Semua Bab Velvet Chains: Bab 151 - Bab 153

The penthouse was quiet.Too quiet for a man who once ruled the night with violence and smoke. Valerio stood near the open balcony doors, watching Sera with a look that was both reverent and terrified. She hadn’t spoken since they returned. Her silence wasn’t cold—it was contemplative, careful. Like she held the weight of her future between her fingers and was deciding whether or not to crush it.Sera’s back faced him, arms folded across her chest. The wind stirred her hair, and the city lights shimmered against the tears she wouldn’t let fall.“You haven’t said a word,” Valerio murmured, breaking the silence.“I’m thinking,” she said, her voice clipped. “Trying to figure out if I’m about to make the biggest mistake of my life… or the rightest decision I’ve ever made.”He took a slow step forward, his footsteps nearly silent against the marble floor. “If it’s about trust, I’ll never ask you to trust me blindly again.”She turned halfway toward him, her eyes wary. “You already did that

One year later...The sun filtered softly through the sheer curtains, casting golden stripes across the pale ivory sheets. The warmth of morning light touched my bare shoulder, and for once, I didn’t turn away. For years, I’d dreaded mornings — the clarity they brought, the reality they never failed to sharpen. But not anymore.Now, they meant something different.Now, they meant peace.Valerio stirred beside me, his arm draped lazily around my waist, fingers splayed possessively as if even in sleep, he was afraid I’d vanish.I turned slowly, facing him, watching the way his lashes fanned across his cheek, how peaceful he looked now that the war was over — not just the one with enemies, but the war within himself.His face, once hardened by secrets and vengeance, had softened in the past months. He still carried that dangerous edge — the one that made men hesitate and women pause — but now there was warmth behind the fire. He was still the King. Still ruthless when he had to be. But h