All Chapters of In His Shadow, in His Bed: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

For eight years, I was the ghost in Lorenzo Valenti's empire. By day, I was his executive assistant, the engine of his criminal enterprise. By night, I was the most submissive bird in his gilded cage, and the nameless body in his bed.I loved him with a devotion that bordered on madness, a foolish flame I'd nurtured since I was a scholarship student pulled into his orbit. I believed my quiet love could one day melt the ice around his heart. I was wrong.The day his unforgettable first love, Isabella, returned, the man I knew vanished. The rare smiles once reserved for me were now all for her. My presence by his side was erased, replaced by hers. Even when she framed me, he believed her without hesitation.He chose her, again and again.I submitted my resignation. He signed it without looking.He thought I'd crawl back, broken and begging.He was wrong.While he was busy playing house with his "cuore mio", I was quietly packing away my life, preparing to vanish from his world forever..

(Amelia's POV)The weekend passed in a haze of pain and restless sleep. Come Monday morning, my leg still throbbed with every step, but I showed up at the Valenti family's main compound at precisely 8:55 AM. The grand, intimidating building, a monument to Lorenzo's power, felt more like a prison than ever.The compound was a fortress disguised as luxury. Armed men in tailored suits patrolled the perimeter, their eyes missing nothing. The main hall echoed with the sounds of hushed conversations in Italian, the clinking of glasses, and the underlying tension that permeated every Valenti operation. I moved through the familiar corridors, receiving nods from soldiers and accountants alike—all of them aware of my position, yet none of them knowing the truth of what I was to their Don.I moved through my morning routine on autopilot. Coffee—black, two sugars, just how he took his first cup. Sorting the mail, flagging the urgent contracts, clearing his schedule for the 10 AM meeting with the

(Amelia's POV)The pain was a dull, constant ache, a reminder of the crash. I lay in the sterile hospital bed, staring at the ceiling, counting the tiny holes in the acoustic tiles. Each one felt like a missing piece of my soul.The door creaked open. I didn't bother turning, expecting another nurse with more pills or a doctor with more questions."Eva? Oh my god, Eva!"The voice wasn't a nurse's. It was familiar, warm, and laced with a panic that made my heart clench. I turned my head slowly on the stiff pillow.Sofia Valenti stood in the doorway, her face pale, her usually perfectly styled hair slightly disheveled, as if she'd been running her hands through it. She looked like she'd just flown in from somewhere—a long, expensive coat was draped over her arm, and a designer suitcase stood by the door.She rushed to my bedside, her eyes wide with horror as she took in the bandages, the IV, my general state of wreckage. "I just got back to the country. I heard you were in an accident. T

(Amelia's POV)His scream echoed through the empty street, a raw, guttural sound of pure loss. He tried to call the number. It was disconnected. He frantically typed commands, trying to trace it, his hands shaking so badly he could barely hold the phone."Back! Everyone back inside! NOW!" he roared at his men, his voice cracking with a desperation they had never heard. He charged back toward the warehouse, kicking the door open, his gun sweeping the empty space.It was deserted. Cleaned out. Not a soul remained. The only evidence of the struggle was a single, bloodstained piece of pink fabric, torn from the ruffled hem of the dress, lying on the dusty concrete where Amelia had knelt.Lorenzo stumbled toward it, falling to his knees. He reached out, his fingers trembling as they brushed the stained fabric. It was still slightly damp with her blood. The finality of it crushed him. This was all that was left of her. A bloody scrap of a costume from her final humiliation.He remembered the

(Lorenzo's POV)The war machine of the Valenti family groaned to life at my command. It was a beast I had built, fed, and honed for most of my adult life, and now I was unleashing it with a single, singular purpose: annihilation. I stood in the war room, a place Amelia had never been allowed to enter, and the maps on the walls were no longer territories of business, but a killing field. I pointed, I gave orders, my voice cold and flat, the grief and rage compressed into a diamond-hard focus."Hit their docks tonight. Burn the shipments. I don't care if it's our product mixed with theirs. Burn it all.""Their bookkeepers. Find them. Persuade them that loyalty to a dead family is bad for health.""The nephew, the one Rossi is grooming. I want him brought to me. Alive."My commands were met with sharp nods. The men saw the change in me. The controlled, calculating Don was gone, replaced by something feral, something that looked at the world and saw only things that could be broken. They