All Chapters of Heart of Stone: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

ELARA POVFor days after that night in the kitchen, he was colder than ever. If we passed in the hall, he would look straight ahead, as if I were no more than a shadow on the wall. When I spoke, he answered in short, sharp sentences — Yes, No, Do as I said — nothing more. He ate his meals in his study now, leaving me alone at the long dining table with nothing but silence and the echo of my own breathing.I told myself I should be used to it. I had known from the start what this was — a transaction. A debt paid in flesh and freedom. But knowing it and living it were two different things entirely. Every time he looked right through me, something small and fragile inside me cracked a little more.One afternoon, I was in the garden, kneeling in the damp earth, pulling weeds from the flower beds. My hands were stained with soil, my knees sore, my hair falling loose around my face — and I didn’t care. Out here, away from his cold, perfect house, I could breathe. I could pretend I was just

ELARA POVHe did not let go of me that night. Not right away. We sat together on the small sofa in his study, the fire burning low, and he told me everything — the things he had buried deep, the things he had never spoken aloud to anyone.His father had built his empire on fear and debt. Men had been ruined. Families had been torn apart. When his mother died, no one had been held accountable. The dangerous partners his father had once worked with were still out there — waiting, watching, hungry for what they believed was theirs. And they knew now. They knew Elara existed. They knew she was the soft spot in his armor.“I should have sent you away the moment I realized,” he said, his voice rough with self-reproach. “I should have kept you safe, far from all this.”“You couldn’t,” I told him, leaning my head against his shoulder. “Because you already cared too much.”He was quiet for a long time. Then his arm tightened around me. “I did. From the very first day. When I saw you standing t