All Chapters of Chains of Velvet, Heart of Fire: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

The rain had stopped, but the night still clung to the estate like smoke. Seraphina stood beneath the arched window of her bedroom, eyes tracing the damp path Lucien had walked her up just hours before. Her hair was still wet from the sea, her shoulder sore from where Elira's bullet had grazed her. She hadn’t told Lucien. Not because she wanted to keep secrets. But because pain was hers—a form of control. He had enough of her already.The files she'd recovered were gone, whisked from her hands the moment they stepped through the gate. Guards. Anton. No thank you. No congratulations. Just silence.Now, she'd been caged again.Not physically. There were still no locks on the door. Still no guards posted outside.But this was a new kind of cage: invisible, precise.He didn’t need bars.Lucien Marchesi could lock a woman up with his absence.Matteo hadn't come. Raina was gone. Adriana's perfume no longer lingered in the

The fire in the library hissed like a thing alive. Rain still whispered down the tall windows, but the storm had passed. The worst part was over.At least, that’s what Lucien wanted to believe.Seraphina stood at the hearth in silence, arms folded tightly across her chest. She wore one of his shirts again—white cotton, unbuttoned at the collar—and she hadn’t spoken since she’d said the words that changed everything.“I want them ruined.”Not hurt. Not exiled. Not forgotten.Ruined.Lucien leaned against the built-in bookcase, a half-full glass of scotch untouched in his hand. He was watching her—not in the way he used to, like a puzzle or a pawn—but in the way a man watches the fire before stepping into it.“You’re sure?” he asked.She turned slowly, her eyes catching the firelight. They looked green tonight, sharp and crystalline. No more softness. No more

The museum had a rear wing — quiet, echoing, lined with sculptures that looked like they were screaming. Lucien followed her there in silence until they were alone beneath a skylight glazed with frost.She stopped walking. Finally.Lucien spoke first. “You didn’t kill him.”“I didn’t need to,” Seraphina said, still facing away. “Not tonight.”He approached slowly.“You wanted to see him afraid.”“No,” she murmured. “I wanted him to remember who I was before he ruined me.”Lucien’s voice was quiet. “He saw.”She turned then, and her eyes were wet — but not with grief.With fury.“I loved him.”Lucien didn’t flinch.“And he loved himself,” he said.She let out a breath, sharp as glass. “I want more than revenge now.”“What do you

The file was gone.Burned. Deleted. Shredded.But Seraphina had memorized the image.Lucien. At the auction.Next to Gabe.Laughing.The memory burned colder than ice.It wasn’t just the betrayal—it was the impossibility of it. The precise way he had touched her pain, her past, made her feel like she wasn’t alone in it.And now?Now she didn’t know if he’d orchestrated it all.She replayed everything. Every word. Every gesture.Every moment he’d looked at her like she was the only war he wanted to lose.It all tasted like ash now.She sat in the quiet of her sitting room, a glass of wine untouched, the city lights beyond the balcony flickering like false stars.Then she opened her laptop and began searching.She didn’t use ValeCorp’s name.She searched under the shell companies Dell favored. Cross-referenced them with offshor

Zurich. Now.Lucien loaded the magazine with precision. Smooth. Silent. Intentional.Across the penthouse, Seraphina watched him from the edge of the window, her fingers tracing the bullet casing still resting on the invitation.“Why Zurich?” she asked. “Why now?”Lucien didn’t look up. “Because that’s where he always goes when he thinks no one’s looking.”Seraphina folded her arms. “And the bullet?”His jaw tightened. “An invitation.”She didn’t ask what it meant.She already knew.Lucien finally met her gaze. “Before we go in… there’s something you should know.”Nine Years AgoLucien had been away. A rare thing.A summit in Montenegro. Negotiations that only the heir could broker. He was still learning then—how to smile without showing teeth, how to