All Chapters of Chains of Velvet, Heart of Fire: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The rain met her first.A curtain of cold, familiar silence that swept across the Marchesi vineyards as Seraphina stepped from the unmarked transport and walked through the eastern gate with her coat pulled tight around her. No fanfare. No guards escorting her back inside. The sentries had been instructed to say nothing.Lucien had told them to let her return on her own terms.And she did.No lies. No excuses.But not yet the truth, either.The estate felt different.Not colder, but heavier. Like the walls had learned something about her they weren’t ready to share.She moved through the east wing without seeing anyone. Not Anton. Not Matteo. Not Lucien.Exactly as she had hoped.Back in her quarters, she removed her damp coat, locked the doors, and turned off the ceiling lights. Only the fireplace glowed faintly, casting flickering gold across the low velvet chair where she sat and unwrapped the envelope El

The cell was colder than she remembered.Or maybe it was her.Seraphina stood just inside the doorway, gloved hands tucked into the pockets of her black coat, eyes fixed on the Adriana.She was slumped against the wall, lips dry, eyes sharp despite the bruising. She looked unpleasant now. Diminished. But not broken.Not yet.“You came back,” Adriana rasped. “Didn’t get enough last time?”Seraphina closed the door behind her without answering.She stepped forward, each step echoing on stone.“No more pain,” she said. “Not today.”Adriana’s smile was bitter. “Pity. You were quite good at it.”Seraphina knelt across from her, crossing her legs in silence.She took out a small recorder and pressed it on—not hidden, not subtle.“Speak freely,” she said. “This is off record. No lawyers. No clocks. Just

Lucien moved the pawn forward on the old marble chessboard, his finger barely brushing the smooth edge of the piece. Across from him, Seraphina stood with her arms crossed, studying the move—not on the board, but in real life.“This isn’t about winning a game,” she said. “It’s about making Julian believe he’s already won.”Lucien’s eyes lifted to meet hers. “Exactly. And the best victories are the ones your enemy steps into willingly.”Between them, maps were spread across the table. Palermo's hills. Ciro Vale’s old villa. Known routes. Surveillance dead zones. Places where Julian had been seen—or had made sure to be seen.Seraphina pointed to the red-flagged road circling the north edge of Cinisi.“He’ll take this route if he thinks we’re coming by sea. We feed him that lie.”Lucien nodded. “And while he scrambles to reposition&hellip

Lucien had made the call from the crypt beneath the estate—the place Giorgio once used for secret conclaves. The room echoed with strategy and legacy, lit only by iron sconces and the blue wash of digital projections flickering on the stone walls.“We don’t attack the man,” he said quietly. “We attack the myth.”Vincenzo stood across the table, arms crossed, nodding slowly. “We don’t cut off the head. We hollow out the spine.”For three days, they reviewed every asset Ciro had touched. They didn’t go after the largest holdings first—they started with the smallest: the ones he wouldn’t notice immediately. A storefront in Naples. A mineral permit in the Balkans. A low-yield shipping company out of Durban.“Death by paper cuts,” Vincenzo murmured.Lucien pointed to the map, marking each target with red wax. “By the time he feels the blade, we’re already in

The war table was iron and ancient, pulled from the wreckage of a cathedral fire once blamed on rebels but likely orchestrated by one of them.Around it now sat six of the most dangerous people still breathing.Cristiano Marchesi leaned forward, forearms braced, gaze sharp. His face had the stillness of a man who had killed before breakfast and had no issue doing it again after dinner.Next to him, Amaru Dell spun a black pen slowly between his fingers. His silence was never idle—it was observation sharpened to a blade.Julian Cristoff stood against the back wall, arms folded, face unreadable but itching. He was a man too proud to be seated, too volatile to be ignored.Isolde Beretti—flawless, ageless, venom in a velvet sheath—was the only one smiling. She alone had betrayed Giorgio without flinching and lived to see his heir become a force of reckoning. And now, she wanted a piece of the final ruin.Ciro Val