Lahat ng Kabanata ng Engaged to the Devil, Loved by His Shadow : Kabanata 41 - Kabanata 50

Matteo stepped in front of me fully now, forcing me to look at him.“Listen to me,” he said quietly while placing both hands on my arms.His grip was not tight, but it was grounding.“You are spiraling,” he continued while holding my gaze steady.“I am thinking,” I corrected while blinking back the heat rising in my eyes.“You are imagining every worst version,” he replied calmly.“How do I not?” I asked while searching his face for reassurance that felt bigger than words.He leaned his forehead gently against mine.“Because fear is also a strategy,” he murmured while his thumbs brushed slowly up and down my arms.“And whose strategy is it?” I asked softly.“His,” he answered without hesitation.That made something inside me go still.“He wants us unsettled,” Matteo continued while lifting his head slightly so he could look into my eyes. “He wants you wondering.”I swallowed.“He succeeded,” I admitted while letting out a breath that felt like it had been stuck inside me.Matteo’s lip

When the lights went out, I did not scream.I wanted to.The darkness fell over the villa in a way that felt deliberate, like someone had reached inside the walls and pressed a switch with slow fingers, but the sound that came out of me was only a sharp breath that caught halfway in my throat.Matteo moved before I could think.His hand found my waist in the dark, firm and steady, and he pulled me closer to him as the faint buzzing outside faded into the distance like it had never been there.“Stay still,” he murmured near my ear while guiding me backward slowly until my hip touched the edge of the dining table.“Is it him?” I whispered while gripping his shirt tightly because the dark suddenly felt too large.“It is a disruption,” he replied quietly while reaching into his pocket.A second later, the small beam from his phone lit the room in a pale glow that made everything look colder than it had before.“This is insane,” I muttered while blinking against the light and glancing towa

My phone buzzed lightly in my hand a few seconds later.One message.Ten minutes. Do not open the gate.I resisted the urge to smile.Instead I threw my phone onto the table dramatically.“I cannot live like this,” I said loudly while pacing in clear view of the windows.Alessia caught on immediately.“He is not always wrong,” she replied loudly while pressing her hands to her face as if overwhelmed.“Do not defend him,” I snapped while pointing toward the door he had just exited.Outside, the car disappeared down the road.Inside, the silence stretched again.Ten minutes.Then a different vehicle would arrive from the back road, quiet and unnoticed.Alessia would leave without cameras catching it clearly.Luca would see separation.Luca would see cracks.Luca would believe distance.And that was the story we wanted him to watch.But as I stood there pretending to be furious, watching the empty road with my jaw tight and my eyes hard, one uncomfortable thought slipped into my mind.Wh

“I get tired,” he admitted while lowering his voice, “but I do not stop.”I studied his face, the small lines near his eyes that only appeared when he was thinking deeply, and I felt something warm spread through my chest.“I liked you there,” I said suddenly while the words slipped out before I could filter them.He raised one eyebrow slowly.“You do not like me in Italy?” he asked while pretending to look wounded.I shook my head quickly. “That is not what I mean,” I said while leaning closer so my voice would not carry. “I liked you when you were not surrounded by noise and pressure and expectations. You were… lighter.”He watched me carefully. “And you?” he asked while his thumb gently traced circles over my knuckles.“I laughed more,” I admitted while smiling slightly at the memory. “I slept without checking my phone. I walked outside without thinking someone was watching.”He nodded slowly. “We needed that,” he said while his voice carried quiet certainty.The flight attendant p

I did not like waiting.Waiting made me feel like I was not in control, and I had built my entire life around never feeling that way again.The smaller vessel rocked gently against the water as I stood near the railing with one hand resting casually on the polished wood, dark glasses shielding my eyes even though the sun was beginning to lower.The villa stood above the cliff, bright and still.Too still.“They have not moved,” one of my men said quietly from behind me while lowering a pair of binoculars. I hated stillness.The villa above the cliff stood in full view of me, white walls glowing under the fading sun, windows reflecting light like nothing inside could possibly be hiding, and yet something about the way the curtains barely moved made me restless in a way I refused to name.“They should have come out by now,” one of my men said quietly while lowering the binoculars again and shifting his weight from one foot to the other.I kept my eyes fixed on the terrace and did not bl