All Chapters of The Auctioned Bride: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

I ran out of the study, my feet hitting the marble floor hard.“Valerio!” I called out.He was halfway down the corridor, already reaching for the door that led to the courtyard. He didn’t stop. Not even when I said his name again, louder this time.“Valerio!”He turned then, slowly, and the look on his face made me stop in my tracks.Cold. Controlled. A man forcing himself not to feel.“What are you doing?” I said breathlessly, stepping closer. “You can’t just walk away like that. You can’t pretend nothing happened. You can’t…”He cut me off with a sharp glare. “Enough, Althea.”“No!” My voice shook. “You don’t get to shut me out. Not after what we….”“What we did was a mistake,” he said again, louder this time. His words echoed against the walls. “I should never have touched you.”I felt my knees weaken. “Stop saying that,” I whispered.“I’m saying it because it’s the truth,” he said coldly. “Whatever you think this is…it’s not love. You don’t love me. You’re lost. You’re looking fo

The door had long stopped moving, but I kept staring at it like he might come back.He didn’t.The cold air still lingered in the hallway, brushing over my skin, making me shiver. I wanted to scream, to run after him again, but my legs wouldn’t move. It felt like my heart had given out somewhere between his last words and the silence that followed.I leaned against the wall, sliding down until I was sitting on the floor. My palms were cold against the marble, my chest too tight to breathe properly. I pressed my hand against my stomach and whispered, “He doesn’t mean it.”But even my own voice sounded like a lie.The silence swallowed me whole. Every corner of this house seemed to echo him…the way he looked at me, the way he walked away. I thought love could change something, maybe soften the parts of him that were jagged. But all I did was bleed for it.“Go back inside, Althea.”He’d said it like I was a stranger.A soft sound broke the quiet… footsteps.I wiped at my face quickly, bu

When I woke up, everything hurt.My head throbbed, my wrists burned, and the air around me felt heavy, stale, and damp.For a moment, I didn’t know where I was. My eyes fluttered open slowly, adjusting to the dim light that flickered from a single bulb above. The smell hit me next…dust, rust, and something metallic, like old blood.My body lay twisted on a cold floor, the chill biting through my skin. My hands were tied in front of me with a thick rope, wrists already rubbed raw. My mouth was dry, my throat sore, and each shallow breath seemed to echo in the quiet.Then it hit me all at once…panic.“Martha,” I whispered hoarsely, trying to sit up. “Martha?”Silence.My pulse spiked as flashes came rushing back, the alley, the van, Martha screaming, the man’s rough hand over my mouth. The chaos. The fear. Then nothing.I pushed myself up, ignoring the dizziness that followed. My ankle screamed when I put weight on it, someone must’ve stepped on it during the struggle. I scanned the sma

I was starting to lose consciousness.My stomach still hurt from the kicks. Every breath came out shallow, broken, and trembling. I felt weak all over…my arms heavy, my lips cracked. The room spun every few seconds.I made a silent plea, calling for Valerio, calling his name over and over in my head until my lips moved without sound.Then, the door swung open with a thunder that jolted my heart.Valerio stormed inside.Five men followed behind him, all with guns raised and faces hard as stone. But it was him, his eyes, his stride, the rage that poured off him like heat…that made the air crackle.He looked wild, unshaven, his shirt stained with something dark, and when his gaze found me, everything else in the room fell away.“Althea,” he said softly, the word breaking on his lips.He was already kneeling beside me, his hands trembling as he brushed aside the sticky strands of hair from my face. His scent…gunpowder and faint smoke…hit me like a memory.“Val… Valerio,” I whispered, tryi

Carmine’s grin had long died. The game had shifted from cruel sport to something raw and real. He backed away, his eyes darting toward the door like it might save him.Outside, engines roared, Boots hit concrete. Shouts rose in the cold night air. One of Carmine’s men yelled, “They’re here! It’s Moretti’s crew!”Valerio’s men stormed in, shadows with guns and fury. The room exploded into chaos…gunfire, smoke, and screams. Carmine’s men panicked, some fleeing, some falling, others crushed under the weight of Valerio’s revenge.The smell of gunpowder and blood thickened the air until it burned my throat. Someone screamed behind me, another fell to the ground with a dull thud. My head spun. My wrists were rubbed raw from the ropes, and my knees ached from the cold floor. I wanted to move, to run, but my body wouldn’t obey.Marco appeared at my side, breath ragged, knife flashing as he cut through the ropes. “My lady, hold on,” he said, steady even as bullets snapped through the air. Hi