บททั้งหมดของ BOUGHT,TAMED AND TAKEN : บทที่ 131 - บทที่ 140

The gun clattered across the marble, its metallic echo rolling through the hall like a death knell.Isadora staggered back, clutching her chest. Crimson spilled between her fingers, staining the silk of her dress. Her lips trembled around a silent curse before her knees buckled, sending her crashing to the floor.But Aria’s eyes weren’t on her.They were on the figure behind her, stepping forward from the shadows.Her breath caught. No… it can’t be.The man’s face was unmistakable, aged but fierce, his gaze sharp and haunted. His voice, when it broke the silence, was gravel edged with steel.“Hello, Aria.”Her legs nearly gave out. “Uncle Matteo…?”Luciano’s head snapped toward the man, his entire body tensing as recognition flared in his dark eyes. “Matteo Romano,” he growled, his tone laced with venom. “I should’ve known you were still crawling around in the dark.”Aria’s world spun. Her uncle—the man her father once swore had been killed years ago in a mafia crossfire—was alive. Al

The red emergency lights painted everything in blood. The silence that followed Marco’s fall was louder than any gunfire. His body slumped lifeless to the marble, blood creeping outward like a dark tide.But Aria didn’t see him.Her gaze was fixed on Luciano.Her chest rose and fell rapidly, panic clawing up her throat, but beneath it there was something sharper, more unbearable—betrayal.Luciano’s eyes, usually so controlled, were unreadable now. Cold, shadowed, his jaw clenched. His grip on her arm was iron, as though if he let go she’d slip through his fingers.“Tell me he’s lying,” Aria whispered, her voice raw. Her body trembled, but not from fear. Rage burned inside her chest, mingling with despair. “Matteo—tell me he’s lying!”Luciano’s lips pressed into a thin line. He didn’t speak.That silence broke her.Her father, still bleeding and groaning against the wall, forced his voice through the agony. “I told you, Aria,” he rasped. “You can’t trust him… He’s been playing you. Fro

The room still smelled of death—her father’s body cooling in the corner, her mother’s ghost clawing at the truth that had just been revealed. Aria stood between the men who had shaped, broken, and poisoned her life.Luciano’s hand hovered inches from hers, trembling with something she had never seen in him before—fear, not for himself, but for her. His voice broke through the silence, raw and desperate.“Aria… I didn’t know. I swear on my life, I didn’t know she was in that house. If I could trade places with her—”Her palm snapped up between them, stopping him. “Don’t. Don’t you dare make promises to a grave you dug yourself.”The pain in his face was visible, like her words struck harder than any bullet. But it wasn’t enough. Not compared to the image now burned into her mind—her mother, trapped in flames that had been meant for her father. Flames ordered by the man who had kissed her, touched her, whispered that she was his salvation.Behind them, Riccardo leaned casually against t

The night air at the estate was thick with tension, the kind that made even the guards restless. Somewhere deep inside, Aria could feel the fragile strings of power pulling tighter around her. One wrong move, and everything would snap.She stood on the balcony of her chambers, staring out at the moonlit gardens, the folder Riccardo had given her clutched in her hands. The documents still smelled faintly of his cologne, a reminder of how close she had let him lean into her, how convincingly she had played the part of the tempted queen.But she wasn’t tempted. She was calculating.Behind her, the door creaked open. She didn’t have to turn to know who it was. Luciano’s presence filled the room like a storm rolling in, heavy and dangerous.“Aria.” His voice was rough, like gravel dragged across steel.She turned slowly, her mask still firmly in place. “What is it?”He closed the door and crossed the room toward her. His shirt was half unbuttoned, his hair disheveled, but his eyes—God, tho

The storm had passed, but the silence it left behind was worse. For two days after Luciano caught her with the letter, Aria lived in unbearable suspense.He hadn’t confronted her again. He hadn’t punished her. He hadn’t even mentioned the letter.And that, she realized, was far more terrifying than rage.Luciano was waiting. Watching.Every glance across the dining table, every brush of his hand when he passed her in the hallway carried a new weight. It wasn’t the obsession she had come to know. It was calculation.Luciano Moretti had set his mind to something, and Aria was the target of it.⸻On the third night, her fears proved true.A guard appeared at her chamber door. “Boss wants you. Now.”Her stomach twisted, but she forced herself to rise gracefully, hiding her dread.Luciano was waiting in the atrium, dressed in his black coat, gloves on, his expression unreadable. Without a word, he offered her his hand.Aria hesitated. Every instinct screamed at her not to take it. But she