All Chapters of BOUGHT,TAMED AND TAKEN : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The room fell silent after Aria’s outburst, her words still hanging in the air like smoke from a fire not yet extinguished. Luciano stood across from her, jaw tight, eyes fixed on the space just over her shoulder. She didn’t know if he was trying to hold back his anger or his pain. Maybe both. “You knew,” she said again, quieter this time, but it sliced just as deep. “You knew my father might be alive. And you didn’t tell me.” “I didn’t know,” Luciano said finally. His voice was hoarse. “I suspected. And suspicions in this world get people killed.” Aria’s arms wrapped around her as if she could hold herself together. “I’m not just anyone. You should have told me.” Luciano stepped closer, but the distance between them felt heavier than ever. “I was trying to protect you.” She met his gaze, unflinching. “From the truth?” He didn’t answer. That was his answer. Aria turned away, blinking fast against the burn in her eyes. Her heart thudded a broken rhythm, one that echoed wit

The night air hung thick around the Moretti estate, but inside the walls of Luciano’s bedroom, the tension was even heavier.Aria stood by the window, the city lights casting her silhouette in silver. Her arms were wrapped around herself, not for warmth—but for control. Control she was quickly losing.Luciano watched her from the edge of the bed. Shirt undone, blood on his knuckles. His fight with Matteo earlier had left bruises that hadn’t even started to bloom yet. But that wasn’t what hurt.It was the look she had given him after the truth spilled—about her father being alive, about Isadora hiding it from them all. And worse: the fact that Luciano had known for hours before he told her.“Say something,” he murmured, voice low and hoarse.Aria turned slowly. Her eyes were glassy, but she wasn’t crying. No—this wasn’t grief. It was fire.“You lied to me.”He stood, his chest rising and falling with a heavy breath. “I wanted to protect you—”“No, don’t,” she snapped, stepping back whe

The world collapsed in sound.The explosion hurled Aria back into Luciano’s chest, her ears ringing, her lungs stinging from smoke. Her father’s chair was overturned—he lay motionless, debris falling in slow, choking waves.Luciano hauled her up, blood streaked across his jaw, eyes blazing. “We need to move. Now.”“I can’t leave him—” Aria started.“He’s breathing,” Luciano cut in. “But if we stay here, none of us will be.”Luciano’s men burst into the hallway, coughing, dragging Aria’s father between them as alarms screeched overhead.The compound was awake now.The Costa guards poured into the corridors, shouting in Sicilian, opening fire blindly. Bullets sliced through walls. A man beside them dropped—Luciano barely flinched, dragging Aria behind the nearest column.“Go around!” he ordered. “North wing—take the girl and her father!”“No—” Aria grabbed Luciano’s arm, her voice sharp, frantic. “I’m not leaving you.”Luciano met her gaze, chest heaving. “If you die, this was all for n

Aria sat on the edge of the bathtub, knees drawn to her chest, steam curling around her like smoke from a battlefield. Her skin prickled—not from the heat, but from everything still echoing in her mind.The revelations.The betrayals.And now… Luciano’s silence.He hadn’t spoken a word to her since the confrontation with his father. He’d been cold, distant—even though he’d held her hand the entire drive back to the estate, his thumb brushing over her knuckles like a ghost of something that once burned.Was it love? Or ownership?She wasn’t sure anymore.The bathroom door opened slowly. Luciano stepped in, his black shirt unbuttoned at the top, his eyes shadowed and unreadable.“We need to talk,” he said, voice rough.Aria didn’t move. “Is it about your father? Or me?”He crossed to her, crouched in front of her, hands resting lightly on her knees. “Both.”She finally looked at him. His jaw was tense, but his eyes held something else now. Guilt. Anger. And something darker.“I saw you

The words echoed like a gunshot through the room.“My daughter. She’s gone.”Aria sat up straighter, her heart pounding harder than it had even during the chaos of their escape weeks ago. “What do you mean gone? Who took her?”Luciano’s jaw was locked, his eyes unreadable as he stared down at the phone screen. “The guard watching over the hospital wing was found unconscious. The cameras were disabled. There was no note, no message. Just… gone.”Aria swung her legs off the bed and reached for the robe draped across the chair. Her limbs were still trembling from the aftermath of what they’d just shared, but adrenaline was quickly overriding everything else.“Isadora—have you called her?” she asked.“I tried. No answer.” Luciano’s voice was tight. “No one’s answering.”The thought hit them both at the same time.Lorenzo.Aria turned, grabbing her phone. “He knew about the child. He had access to everything—and if he falsified the birth records like the nurse said…”Luciano was already mo