جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 129

103 Time seemed to crawl like torture for the two Calloway men. An entire month had passed, and both Richard's office at Calloway Mansion and Ethan's office at Calloway Holdings felt unbearably empty. Richard and Ethan buried themselves in endless stacks of business documents, trying to silence the slow erosion of their sanity. Yet the walls they had built around themselves collapsed precisely at four o'clock that afternoon. Inside his private apartment, Ethan shot up from his chair, causing the coffee cup on his desk to rattle. At the very same moment, in the silence of his master bedroom at the mansion, Richard straightened abruptly, his breath catching in his throat. A text message from the independent teams of confidential informants arrived on both of their phones at exactly the same time. > "We found Miss Aurora. A small villa on th

107Classical music with a cheerful rhythm echoed along the glass walls of the practice hall. Luna moved nimbly in the center of the room, spinning her body gracefully, followed by a dozen young children in pink ballet outfits who were trying to match their footwork. A thin layer of sweat beaded on Luna’s forehead, glistening under the neon lights of the studio. Her slender fingers curved through the air, demonstrating a seamless transition of movement.Behind the slightly open glass door, a tall man stood straight with both hands buried in his slacks pockets. A dark gray suit tailored by Savile Row's finest wrapped around his athletic, well-built frame. Nicholas Vance de Luca—Rubby’s biological older brother and the sole heir to the De Luca Group business dynasty worth billions of Euros—watched Luna’s every move from a distance. The 27-year-old man, renowned for being cold-blooded with eyes as sharp as an eagle's, formed a faint, barely visible smile at the corner of his l

110 Luna's hurried footsteps created a subtle friction against her maroon silk fabric, slicing through the dim silence of the *Il Paradiso* lobby. She bowed her head as deeply as possible, pressing her arms to the sides of her body while praying in her heart that the pair of eagle eyes in the corner of the sofa would not shift toward her. However, destiny seemed to enjoy playing with human fears. Just as the heel of Luna's shoe passed the boundary of the shadow of the velvet sofa where Ethan sat, the young Calloway man suddenly straightened his back. Something invisible—perhaps a highly dense weave of memories or simply the familiar sweet vanilla aroma left in the air—jolted Ethan's central nervous system. "Wait!" Ethan called out, his voice hoarse yet powerful, breaking the thumping beat of the music echoing from the inner room. *Thump.* The world seemed to stop spinning for Luna. All the joints in both her legs suddenly froze as if cemented to the marble floor of the lobby. Her

A single sapphire-blue spotlight shot down from the ceiling, slicing through the darkness of the main hall and locking onto Luna's slender silhouette in the center of the stage. The strain of violin instrumental music mixed with the plucking of a harp flowed slowly, creating an atmosphere that was both mystical and tense. Luna took a deep breath behind her Venetian mask. The next second, her body began to move. The maroon silk fabric wrapping her beautiful frame fluttered gracefully as she contorted her waist with a flexibility that was nearly unbelievable. Her footwork was so light, spinning and leaping like a single feather toyed with by the night wind. The movement of her slender fingers curved through the air, drawing the attention of hundreds of pairs of eyes that were now totally hypnotized by the charm of the mysterious dancer. The rowdy whispers of the audience suddenly fell silent, replaced by glances full of passion and admiration caught in their throats. However, that ma

The scent of residual whiskey and the tension in the lobby of *Il Paradiso* seemed to evaporate, replaced by an awkward silence. Luna—or Aurora—remained seated on the velvet sofa, her breath hitched behind her Venetian mask. Her wistful eyes stared straight ahead at Vanessa’s hand, which was still perched on Richard’s arm. A strange pang, a stubborn kind of jealousy, suddenly flared up in her chest. Richard, noticing the tension in the girl before him, gradually released Vanessa’s grip on his arm with a cold yet firm movement. He took a step forward, intending to confirm the intuition that had been nagging at his instincts since earlier. However, before Richard could speak, Luna’s wrist was suddenly pulled by Rubby, who panicked upon seeing the strange atmosphere around them. "Luna, let’s go through the back door now! Big Brother Nicholas must have sent a team of bodyguards to pick us up," Rubby exclaimed, halfway dragging her best friend up from the sofa. Aurora, terrified that h