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Chapter 48 — Dance of Fire and Chains
Huling Na-update:
2025-04-27 22:10:09
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Velvet Chains Chapter 49 — His Queen, His War
Valerio never left Sera's side.Not even for an instant.After the attack, he was a quiet ghost haunting her around the suite—observing, guarding, *staking* her out with his presence. It was dominating, yes. Smothering, certainly. But Sera realized it now.He wasn't trying to imprison her.He was trying to keep her alive.Breathing.His.The hours blurred. Sera hugged him on the couch, wrapped in a thick blanket, while Valerio made call after call in a language she didn't understand. His voice was suave, deadly. She heard snippets like *cleanup*, *loyalty check*, and *blood for blood*.Her stomach twisted.This wasn't over.It was only just beginning.Finally, Valerio ended the calls and approached her, pulling her into his lap as if she were fragile. As if she would shatter if he wasn't careful. He didn't speak. Didn't wonder if she was okay.He just held her.Long minutes went by between them.Finally, Sera leaned back far enough to study him.Valerio's face was set, unyielding. His
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-28Velvet Chains Chapter 50 — Blood Ties
Sera awoke alone.The sheets were still warm, a residual echo of Valerio's body heat enveloping her, but he was gone.Panic stabbed her in the chest before she could reason it out.She pulled on one of his shirts—huge on her petite frame—and padded barefoot through the penthouse. The windows showed her a gray morning beyond, all mist and steel, which was appropriate to the heavy tension coiling through her stomach.She found him in the kitchen.Still shirtless, still lethal-looking, pacing as a low, angry conversation crackled through his phone."No, I don't care what he offers," Valerio growled into the phone. "If he hurts her, if he so much as *looks* at her, I'll bury him with the rest of them."A pause, and then he snapped, "Find out who else was involved. Every name. Every debt."He didn't wait for a response before he hung up.When he turned and saw her there—bare legs showing beneath his shirt, sleepy and worried—his face eased infinitesimally."You should be asleep," he growle
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-28Velvet Chains Chapter 51 — Brother's Eyes
Rain fell outside Valerio's penthouse, pounding the sidewalk with a monotonous, muffled drum.Within, all was quiet.Sera huddled on the couch, wrapping Valerio's sweatshirt around her, still automatically spinning the ring on her finger, its edges slippery with dried blood. She still gazed in the direction of the corridor that Valerio had led his brother Luca an hour before.He'd said he'd discuss with them after he inspected Luca's injuries. Said he'd decide on their next course of action.But the silence stretched on.Thickening.Like a collective hold of breath by the entire world.Sera's nerves unraveled by the second.Then, she finally heard footsteps—two pairs of them—descending the hallway.She remained still as they walked into the living room.Valerio led the way, his arm wrapped tightly around a man who was his mirror image. Dark hair, darker eyes, same fierce beauty — but where Valerio was all hard lines, Luca seemed to have been battered and roughhewn.He was leaner, brui
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-28Velvet Chains Chapter 52 — Vows and Blood
The air in the morning was wet with mist and the smell of rain on stone.Sera leaned against the penthouse balcony railing, wrapped in a heavy sweater Valerio had tossed over her bare shoulders before he disappeared to take a call. His warmth still clung to the fabric, calming the nervous thrum in her chest.She placed a hand across her stomach, feeling the barest quiver there.She was going to be *his wife.*God, it didn't even feel real.Somewhere deep inside, the girl she used to be—the one who lived on the quiet, kept her head down, played by the rules—shrieked in anger that this was insane. Panicked.But that girl wasn't hers anymore.Sera had been broken.Remade.And she was doing this.Doing *him*.Even if it meant entering a realm of darkness, a life balanced upon the blade of a knife.Particularly due to that.Valerio did not love in halves. He consumed, devoured, guarded with a fierceness that scared and exhilarated her in equal measure.She wanted it.Wanted *him*.There we
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-28Velvet Chains Chapter 53 – Fractured Loyalties
Sera leaned against the big penthouse window of Valerio, her loosely closed knuckles wrapped around a pot of cold, untouched coffee. Eros City pulsed outside, neon signs casting desperate shadows against the night, but her focus was not on the world outside. She listened.She had learned to read the changes in the atmosphere by this point. The pinched tension that clamped the room when Valerio was angry. The crafted silence he bore when something was wrong.Tonight, he bore both of them.She heard the front door close with a softness too soft for a man like Valerio, and that said it all. The storm raged inward—more deadly than yelling and flying fists.He entered the room, dark eyes sweeping to her like a magnet to steel. His black shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, revealing the angry clench of muscle in his neck. The air around him hummed with cold fury, and Sera could sense it like static on her skin."Everything okay?" she whispered.He didn't answer right away. He walked past he
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-30Velvet Chains Chapter 54 - Part 1
Valerio came bursting into the dark room, his icy blue eyes probing the room for what was out of place. An unseen deceit thickened the atmosphere, making itself felt with all the tang of treachery. Walls which had previously served as the sign of his own mastery and mastery now seemed claustrophobically closing in on him, their stoniness flaunting its unfriendliness. There was a mole in his organization, feeding information to his enemies, and it had sent a shiver through the roots of everything he had built. He clenched his teeth, the ache of the betrayal breaking in. The trust he had placed in his men, the loyalty he had earned over years—everything poised on a knife-edge. He had trusted one of his inner circle, one of his men who had fought beside him for years. And now that trust was shattered, and there was only question, and worse—doubt.But the worst part?The worst part was Sera. His mind was still on her—the woman who had changed everything around him. The woman who had dared
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-30Velvet Chains Chapter 54 - Part 2
Sera remained still, her back to him, her eyes far away as she gazed out the window, her skin clammy, her breathing shallow. The silence between them expanded, as dense as the secrets they both bore. It was too much to bear.Valerio stepped forward, his heart pounding in his chest, all of his instincts urging him to take hold of her. But she was vanishing, vanishing from him in a way he couldn't stop, even after all the times he had warned himself he would never let her go.He stepped forward, his own shadow falling across her. "Sera," he breathed, the words raw, as if torn from his chest. "Look at me."Slowly, uncertainly, she turned her head, her hazel eyes clashing with his. There was pain in them, but something else, too. Something so raw, it could break him. He moved to take her hand, but she pulled it back, as if the gentle touch of fingers could break everything."I don't know how to trust you anymore, Valerio," she breathed. "You continue to draw me into your world, and I don'
Huling Na-update : 2025-04-30Velvet Chains Chapter 55 – The Price of Trust
There was thick silence between them—humid with unvoiced truths, burdened by lust that each could not extricate from the wreckage of emotion below. Sera stood at the window, her arms locked over her chest as the lights of the city danced off the glass, rocking like specters.Valerio stood in the doorway, arms folded, his black shirt half-unbuttoned from earlier. The tie she'd used to bind his hands last night was coiled on the bed like a memory they couldn't escape."You don't get to vanish on me again," he growled, voice low. A command laced with concern.Sera turned, slowly. Her expression was blank, but her eyes—hazel and too big for one in a world like his—burned with that stubborn fire he both desired and feared."You don't own me, Valerio. No matter how many suites you move me to or how many guards you station.""I don't want to own you." He took a step closer, each step deliberate, predatory. "I want you to *choose* to stay. I want you to *need* me.""You don't get to ask that
Huling Na-update : 2025-05-01
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Velvet Chains Chapter 80 – Burn the Silence
The chapel smelled of dust, old incense, and secrets buried in stone. Beneath the crucifix and shattered stained glass, Valerio opened the crypt hidden in the floorboards. The darkness inside wasn't just physical—it was generational. Legacy. Lies.Sera was right behind him, flashlight clutched tightly in her hand as he descended into the area beneath the altar."Careful," she whispered."Always," he snarled, his voice gritty with the weight of everything he'd learned.He found it in a rusted lockbox, hidden beneath decaying fabric and family heirlooms. There were photos, ledgers, names written in ink that had blurred with time. Dario had told the truth—Lucrezia hadn't just orchestrated the fire. She'd bought loyalty in blood and in silence.And now she was building something darker.Valerio materialized, his jaw set, holding the box against his chest as though it might explode."We're not just taking her down," he snarled, voice low. "We're burning everything she's built."Sera steppe
Velvet Chains Chapter 79 — A Taste of Betrayal
The Verona villa had been their sanctuary for only a week, but Sera was already cognizant that tranquility was nothing but an illusion in Valerio's life.Morning sunlight streamed across the stone courtyard, bathing the ivy-walled rooms in gold. But the warmth in the air only managed to heat the storm raging within Valerio. He braced himself on the table with a black espresso cup, elbows sinking into the surface, eyes locked on the map of allegiances Dario had laid out the previous night.Sera moved soundlessly, her bare feet shod only in his massive shirt, which was short enough to fall just above her thighs. The silk clung to her curves in a way that once would have been distracting.Not today.Not after what Dario had discovered.Lucrezia hadn't simply plotted the murder of Valerio's mother. She had been positioning herself as the true queen of the underworld, eliminating those who stood in her way—one by one.“Talk to me,” Sera said gently, brushing a hand across Valerio’s shoulde
Velvet Chains Chapter 78 - Specters in the Wine Cellar
The cellar beneath the Verona estate was colder than Sera expected. Not from the stone or the shadows—but from the weight of memory that clung to every brick. Valerio led her, his torch casting uncertain light on vaulted ceilings and cobwebbed wine racks that had not seen a disturbance in decades.Dario's warning echoed in her head. "The evidence is under the chapel. Behind the pretend wall in the wine cellar."Valerio found the wall in an instant, eyes sharpened by revenge and memory. He knocked on the stone until a hollow knock gave it away. A breath thereafter, a panel creaked outward with the sound of a coffin lid.Behind the wall lay rows of metal drawers. Files. Documents. Photographs.Evidence.Valerio grabbed a thick file and flipped it open. His fingers froze. A photograph. His mother—smiling, unaware—circled in red ink. A second photo beneath it showed the same woman stepping into a car. Her death car. The date stamped in the corner chilled the air.“It was planned down to t
Velvet Chains Chapter 77 - Shadows of the Past
The chapel was wrapped in cold quiet. Dust clung to the air like secrets too heavy for speech. Valerio crept slowly down the aisle, every step echoing under the vaulted ceiling. Sera followed hard behind, her eyes scanning the candlelit walls, the worn frescoes of saints and martyrs who long ago had stopped listening.They reached the altar. Dario had been very clear. At the rear of the pulpit, under the seventh tile.Valerio knelt and pushed it open.Under the stone was a vacant space, and in it, an old metal box.He yanked it loose, his own breath ragging in the weight of it—not the physical weight, exactly, but the history that filled it. He set it on the floor and sprung the catch. The hinges shrieked loudly as the top groaned open.Inside were files, photos, letters written in hand—letters imprinted with blood and betrayal, stamped indelibly.Sera knelt by him, reaching out to grab a letter. It was to Lucrezia, in a bold, flowing hand.*"The fire is scheduled. The boy will surviv
Velvet Chains Chapter 76 - A Blood Pact Under the Chapel
Centuries-old secrets were whispered through the stone walls of the chapel as Valerio, Sera, and Dario descended the spiral stair under the altar. The air was thick with dust, its silence disturbed only by the echo of footsteps and the flickering light of the old oil lamp Dario held."This room hasn't been disturbed in decades," he said, the flames casting ominous shadows on his face. "My father said it was for prayer. He lied."Valerio ran his hand over the damp stone wall, his eyes slitting. "How many lies must we uncover before this war ends?"Sera remained close to him, her hand brushing against his as they went deeper into the earth. She felt the heaviness in him—the way he carried the weight of every betrayal, every loss, every flame that ever burned beneath his family's name.At the bottom of the stairs, they entered a narrow corridor with iron doors along the walls. Dario stopped in front of the third."This is it."He entered a code on a rusted keypad, and the door screeched
Velvet Chains Chapter 75 - Uncovering Chapel Secrets
The cold of the Verona air followed them as they made their way to the chapel that Dario had told them about. It was at the far end of the estate, flanked by cypress trees that groaned in the wind, their shadows extending long and foreboding in the moonlight. The building was old, its stones weathered with centuries of secrets and sin.Valerio held Sera's hand tightly, the other wrapped around the butt of his gun. Even with Dario guiding them, trust did not come easily."How far down does it go?" Valerio ordered, staring at the chapel's weathered interior."Under the altar," Dario whispered, his eyes darting up to the worn crucifix that hung above. "There's a trapdoor, hidden by the marble. My father and I would use it when we had to. store things."Sera swallowed, her nerves tightening. The air was colder in here, unnaturally so. She felt it in her bones, in the way her skin prickled."You’re sure no one else knows about this?" she asked.Dario hesitated. "Only Lucrezia. But she beli
Velvet Chains Chapter 74 - The Masked Dance
The gala vibrated with secrets and shadows, but none thicker than that surrounding Sera as she navigated the crowd. She wasn't herself tonight. She was Celeste D'Amour, an enigmatic heiress from the French Riviera with a taste for danger and champagne. It was a name devised by Dario, corroborated by a fleshed-out identity trail and whispered associations with power.Sera had never been so naked, and yet so masked. And that paradox vibrated beneath her skin.Valerio's voice was a soft whisper in her ear, grounding. "She's watching you. Play it slow."Sera took a sip from her glass, letting her eyes drift over the room briefly, bored, uninterested. But she felt it—Lucrezia's eyes slicing through the crowd like blades. Waiting. Hunting."She's moving," Dario murmured over comms. "Two guards with her. Coming up on your left."Sera turned, just a bit. Enough to appear interested, not set up.Lucrezia walked like winter—deadly, gracious. Her voice, when it came, was a dagger in silk."I don
Velvet Chains Chapter 73 - Valerio & Sera
The chapel just beyond Dario's grounds stood like a monument to having been forgotten by time—ivy covering the stone walls, broken stained glass windows, their former brightly colored hues now faded with age. It was lovely, haunting. A cemetery of secrets.Sera stood beside Valerio, flashlight in hand. The marble floors echoed beneath their steps as they walked toward the altar. The air inside was cold, still, too quiet—as if the walls themselves were holding their breath."You’re sure the evidence is here?" she asked.Valerio nodded. "Dario said under the altar. There's a hiding place beneath the ancient offering table. My mother used to say her morning prayers here. If she knew what was rotting beneath her feet."He did not go on. Instead, he knelt and pressed a row of intricately carved angel wings on the altar. There was a quiet click. The marble swung back with a creak, and a thin stairway descending into darkness was revealed.Sera looked down. "Of course there's a creepy crypt.
Velvet Chains Chapter 72 - Valerio & Sera
The aftermath of the attack on the safehouse left a thick tension hanging in the air, heavier than the smoke and blood splatters they'd all but escaped. It was early dawn, but Valerio's world had been rewritten. The game had new rules.He stood on the edge of a cliff, beyond the forest clearing several miles from the desecrated safehouse, the wind cutting through his coat and nibbling at him. Sera followed him, silent. The night was silent too, too silent. Out in the distance, there were owls hooting into the night, peacefully unaware of the war raging in silence beneath their branches."We have to go," she whispered.Valerio changed, his face carved from stone. "Where?""To whoever's next on your list."She kept pace with him, slipping her hand into his. He glanced down at the manner in which her fingers curled around his—tight, unyielding."This doesn't stop until we find the one pulling the strings," she continued. "Until you're free."Valerio's face twisted. "Then we start with Da
