All Chapters of INSATIABLE VOWS : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Episode ElevenCHIARAMy heart was beating violently against my ribs, the taste of dark amber, scotch, and Alessio still hot on my lips.For a second, the dimly lit basement garage dissolved around us. I stood frozen in the circle of his arms, breathless, my hands still tightly gripping the lapels of his suit jacket.Alessio didn't let go immediately. His dark grey eyes held mine, heavy, possessive, and completely unreadable. His chest rose and fell in a slow, steady rhythm against my own, sending a sharp, electric warmth straight down my spine.Then, he slowly released my waist, stepping back just enough to break the seal between us.Behind me, a harsh, choked sound broke the quiet."What the hell is this?" Levi’s voice rasped out, raw with disbelief and pure rage.Levi took two aggressive steps forward, his fists clenched at his sides, his eyes wide as he stared from me to Alessio. "You're touching her in front of me? In my father-in-law's building?"Alessio didn't even turn his h

Episode ThirteenALESSIOThe early morning light coming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Vitiello Enterprises was grey and harsh.I sat behind my desk on the top floor, my coffee sitting untouched beside a stack of global risk assessments. Beyond the glass, Manhattan was slowly waking up, but my mind was stuck twelve hours prior—in my own study, staring into the dark, relentless eyes of my wife.What did Levi Moretti do to you before last night?She hadn't yelled. She hadn't thrown a scene. Chiara Vance—Chiara Vitiello—had simply walked up to my desk, locked those sharp, perceptive eyes onto mine, and asked the one question no one in this city was brave enough to articulate.Most people saw what I wanted them to see: cold efficiency, terrifying authority, and absolute control. But Chiara had seen straight past the structure. She had picked up on the edge in my voice when Harrison's name was brought up. She had noticed the exact millisecond my posture shifted.It was irrit

Episode Fifteen CHIARAI woke up the next morning with the soft sunlight streaming through the penthouse blinds, but my mind was stuck in the dark backseat of the Maybach.'I was. And I didn't particularly enjoy it'.I rolled over, staring at the ceiling and trying to rationalize his words. It was just possessiveness. It had to be. We were publicly married now, and a man like Alessio Vitiello didn't like his authority or his image questioned by a charismatic venture capitalist like Julian Vance.Yet, there was an unmistakable honesty in the way he had said it. No corporate evasiveness. No clever wordplay. Just a raw, controlled admission that lingered in the air long after the car doors had closed.I threw off the covers, dressed in tailored gray trousers and a cream silk blouse, and made my way down to the kitchen.Alessio was already seated at the dining table, impeccably dressed in a dark suit with his cuff links fastened. He was sipping black coffee while scrolling through market

EPISODE SEVENTEENCHIARAWe got to the courthouse before seven, the hallway outside the hearing room nearly empty except for a janitor and a security guard who looked like he hadn't decided yet whether today was going to be interesting."Ready?" Alessio asked, his voice low in the quiet corridor."I've been ready since the day I learned how to argue."A small, knowing smile touched his lips. "I know."Inside, Moretti's counsel argued that the old collateral agreement gave them grounds to freeze a portion of my voting rights. My attorney took it apart piece by piece, clean and fast, the way I had trained him to. But the judge wasn't interested in who argued better. He wanted to know who had signed the original agreement five years ago.Arthur Vance.I kept my face perfectly still. Not betrayed. Just confused, the same uncomfortable itch I hadn't been able to scratch since the night I first found that document.Why didn't I know about this?After the hearing, my attorney pulled me aside

Episode Nineteen CHIARAThe morning sun cast a cold, pale light across the hardwood floor of my office. I sat behind my desk with a digital tablet resting in front of me, replaying the high-definition footage captured by the boutique’s security camera across the street from yesterday’s sidewalk ambush.Maya stood beside my chair, her arms crossed, her legal mind already running through the architecture of a case."We have clean angles," Maya said, tapping the screen to freeze the frame where Lillian lunged forward, clawing aggressively at my coat while screaming for the cameras. "The physical contact is undeniable. It meets the threshold for third-degree assault and criminal harassment under New York Penal Law. Furthermore, the deliberate framing of the narrative to cause professional damage gives us solid grounds for a civil defamation suit."I stared at the paused image of Lillian’s distorted, furious face. Yesterday, her tears had looked convincing to the tabloids. On a frame-by-f