All Chapters of He Gave Her the World, and Me a Cage: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

My twin sister, Bianca, had been born with a love of freedom. I, on the other hand, had been raised from childhood to become the most proper daughter a powerful family could produce.When we turned twenty, the Moretti family sent us a marriage contract. Bianca was supposed to be the bride. But our father said her wild nature would eventually jeopardize the alliance between the two families, so he crossed out her name and replaced it with mine.The elders on both sides approved the change. I had no power to refuse. All I wanted was to be reckless once before my wedding, so I put on a red dress Bianca had left behind and went to the most famous underground club in the city.When I woke the next morning, I was lying beside a man I did not know.He held me in his arms and called me by my sister's name.That was how I learned he was Lorenzo Moretti, heir to the Moretti family and the man who had originally been promised to Bianca. The moment he discovered I was the younger twin, his express

After the accident at the track, Lorenzo all but forbade me to leave my bedroom.For three days, I saw him only in brief, blurred moments late at night. Whenever I woke, the medicine and warm water at my bedside had been replaced, and a heated wrap covered my legs. Sometimes his coat lay across the sofa, but he was nowhere in sight.On the third morning, he finally came through the door.He looked as if he had not slept. Shadows bruised the skin beneath his eyes, and the cuffs of his shirt carried the sterile smell of a hospital.He sat on the edge of the bed and held out a bowl of lemon cream pudding.“You didn't eat again last night?”I lowered my eyes to the pudding.During the first months of my pregnancy, I had been unable to keep down almost anything. This particular lemon pudding was one of the few things I could eat.Once, heavy rain had closed several roads, and the shop refused to make deliveries. Lorenzo drove across half the city to collect it himself. He returned with his

I did not know when Claire regained consciousness.She threw herself forward and clung to the attacker's leg.“Help! Somebody help us!”The blade changed direction and slashed deep across her shoulder.She screamed but refused to let go.Suddenly, blinding headlights appeared at the far end of the warehouse lane.A gunshot passed so close to Claire that it stirred her hair. Blood burst from the leader's shoulder.“Drop your weapons!”Moretti security flooded the warehouse district and forced the attackers to the ground within moments.When the security chief knelt beside me, every trace of color had left his face.“Mrs. Moretti.”His voice broke.“Mr. Moretti ordered an additional team to follow your convoy. The moment your bracelet triggered the alarm, they came after you.”Claire's sobbing abruptly went silent.She looked down at me, tears falling onto my face one after another.“Madam, did you hear that?”“He didn't leave you unprotected. Mr. Moretti sent the men who saved us.”“Ple

At dawn, the butler entered carrying a box.“Sir, this is the item you commissioned last month.”Lorenzo did not respond, so the butler placed it on the table.Inside was a handmade silver baby rattle engraved with the Moretti crest. Beside it lay a key that had never been given to me.Lorenzo had already ordered the sunniest room in the estate converted into a nursery, but he had never told me.He had acted as though the baby meant nothing to him, yet he had personally reviewed every design. He insisted that none of the furniture have sharp corners, that the curtains block the strongest sunlight, and that the rug be soft enough to protect a child who fell.I would never see that room.Bianca approached the bed. She reached for my face, but her fingers stopped before touching me.“Isabel.”Her voice broke.“I always said I would take you to see the world one day.”“But I traveled too far, and I looked back too rarely.”“You spent five years trapped inside the life our two families arra

White rose petals scattered across the snow-covered road as the funeral convoy slowly left the Moretti estate.Lorenzo followed the hearse on foot for a long distance.Father never looked back. Before entering his car, he only said coldly, “Mr. Moretti, you will remain here.”Lorenzo stopped.Snow settled across his shoulders.As he watched the hearse disappear, countless small memories returned to him.The first night I moved into the Moretti estate, I could not sleep. I sat beside the window with my knees drawn to my chest until morning.During the early months of my pregnancy, I vomited until I could not even keep down water, yet I still asked whether my illness would delay the family meeting scheduled for the next morning.In our second year of marriage, I asked him to take me to the ocean.Instead, he built a glass conservatory behind the estate. He covered the floor with white sand, installed a shallow artificial pool, and filled the room with speakers that played the sound of wa