family’s company name was stamped across the header.

"You’ve been planning this for a long time."

"Yes."

"Did Serena know?"

His jaw clenched. "She didn’t care. She only saw the headlines. The wealth. She flirted like it was a game. Until she realized I wasn’t playing."

Lucy nodded slowly. "And me? Do you think I’m playing too?"

His stare was unrelenting. "I don’t know. Not yet."

She took a breath. "Then let me show you."

Gabriel looked at her like she was a puzzle he hadn’t expected to want to solve.

And in that moment, the silence between them changed shape not an enemy, but a thread.

Thin.

Fragile.

But maybe, just maybe, enough to hold the weight of a future neither of them had asked for.