All Chapters of Shadows of the Vow: Chapter 141 - Chapter 150

Annabelle’s POVIt was now the day of Antonioni's third hearing, and final crime listing. The last case they said is the most difficult of them all.I knew something was wrong before I heard it.It wasn’t informational. It was that familiar, terrifying pull in my chest, the one I had come to recognize as Antonioni when he was unraveling. The same pressure I’d felt the night before, after the helicopter, after the blood, after the silence finally swallowed the noise.I was awake, but not rested.My body lay on the gigantic bed in the room we shared, wrapped in stillness, but my mind was pacing like a trapped insect. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the sky shaking. Every time I breathed too deeply, my ribs locked.Panic attacks don’t always arrive loudly.Sometimes they sit with you, patiently and persistently.I pressed my palm to my chest, counting my breaths the way Diego had taught me to do whenever I was tense.In. Hold. Out.I was trying to come back to myself when it happened.

Annabelle's POV The fluorescent lights above Martinez’s bed shone softly. I sat beside him, holding his free hand, willing him to wake. The other hand had a blood transfusion ongoing with it. The smell of antiseptic filled the Park Clinic’s ward.Each beep of the monitor was a small victory. Each shallow breath is a quiet fight to stay alive.When his eyes finally fluttered open, I felt my chest unclench, relief and panic colliding all at once.“Martinez…” I whispered, brushing a damp strand of hair from his forehead.He tried to smile. Faint, shaky, but fighting to be his normal self.“They… they tried to…” he rasped, voice hoarse. “At the university. They were after me.”I stiffened, gripping his hand tighter. “Who? Who was chasing you?”“I didn’t know at first,” he said, wincing as he shifted under the sheets. “I only saw shadows at first. Then, eventually, men moving fast, coordinated… terrifying. I thought, maybe it was thieves, maybe thieves or radicals. But when they cornered

Antonioni’s POV  This particular day, the courtroom did not feel like a place of justice. It felt like a place of memory. Also, today, it breathed differently. Congested. Papers made sounds. Shoes scraped. Somewhere behind me, someone cleared their throat like they were preparing to watch an execution. The room did not breathe for a second. Not because the message was shocking, but because it was exposed. I felt eyes move before I saw them. Bukky was seated two rows behind the defense table. His spine was straight, jaw clenched so tight it looked painful. He didn’t look at the screen. He looked at me. Once. Briefly. The kind of look that said we warned you, and we are still here in the same breath. Milo leaned forward slightly, forearms on his knees, fingers interlocked. He didn’t blink. Matteo sat beside hi

Antonioni’s POVThe scent of authority and restraint filled the air. I sat on the bare bench, back straight, palms resting lightly on my knees. I've been to court like three times before, I knew every rule here, every procedure, every precedent that might come into play. I expected it all. The judgement, the murmurs, the weight of a room waiting for a man’s life to be measured.I watched the people present. Some curious, some empathetic. Annabelle sat near the front, hands folded, posture perfect but tense. My gaze found hers, and the flicker of relief I saw there steadied me. It had been a long wait for her, for me.Most of my men were there too. For me.The judge entered, robes brushing the floor. Silence stole the room. I didn’t flinch. I never flinch.After the protocols, when he finally spoke the sound coming from his microphone felt amplified today. It carried through the courtroom like a hurricane of judgement.“Mr. D’Angélo,” the judge said, voice calm, carrying the authority

Antonioni's POV The gavel’s echo was still lingering when the courtroom began to empty. The judges had gone now, the bench lawyers shuffled papers, collecting their notes and Petra Del Almassi vanished with the silent dignity of a stormed-out castle. But my world had shifted only slightly. I wasn’t free yet. Six months still waited, but for the first time in what felt like forever, I could breathe.My men flanked me instinctively. Bukky and Diego to the left, Micah and Luca slightly behind, Matteo and Milo on the right, Diogo remaining at the far end near the rear exit. Each of them was a motionless sentinel, a human perimeter of awareness.Annabelle stayed close, not inside the line of men but walking in parallel, her presence a quiet anchor. I felt it before I even saw the way her eyes tracked my steps, noting my posture, the tension in my shoulders, the small, controlled way I adjusted my collars. Even here, after the verdict, after one month and two weeks of uncertainty, she noti