All Chapters of Contract Wife for the Cartel Heir : Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Romano’s POV Nobody spoke for several seconds after Dante’s revelation. The room felt suffocating. Aria isn’t just connected to the Vale family, she’s the last living Vale heir. The words echoed through my head over and over again. Across from me, Enzo looked like somebody had punched him in the chest and for a man who rarely showed emotion, the reaction was impossible to miss. His face had gone completely still. The kind of stillness that usually came before violence. “Dante,” he said quietly. My guard immediately straightened. “Sir.” “Leave.” Dante looked at me and I nodded. A second later the office door closed behind him, the silence returned. Enzo stared at the documents scattered across my desk before finally speaking. “How certain are you?” “Very.” His jaw tightened. “No.” His gaze snapped toward me. “Not very.” His voice dropped. “How certain?” I held his stare. “Certain.” The answer seemed to age him ten years. For a moment he looked less like the fear

Romano’s POV The investigation went nowhere. Three days. Three sleepless nights. Three days of reports, surveillance footage, interviews, dead leads and growing frustration. Nothing. Whoever had arranged the attack on Aria knew exactly what they were doing. Every trail disappeared, every commoner witness remembered nothing, every camera seemed to fail at the perfect moment. It felt deliberate and calculated and I hated it because I hate when there’s something I can’t control, it hardly ever happens to me. Now I have someone in my life, who I couldn’t protect completely someone who had become far more important than she should have. The thought of not being able to protect her irritated me immediately. A knock sounded against the office door. “Come in.” Dante entered carrying another file and I didn’t even bother looking up. “If it’s another dead end, save your breath.” Dante dropped the folder onto the desk. “It is.” Wonderful, I rubbed my eyes. For the first time i

Aria’s POV The storm had become worse. Rain hammered against the broken windows of the abandoned building while thunder shook the walls. Water dripped from the ceiling in several places and my shoes were completely soaked. This had been a mistake, a huge mistake. The problem was that admitting it wouldn’t magically make the answers appear. I stared at my phone again, no messages and no calls, nothing. The woman who had contacted me was never coming. The realization settled heavily in my chest. I had risked everything for another dead end. A loud door slammed somewhere behind me and I froze. Then footsteps echoed through the building, very fast. My heart immediately started racing, for one terrifying second I thought it might be whoever had been watching me. Then a familiar voice cut through the storm. “Aria.” Romano, and judging by his tone, he was furious. I turned around just as he appeared in the doorway. Rain soaked his dark shirt, his hair was wet and his expressi

Romano’s POV The estate had been searched three times. Every hallway. Every staircase. Every security blind spot. Nothing, we couldn’t find the intruder or a body and that just proved whatever it was, wasn’t the best. I stood inside the security room watching camera footage replay for the fourth time. The same section of wall, the same stretch of darkness, the same shadow moving briefly before disappearing and that could’ve been a guard. “Could’ve been a false trigger,” one of the guards said. “No.” The answer left my mouth immediately, because my instincts were rarely wrong and the siren proved someone had been here. The problem was that whoever it was had managed to enter Romano Ciel’s property and leave without being caught. That wasn’t luck, that was proper planning. Dante folded his arms beside me. “Maybe they wanted us distracted.” I looked at him. “From what?” Before he could answer, one of the security officers rushed into the room. His face was very pale, m

Romano’s POV The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was that I wasn’t in my room. The second thing I noticed was Aria. She was asleep beside me, curled beneath the blanket, her hair scattered across the pillow and half covering her face. Morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, painting soft golden lines across the room. For a moment, I simply watched her, just her. She looked so peaceful and warm like her world wasn’t full of so many rocks. A strange calm settled inside my chest. I couldn’t remember the last time waking up had felt peaceful, I wasn’t waking up to my thoughts getting the best of me, or the fear of the unknown. I was just full of peace and calm, one that sets you on a pace that keeps you pushing. Aria is most definitely the change I needed in my life. She shifted slightly, burying her face deeper into the pillow. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth, then her eyes opened, immediately narrowing at me, like she had heard my thoughts. “Wh