All Chapters of The King’s Broken Oath: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

The police station smelled of old coffee and damp paperwork.Erika sat on a metal chair, gripping Lidia’s phone in her lap.A tired officer across the desk watched her carefully.“Tell me again,” he said. “From the beginning.”Erika swallowed.“She said she was coming to meet me. At the café. She was nervous but… happy. Like she needed to talk.”“What time?”“Midnight.”“And when you arrived?”“She wasn’t there. The waiter said she went to the restroom and never came back. I found her phone on the floor.”She slid it across the desk.The officer picked it up, scrolling through.“Any enemies?”Erika hesitated.“She works in a powerful house.”The officer raised an eyebrow.“What kind of powerful?”“Mafia,” Erika whispered.The room felt colder.“Do you think this is connected?”Erika’s voice broke.“I think someone took her.”The officer leaned back.“We’ll file a missing person report.”“Missing?” Erika snapped. “She didn’t walk away. She was grabbed.”The officer sighed.“We still fo

Erika had not slept.The chair in the police station waiting area was hard and smelled of disinfectant, and every time the door opened her heart jumped—only to fall again when another stranger walked out instead of an officer calling her name.She rose and approached the desk for the fourth time that morning.“Any update?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady. “About the missing girl. Lidia.”The officer barely looked up from his file. “We’ll call you if we find something.”“That’s what you said last night.”He sighed. “Miss, there are many cases.”Erika stepped back, anger burning behind her eyes. Many cases. As if Lidia were just another name on a board instead of a girl who had smiled at her across a café table, who had whispered about fear and loneliness like they were secrets only friends could hold.She walked out into the street, the sun too bright for how heavy her chest felt.If the police wouldn’t look for Lidia, then she would.By noon, Erika had printed twenty copies

The pain did not come all at once. It arrived in waves—small, sharp tugs beneath Lidia’s ribs, then a deeper, heavier ache low in her abdomen. She curled on her side on the cold concrete floor, one hand pressed to her stomach, the other gripping the thin blanket they had thrown at her like charity. Her kidnappers’ laughter still echoed in her head. Drama queen, one of them had said earlier. Women always cry when they want attention. Lidia bit down on her lip to keep from making another sound. Crying would only entertain them. The room smelled of damp walls and engine oil. A single bulb flickered overhead, casting shadows that crawled across the cracked ceiling like insects. Time had lost meaning here. Day and night were the same shade of gray. But her body had not forgotten time. It remembered things her mind tried to ignore. Her breathing grew shallow as another cramp rolled through her stomach. She squeezed her eyes shut. It’s just stress, she told herself. Fear

The warning reached Bruno at dawn.Not through his men.Not through his spies.Through his father.Gennado Deluca stood by the tall window of Bruno’s study, the early light casting silver across his iron-gray hair. He looked carved from stone, hands folded behind his back, eyes fixed on the city that was already preparing for blood.“Lorenzo is coming,” Gennado said quietly.Bruno didn’t move. Only his jaw tightened.“I know.”Gennado turned slowly. “Then you know he is not coming for you. He is coming for me.”A thin, dangerous smile touched Bruno’s lips. “He thinks you are the brain behind my power.”“And he is not wrong,” Gennado replied without pride. “But today, he will learn what happens when a man hunts a wolf in its own forest.”Bruno lifted his phone and began issuing commands in a low, lethal voice.“Seal the northern road. Move the snipers to the rooftops. Block the harbor exit. Let him enter.”A pause.“Yes. Let him come all the way to the gate.”By nightfall, the city had

Hanks moved through the mansion like a shadow that smiled.Her lips curved upward wherever she went—slow, deliberate, almost proud. The servants noticed. They always noticed. In a house where fear had settled like dust after Lidia’s disappearance, Hanks’s expression stood out like blood on white marble.She passed the long dining hall with her chin lifted, heels tapping lightly against the floor.A maid carrying folded sheets paused when she saw her.“That woman is smiling again,” one whispered.“Like she knows something,” another murmured.Hanks heard them. She always did. And the knowledge only deepened her satisfaction.She stopped near the staircase and leaned lazily against the banister, her eyes drifting toward the hallway that led to Lidia’s room.Empty.Cold.Silent.Just the way she liked it.“Why are you smiling?” a voice snapped.Hanks turned to see one of the older housemaids, Clara, standing stiffly with folded arms.“Because I can,” Hanks replied sweetly. “Is that forbid