Semua Bab Bound by Sin: The Heir & His Stepmother: Bab 1 - Bab 10

The world around me narrowed to that single point: her. Aurora. Standing like a marble statue, trying to maintain her composure, but I could see the crack in her ice. I could see the rapid pulse beating beneath that ridiculous gold bracelet my father had forced onto her wrist. A collar. That’s what it was.When the old man was pulled away by his lackeys, it was as if a force field had dissipated. The air changed. And I moved.I didn’t walk toward her. Closing the distance between us was an act of pure predation. A silent glide through the crowd until her scent — a sweet jasmine mixed with something uniquely Aurora — hit my nostrils, canceling out all the other expensive perfumes in the room.“Seven years…” The words left me like a growl. It was a fact. A condemnation. Seven years since I destroyed her to save her. Seven years carrying the weight of the look she gave me after the drink spilled down my face.“And you still know how to ruin a party.” Her voice was firmer than I expected,

The dining table was a battlefield beneath a crystal chandelier. Twelve seats, twelve different factions, all orbiting around the black sun that was my father. But my eyes, as always, were locked on only one point.Aurora.Seated to Cassius’s right, she was a statue of perfect marble. Her golden-brown hair fell in voluminous curls over her shoulders, framing a face I could still trace from memory with my eyes closed.Her smooth skin, full lips, and caramel-colored eyes that once burned with passion for me were now fixed on the plate in front of her, as empty as the existence she was forced to lead.It was a vision that was both dazzling and agonizing. Her beauty had matured, yes, but the inner flame that made her unique, that made her Aurora, was smothered under layers of ice. Ice that I had helped put there.Raphaël, my friend and brother I had gained amid the chaos of war, had kept his eyes inside this mansion. I knew about every humiliation. Every “lesson” Cassius had given her in

She pulled away from me as if my skin burned her, breathless, her lips still swollen and wet from my kiss. Her caramel-colored eyes, which moments before had been heavy with desire, now sparkled with pure, cutting fury. It was the storm I both loved and feared.“Don’t do this,” she spat, her voice trembling but laced with venom. “Don’t show up out of nowhere after seven years and act like you still have any right over me.”Each word was a well-aimed blow. But Löwe doesn’t retreat. He feeds on resistance.“Right?” My voice came out as a low growl. I took a step forward, and she took one back, her back nearly hitting the cold glass. “I have more than a right, Aurora. I have the truth you refuse to face. You are mine. You always have been.”A sound of pure frustration escaped her.“Mine? Mine?! You threw me away, Tristan! You spat on me in front of everyone at that damned party! Do you think a kiss, no matter how… intense it is, erases that?”The memory of that night, of the pain in her

The mark of her hand still burned on my face, a shameful and deserved stigma. Every word she spat at me in the garden echoed in my mind, a symphony of my own failure.I turned to face my own defeated image reflected in the dark glass of the hallway, the man who had returned to save her soul but couldn’t even make her listen.The sound of silent footsteps, far too familiar to belong to anyone else, made me close my eyes for a second.“Matty,” I said, my voice harsher than I intended.“Tristan.” The governess’s voice was soft, a balm and a blade at the same time. She stopped beside me, her hands clasped over her immaculate apron. I didn’t need to look at her to feel the weight of her gaze. She had always been able to read me like an open book, even when I was a boy trying to hide the bruises. “Miss Aurora seemed quite disturbed when she left the garden.”A low growl formed in my chest.“She hates me, Matty. With every reason in the world.”She remained silent for a long moment, the only

Before the first light of day streaked across the sky, I was already up. My body ached with a dull, familiar pain — the aftermath of Cassius’s “reaffirmation.” But the physical pain was merely a discomfort compared to the whirlwind of panic that froze my blood.With mechanical movements, I went to the bathroom. From my toiletry bag, hidden behind expensive cosmetic bottles, I took out a small envelope. Inside, a single pill, secretly provided by Thaïs, my only lifeline. The morning-after pill.I placed it in my mouth and tried to swallow it without water. It stuck in my throat, dry and bitter, a taste of desperation and relief. I swallowed it dry, feeling it carve a path down to my stomach. It was a sordid ritual, a small silent rebellion. My greatest pride, my greatest happiness, and my deepest secret was that August, the boy Cassius displayed as his legitimate heir, was not his.After the birth, dominated by silent terror, Thaïs had arranged everything. A discreet DNA test, with hai