Semua Bab HIS SECRET HEIR : Bab 51 - Bab 60

The Distance Between ThemDays passed inside the locked estate.Isabella kept the space she had taken. She spoke to Alessandro when the day required it, updates on Ethan, questions about the medical wing, nothing more. She timed her movements to avoid long stretches alone with him. Meals stayed polite and short. The private wing felt larger because of the quiet she maintained between them.The tension did not fade.It grew.Every time he entered a room her body reacted before her mind could stop it. A lift in her pulse. A warmth that settled low and stayed. When they passed in a corridor and his sleeve brushed her arm, the contact left her aching in a way she refused to name out loud. Alessandro felt it too. A single glance from her across the sitting room was enough to make his body tighten, his cock stirring against the fabric of his pants before he forced the response under control. They both pretended the distance was only practical. Neither of them believed it.The lockdown held.

The Man Behind the ArmorIsabella began noticing the small things first.The way Alessandro checked Ethan’s room one extra time before the night patrols changed. The way he listened when the boy talked about dinosaurs without rushing the conversation. The quiet order he gave Enzo to keep the enclosed garden available even during the tighter lockdown days so Ethan could still feel a piece of ordinary sky. None of it matched the stories the city told about the Devil of Valmont. None of it matched the cold control he showed the rest of the world.She started watching him more carefully after that.One evening, after Ethan was asleep and the private wing had gone still, she saw Alessandro leave through the side corridor that led toward the older part of the estate. He did not take guards. He moved like a man who had walked the same path many times. Isabella waited a minute, then followed at a distance, staying in the shadows the way the security lighting allowed.The path ended at a small

The WarningIsabella did not let the woman walk away cleanly.She found Claudia near the end of the long hallway that led back toward the main reception rooms. The lights were lower there. Most of the guests had moved on to quieter conversations or private corners of the old estate. Music from the main hall reached them only as a low murmur. Claudia was alone, adjusting a bracelet as if the night still belonged to her.Isabella stopped a few feet away. Her hands were steady at her sides even though her pulse had already picked up.“What did you mean?”Claudia looked up. The polished smile she had worn earlier in the evening was gone. In its place was something cooler and more honest, the expression of a woman who had decided politeness was no longer useful.“I meant exactly what I said. Everyone who loves Alessandro becomes a target. It has always been that way. The people who hate him, the people who fear him, the ones who want what he has, they do not aim only at him. They aim at wh

The Price of LoveThe threat against Richard changed the air inside the estate overnight.Alessandro did not waste time. By the time the sun was fully up, Richard had been moved to an internal secure room with no exterior windows and two rotating guards on the door at all times. His meals were brought by vetted staff only. Phone access stayed cut. Even the short supervised walks in the enclosed garden stopped. The message had been clear enough: the network was done with warnings aimed only at the edges. They were ready to hurt the people closest to Isabella if that was what it took to break the new ground she and Alessandro had started to stand on.Richard took the change without complaint. When Isabella was allowed a short visit later that morning, he looked older and more worn than she had ever seen him, but his voice stayed steady.“They’re trying to punish me through you,” he said. “Everything I did five years ago, the silence, the disownment, the lies, I did it to keep them from

The LoversThe rest of the night stayed quiet.No rushing. No desperate grabbing like the first time five years ago. Alessandro undressed her slowly, watching her face the whole time. Isabella let him. She helped him out of his shirt, her hands steady even though her heart was beating hard. When they were both bare he laid her back on the bed and simply looked at her for a long moment, as if he needed to make sure she was still choosing this.She reached up and pulled him down.Their mouths met again, slower this time, deeper. His hands moved over her skin without hurry, learning the shape of her waist, the curve of her hip, the soft weight of her breasts. She explored him the same way, palms sliding over the hard planes of his chest and the scars she had only seen in pieces before. When his fingers finally slipped between her legs she was already wet. He stroked her carefully, watching every small change in her breathing, until her hips lifted toward his hand and a quiet sound left h