All Chapters of Bound by Vows and Vendetta: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

Chapter 1 — Chains In Silk~ARIA~"Whatever you do, Aria... don’t stop running. Don’t look back."The words pounded in Aria Emilia Valente’s head like gunshots.Her heels echoed against the polished marble floors of the Valente estate as she flew past gilded mirrors and ancestral portraits that seemed to watch her flee. Her chest burned. Her breath came in frantic gasps. Behind her, the shouts grew louder—guards, her father’s men, hounds in human skin.Six minutes. That’s all she had before the gates were sealed. Before the men with dead eyes dragged her back and reminded her who truly owned her life.Freedom was just through the east corridor. Past the vineyard. Through the woods. And into the arms of a waiting car driven by a man whose loyalty had been bought with more than money—desperation.But then—A shadow moved. A hand slammed into her side, throwing her against the corridor wall with such force it knocked the air out of her lungs."Where the hell do you think you're going, pr

Chapter 3 — Inheritance of Chains~ARIA~Blood.Disinfectants.The nauseating smell of the two mixing had me snapping my eyes open as a scream tore from my throat. The memories came back in an instant. The warm splash, the driver's skull snapping back.Another scream escaped my throat as I tried to get on my feet.Where was I?A firm hand clasped around me, trying to push me back down. "It's fine. You're fine," a soft voice soothed, but it did nothing to stop the fear threatening to suffocate me.I gasped, frantically glancing around, barely registering the hospital walls. A nurse with a kind face leaned over me, repeating the words she had spoken seconds before, "You are fine now. You were in an accident."I didn't need her to tell me. I remembered everything vividly. It played out in my head like it was happening again—the car, the gunfire, the crash. Lorenzo.Lorenzo.I tried to sit up, ripping at the wires and tubes hooked to my body. The universe, in a twisted sense of humor, had

Chapter 5 — The Cost of Defiance~LORENZO~"F**k!" I hissed, yanking the syringe from my leg. The metal snapped halfway, the needle’s tip still lodged under my skin. The pain was nothing. Inconvenient. Insignificant. What consumed me was the image of Aria—barefoot, wild-eyed—disappearing into the night like a feral animal.My driver instinctively changed lanes, but I barked the order, cold and cutting."Don’t. Let. Her. Run."He obeyed like a ghost obeys a curse. Stopped the car without a question, waiting for my next command. They all knew better than to test me."Take me home."My voice was like a storm contained behind glass.He turned the car around, and I didn’t speak again.My hand reached into my pocket, pulling out my blade. Without hesitation, I tore through the fabric of my trousers and sliced into my own flesh. A clean cut. Surgical. The embedded shard of the needle was small, but the wound needed tending. Still, I had no time for medics. I grit my teeth and pushed, my glov

Chapter 7 — A Blood Soaked in Promise~ARIA~Lorenzo De Rossi was a monster in a man’s skin. His gun still dangled from his fingers, the barrel warm from the last shot. My ears rang with its echo. The scent of gunpowder and iron filled my lungs."I won't swear on the Valente name," I croaked, my voice barely above a whisper. "I'd rather die."His brows lifted slightly, but the smirk was gone. A flicker of something—disappointment, perhaps—passed through his cold, grey eyes. Then he crouched lower, his hand brushing a strand of hair from my face, blood smeared on his knuckles."You always pick the harder path, Aria," he murmured. "But maybe... maybe that makes breaking you more satisfying."I spat at him, the last ounce of defiance I could muster. It hit his cheek. He didn’t flinch. His jaw tensed. Then he stood and turned away, leaving me on the floor. The last thing I remembered before blacking out was the sound of his voice calling for help.~~~~~~~~~~~LORENZO~"She refused," I sai

Chapter 9 — The Art of War~ARIA~A hand clamped over Aria’s mouth, dragging her into the shadows before she could scream. Panic surged through her body as she thrashed, but the grip was firm, unyielding. Her feet scraped against the gravel as the figure dragged her backward into the servants' tunnel beneath the De Rossi estate—a passage once used for secrets, now alive with them.The man didn’t speak, but his presence wasn’t unfamiliar. She recognized the scent—a mix of clove, sweat, and old leather. Not Lorenzo. Not one of his soldiers either. But someone who had been watching. Waiting.“Don’t scream,” he finally whispered, his voice low and urgent. “I’m not here to hurt you. But if you want the truth—about your mother, about Lorenzo, about everything—you have to listen to me.”Before she could answer, footsteps echoed from above, close enough to end them both. The stranger released her and slipped into the shadows, leaving only a scrap of parchment in her hand with a serpent emblem