All Chapters of Velvet Chains: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

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

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

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

The silence following their confrontation lingered over the suite like smoke. Valerio had not returned since the early morning, and Sera perched on the edge of the bed, her knees tucked up to her chest, the robe slipping down her shoulder slightly. The events of the day before rumbled through her mind like a clap of thunder: the betrayal, the fear, the lust, and the truth she had not been willing to embrace.Her phone buzzed.A message from Matteo, the bodyguard Valerio had sent. **Stay indoors. Don't open the door to anyone. He's on it.**Her heart sank. That meant the threat hadn't passed. She didn't want to think about how many corpses already littered the ground.The darkness fell softly, veiling the city in a velvet shroud. The air in the suite was stifling. She needed some air. Maybe just for a minute on the balcony.Sera stepped out barefoot, robe still clung to one shoulder, hair a tangled halo around her head. The wind tugged at it and made it whirl around her cheeks. From t

 There was suffocating quiet within the penthouse. Valerio moved through it with a ferocity that caused the air to feel too tight, too thick, as if the shadows themselves were bearing down on him. He did not walk; he stalked, stalked out whatever was hiding within the walls of his kingdom.His steps were deliberate, every stride precise as he approached the stairs leading to the upper floors. His men were already in place, each of them conversing with swift gestures and wordless nods. The danger was at hand. The threat? It was closing fast.But for all his training, all his power, his thoughts kept going back to her—Sera.The kiss they'd shared before he left the room had been different from the others. It hadn't just been a moment of lust or tenderness. It had been a soft promise. A desperate, brief plea for her to see that, in his world, his heart was the most dangerous thing he could offer.And now, he was too far from her.Va