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Chapter 52 — Vows and Blood

last update Last Updated: 2025-04-28 21:55:37

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
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