All Chapters of Tangled In Velvet : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The city was no longer quiet.It buzzed. Hummed. Hissed with headlines and outrage, alive with voices demanding justice. Flashbulbs chased names through the dark Velvet, Wade, Blackthorn each syllable heavy with scandal and revelation.But in a modest flat above a café in East Village, the world narrowed to three people and the silence between them.Isolde stood by the window in the soft grey morning, watching as Vivienne, barefoot and hollow-eyed, made tea without speaking. Her sister’s movements were mechanical, familiar in a way that hurt. Like they were both trying to rewind time by performing something ordinary.Vivienne finally broke the silence. “You think he’ll be charged?”Isolde didn’t answer at first. She looked down at the newspaper on the table. “VELVET FALLS. INSIDE THE ELITE SEXUAL UNDERWORLD.” Below the headline was a photograph of Dorian being escorted into a black car, unsmiling, composed.“They’re still deciding,” Isolde said.Vivienne stirred her tea. “He covered f

The sky above Manhattan was an indecisive gray, bloated with rain that hadn’t yet fallen. Isolde stood behind the velvet curtain of a makeshift stage, fingers laced tightly around the speech she wasn’t sure she would use.“This isn’t who I am,” she whispered, mostly to herself.Penelope, standing beside her in dark tailored armor and mirrored sunglasses, didn’t look away from her phone. “You became who you had to be. And now they need her.”“They?” Isolde asked, glancing at her.Penelope tipped her sunglasses down, eyes sharp as blades. “The girls. The ones who didn’t escape. The ones who did and don’t know how to live again. You’re not speaking for cameras. You’re speaking to them.”A soft knock came from behind. Dorian. Dressed in tailored gray, storm at his temple, caution in every breath.“They’re ready,” he said. But he didn’t move.She looked at him. “Are you?”His pause was brief, but real.“No,” he said honestly. “But I will be. After.”Outside, camera shutters clicked like gu

The sound of hammers had become almost comforting.Velvet’s west wing had been stripped of decadence and shame. Gone were the masked portraits, the glass floors with mirrored sins. In their place: natural light, soft carpets, rooms that didn’t hide anything. Isolde stood in what was once the Crimson Room. Now it bore pale gray walls and the scent of eucalyptus is subtle, clean, breathable. It almost felt human.Almost.A soft alert beeped from the security panel beside the elevator.Isolde turned. “Dorian?” she called toward the hallway. “Did you add someone to the roster today?”“No,” came his voice, muffled through the corridor. A few seconds later, he emerged from the adjacent suite, sleeves rolled, clipboard in one hand. “Everything’s locked to white-list only. No one gets in unless we verify.”The panel blinked again. One word flashed in red across the touchscreen: EXTERNAL ENTRY – CODE OVERRIDE.Dorian stepped in front of her, his hand flat on the panel. “I don’t like this.” His

The elevator descended too slowly. Every flickering floor number on the digital panel pulsed like a countdown, but to what Isolde wasn’t sure. Beside her, Dorian stood tense, one hand braced against the mirrored wall, jaw clenched. Penelope worked her tablet in silence, her fingers moving in sharp staccato taps, her mouth set in a line of surgical focus.“Security’s blind from levels B3 to B6,” Penelope said, not looking up. “I looped the feed. We have ten minutes before someone upstairs notices I’ve taken their eyes off the lower floors.”Isolde’s breath fogged slightly against the metal, coldness blooming in her chest despite the stale heat of the descending box. She stared at her reflection, smeared and stretched by the paneling. She barely recognized herself anymore.Ten minutes. To find Vivienne. To end this. Or die trying.Dorian’s voice was low. “This is where he’s kept her before. Below Velvet, in the silence.”Penelope’s eyes lifted, just briefly. “You’ve never told me that.”

The sea looked like it was holding its breath.Pale and endless, it stretched past the cliffs like a secret whispered in silence. Salt clung to the air, and the wind played rough with the tall yellow grasses. The house was carved into the edge of the coastline, a centuries-old estate with gray slate walls and wild ivy clawing the stone like memory.Dorian stood on the porch with his jacket open, staring out at the tide. No tie, no mask. For once, he looked like a man without war. But even peace, Isolde was learning, wore armor.She stepped out beside him, her coat too thin for the coastal wind. He didn’t say anything. Neither did she. The silence was easier now.They had left London at dawn with only two suitcases between them. No assistants. No driver. No plan.She hadn’t even told Penelope.The estate had been in Dorian’s family for generations, he’d said, though no one had lived here in years. The house had a name carved into the lintel in Latin: Veritas sub Caelo. Truth beneath th