All Chapters of The heir's mask : Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

100 Chapters

chapter 71: Hidden Chapel

The day had finally arrived. The sun had fully set, yet the weight of how it would unfold still tormented him. Beside him, Ken slept on, peaceful and unaware.Today they would stop running from the world outside, the scandals, the cameras, and the endless judgments of people who seemed perfect.They rose and dressed. No guests waited. Only Maria, the villa’s longtime caretaker, would stand as witness. Her family had tended these grounds for three generations; they understood what the small stone chapel in the olive grove had always been for.They walked the shaded path hand in hand. Steve’s eyes stung once, briefly. Ahead, the chapel appeared modest, weathered, almost hidden among the trees.Maria had told him its story the night before. Built in 1587 by Alessandro de’ Rossi, a lesser Medici cousin stripped of title and fortune after choosing the wrong side in Florence, the place began as a private refuge. Over the centuries it became known, among those who needed it, as La Cappella d

chapter 72:No Witnesses

Maria had stepped outside after the formal blessing, leaving them in complete privacy. No photographers. No guests. No audience beyond the ancient stones that had witnessed centuries of hidden promises. Only vows and tears.“Ken,” Steve began, “I vow to choose you every single day. To protect what we have. To build a life here that’s honest and full. No more hiding. No more calculating the cost. Just us.”Tears slipped from Ken’s eyes as he listened. When it was his turn, his voice came steady but raw.“Steve, you saw through every wall I built, within and outside. You waited for me while I fought my own fears, gradually becoming a man for you. You gave up an entire empire for this and for us. I vow to stand with you through anything that comes next. To laugh with you in the quiet mornings. To hold you when the old world tries to pull us back. You are my home, my choice, my forever.”Tears traced Ken’s cheeks as he finished. Steve felt his own eyes burn. He pulled Ken into a fierce em

chapter 73: Goodbye New York

After their private ceremony, everything felt perfectly still for a moment: no alerts, and no looming threats, just the quiet rhythm of his husband’s breathing. They were officially married in a ceremony held without distraction in the hidden chapel, a place whose centuries of secret vows had witnessed their union. Now it was time to fully disappear into the life they would live happily together. They did not do too much on their first night; Steve wanted it to be remarkable after the marriage, so the after-marriage intimacy was still ahead.It was morning, yet they were still trading soft kisses and murmured plans for the day. Breakfast on the terrace featured fresh pastries, fruit from the villa’s orchard, and strong coffee. Maria had prepared it so early that the newlyweds ate slowly, savoring the peace that New York had never allowed.Afterward, they made the final arrangements for their vanishing act. Steve handled the last secure communications while Ken reviewed digital securit

chapter 74:Tuscany Arrival Again

The jet’s engines had barely fallen silent when Steve stepped out into the heat as if daring the world to follow. His shirt hung open. Ken came after him, the wedding band still tight on his finger from the rushed private vows they had taken. They had burned every bridge in New York and erased every trace that might lead here. The only question left was whether the fire would reach this far or whether new trouble would find them first.Steve’s first words were quiet and absolute. “We’re married. You should at least act like it.” Sometimes a smile would do.Ken said nothing. The word still tasted like betrayal, yet the love he could not name and had chosen to accept was the only thing keeping him moving. He only hoped it would not drag them into deeper trouble.They took a cash-paid car and spoke only when necessary. At the villa gates Steve keyed in the code himself, a small smile appearing now that they were inside. The silence hit harder than any argument. Bags hit the floor at ra

chapter 75: Learning Peace

Ken’s hand closed around the phone so hard the plastic creaked. The child’s face stared back at him from the screen solemn, dark-haired, eyes that were unmistakably his own. Three words sat beneath the image like a blade already buried between his ribs.He has your eyes.Steve’s voice carried from inside the villa, sharp with the first edge of worry. “Ken?”Ken locked the screen. He slipped the burner into his pocket and forced his breathing into something that could pass for calm. When Steve stepped onto the terrace Ken was already turning, face arranged into the same careful blank he had worn through every public fight in New York.“I’m here.”Steve studied him for a long second. “You went quiet.”“I’m adjusting.” The lie sat heavy on his tongue. “That’s what we came here to do, isn’t it?”Steve’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t push. Not yet. He only nodded once and turned back inside, trusting the silence more than he should have.They spent the next hours moving through the motions

chapter 76: real husband time

A knock at the door that should not have existed froze Ken mid-step. The coffee cup slipped from his fingers and shattered against the cool tile, dark liquid spreading like a small betrayal across the floor. Fear flooded him. No one knew this address. No one could have known this address. The second knock came slower, deliberate, and ice slid down his spine.“Steve.” His voice came out tighter than he intended. “Someone’s at the door.”Steve appeared in the kitchen doorway, shirtless, hair still damp from the shower. For a heartbeat the knock vanished. Three years of mornings had not dulled the sight of him. If anything, the effect had sharpened quietly and was devastating.“Ignore it,” Steve said, stepping over the broken porcelain without a glance. “Whoever it is will leave.”“And if they don’t?”“Then I’ll make them.”Steve drew him by the wrist to the window. Together they peered through the narrow gap in the curtain like children playing hide-and-seek. A delivery van idled at the

Chapter 77: Healing Nights Again

Steve woke to the solid heat of Ken’s body curved against his back, one arm locked around his waist as if the night itself might try to take him. He brushed his hair back and kissed him.Candlelight still burned. Steve turned carefully. Ken’s face in sleep looked younger than it had in years no boardroom armor, no careful distance of early mornings. Just the man who had said yes in a chapel with no witnesses and then followed him across an ocean.Ken’s eyes opened. For a moment neither of them spoke.“You’re staring,” Ken murmured, still half-asleep.“I like the view.” Steve’s hand slid up the warm plane of Ken’s chest, fingers tracing the line of collarbone. “Stay like this.”“We can’t stay like this forever.”The words landed between them, quiet but sharp. Steve felt the old tension rise again the same one that had followed them from New York, from the leaked photos, from Eleanor’s cold voice stripping him of everything that once defined him. He didn’t pull away. Instead he leaned i

Chapter 78: Letters Unopened

The car’s headlights swept across the villa’s white walls, but Steve was already on his feet, barefoot on the cool stone floor, pulling on yesterday’s shirt before the engine fully stopped.Ken sat up in bed. “Steve.”“Stay here.”“Like hell.” Ken swung his legs out, grabbed his own shirt, and followed.They met the visitor at the gate: a thin courier in a dark jacket, rain still dripping from the olive trees onto the gravel. He handed over a sealed package and a smaller stack of forwarded mail, then drove away without a word. The night smelled of wet earth and diesel.Back inside, Steve dropped the package on the kitchen table. The smaller envelopes spilled across the wood New York postmarks, familiar handwriting, the private-service stamp they had set up in case of emergencies. One thick cream envelope carried Eleanor’s precise script. Another bore Sophia’s looping hand. A third had no return address, only a Manhattan zip code.Ken stared at the pile. “How long have these been comin

Chapter 79: Ghosts Still Knock

Sophia. Sophia.Ken woke with her name still on his tongue and the taste of New York rain in his mouth.The dream had been too clear: her apartment on the third floor, the same blue lamp by the window, her fingers sliding under his shirt the way they used to when everything still felt simple. In the dream she had looked at him and said, You left a piece of yourself here. Then the room tilted and Steve’s face replaced hers colder, accusing. Ken jerked awake before the two images could finish colliding.Beside him the bed was empty. Soft light from the hallway spilled across the sheets. He found Steve in the kitchen, already dressed in a dark sweater, staring at the stack of letters they had left on the counter the night before. The encrypted phone sat face-down next to the pile.“You’re up early,” Ken said.Steve didn’t turn. “You were talking in your sleep.”The words landed like a quiet accusation. Ken leaned against the doorway, arms crossed. “What did I say?”“Her name. Twice.” S

Chapter 80: I Chose You

Neither spoke for a full minute while the morning light climbed higher over the olive trees and the coffee went cold between them.Steve broke first. “Tell me what you need.”“I need you to hear me before either of us decides what this means.”He turned, took Steve’s face in both hands, and kissed him once firm, unhurried, the kind of kiss that carried weight instead of heat. When he pulled back he kept his hands in place.“I chose you in that chapel with no witnesses. I chose you when we left New York with nothing but two bags and a private flight. I chose you every morning I woke up here and every night I reached for you instead of the door. That does not change because a photograph arrived.”Steve’s breath left him in a rough exhale. “You have a son.”“I might. The resemblance is there. The timing could fit. Or it could be the cruelest kind of bait.” Ken’s thumbs brushed the corners of Steve’s mouth. “Either way I am still standing in this kitchen with you. Still married to you. St

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