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Chapter 63 - Valerio & Sera

last update Last Updated: 2025-05-03 18:55:06

Eros City never rested. But tonight, it drew a breath.

Sera was propped up against the wall-to-wall window of Valerio's penthouse, watching the sea of lights below her. Her face hovered vaguely against the glass, a ghost of the girl she used to be. Valerio sat in front of her, still as stone, speechless, a panther sprung waiting for night.

The silence between them was no longer oppressive with distrust or uncertainty. It was a breath. A gasp. The harbinger of a storm they both knew would erupt.

Valerio shattered the silence finally. "I need to show you something."

She turned, brows raised. "Now?"

He nodded and stood, moving across to the other side of the room. He pushed on a wall panel and the panel clicked open to reveal a state-of-the-art black safe. With code and fingerprint, the door opened to reveal a velvet-lined box.

Valerio opened it.

Inside its depths was a necklace.

Not just any necklace. This one was tiny, silver and black diamonds, but the pendant hanging from it made her
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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 64 - Valerio & Sera

    The storm didn't wait.Thunder exploded overhead as rain pounded the roof of the estate in waves, washing away years' worth of dust. The air inside the mansion turned cold, the kind that crept into bones. Valerio and Sera did not move from the drawing room, though. They stayed on the bench of the broken piano, hands still loosely clasped, the resonance of their bond suspended between keys.Valerio's voice broke the silence. "I used to sneak in here when I was a kid to avoid my father's. lessons. This piano was the one thing that I did not find intimidating."Sera looked at him, her throat constricted in her throat. "Lessons?A muscle flexed in his jaw. "His way of making me 'a man.' Violence. Power. Control. Made me fight bigger boys until I couldn't walk. Made me watch things a child shouldn't."She touched him, her hand tracing along his. "And you came back here to confront it?"He met her gaze. "I came because the ghosts only let up on their chase when you meet them head-on.".Ligh

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 65 - Sera & Valerio

    The old Thorne mansion stood as a forgotten presence on the fringes of Eros City. Time had not been kind. Ivy choked the once gracious facade, and shattered windows glared like vacant eyes into the night. The gate screamed open on a metallic shriek as Valerio drove them through, headlights clawing across ruined stone and weeds that clawed their way up the entry steps.Sera sat stiffly in the passenger seat, her fists tight in her lap. "You grew up here?"Valerio didn't look at her. "I survived here. That's all."It smelled of dust and secrets inside. The grand chandelier above the foyer sagged, its crystals dirty. Sera ran her fingers along the peeling wallpaper as Valerio led her through halls that echoed with too much silence.He finally stopped before a wooden door. He pushed it open to reveal a study. Unlike the rest of the house, it was intact against rot. The desk was clean, papers piled neatly. Books lined the shelves, each spine as s

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 66 - Valerio & Sera

    The ride to the estate was a long one, winding through deserted woods covered in mist. The further they went, the further back into the distance the city retreated, a memory fading into night. Sera sat next to Valerio in the rear of the bulletproof SUV, hands clasped in her lap, eyes flicking toward him every few minutes.He'd said nothing since they'd left the penthouse.Valerio stood at the window, his jaw clenched, a muscle beating at the corner. The silence was another form of weight now—not of anger or distance, but of ghosts. The sort that tugged at him from the past, hissing through the trees they drove by."You alright?" Sera asked at last.He didn't answer initially. Then, in a gravel-edged voice, he said, "I haven't been back here since the fire. Since I saw him walk away from the ashes like he hadn't just killed her."Her breath caught. She leaned in, her fingers closing around his delicately."Then why now?" s

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 67 - Valerio & Sera

    The sun rose blood-red over the ruined estate, staining the skeletal remains of Valerio's childhood house in fire and gold. The smoke from the last battle still lingered in the air, curling like specters through the broken windows. Sera waited in the silence that followed, her pistol loose at her side, ears still ringing from the gunfire.Valerio crouched next to the body of the man who'd named his father."He's making a grab," Valerio growled, to himself more than anything else. "He waited so long to allow me to establish everything. so he could then attempt to steal it away."Sera stepped forward. "Then he's mistaken."He gazed up at her. There was pride in his eyes, but something more. Sadness. Grief. Not for the man he'd thought of as a father—but for what he'd lost because of him. His mother. His innocence. His peace."This house," Valerio said, standing slowly and surveying the wreckage, "was built on blood. It alway

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter  68 - Valerio & Sera

    Rifle fire cracked through the underbrush like a fury of vengeance, echoing across the destroyed manor. Sera winced, racing heart still within her, as Valerio shielded her body with his. His arms wrapped around her, driving her behind a blackened pillar as rounds spat stone and ash into the air."Down!" he bellowed, voice booming over the chaos.His men returned fire, moving as precisely as surgeons. The ambush hadn't surprised Valerio—it had merely reinforced what he already knew: there was a mole in his organization, selling information to the enemy.Sera clung to the icy stone, her breathing short and shallow. She could feel the shock of the gunfire through the floor, smell the bitter flavor of metal and smoke. But it wasn't fear that bound her.It was rage.Whoever had enough guts to come for Valerio—enough guts to disrupt what they were building—would regret it.Valerio whirled, dropped down beside her. His mask was streaked with dirt, eyes burning hot with fury. "You believe me?

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 69 - Valerio & Sera

    The guns' noise had long since faded, leaving behind only the crackling of the blaze in the impromptu hideout Valerio's men had occupied. Darkness descended on the forest hideout, thick with silence and secrets. Valerio was at the window, his gaze trained on the trees as if trying to break through the shroud of treachery that had surrounded his organization.Sera slumped on the arm of the leather couch, covered in one of Valerio's warm jackets, dripping wet hair curving around her face in tender strands. Her mind spun from the chaos of everything they had just been through. The fight at the compound. The deception that ran deeper than they had expected. The shadow of what still remained out there, hanging in wait."I don't know whom to trust anymore," Valerio burst out, his voice low, husky. "Every time I think I've located the leak, someone else bleeds.""You trust me," Sera said softly.His head rotated toward her slowly, eyes obscured in the dark. "You're the only one I trust. That

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 71 - Valerio & Sera

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 80 – Burn the Silence

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 78 - Specters in the Wine Cellar

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 77 - Shadows of the Past

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  • Velvet Chains   Chapter 76 - A Blood Pact Under the Chapel

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