Chapter 2 Accepting my fate.
Valeria’s POV
For the first time in my life, fear swallowed me whole. My chest tightened, my hands trembled, and every instinct screamed that I was making the greatest mistake of all. Why would I lower myself to ask him, my enemy, for help? The thought itself was poison, burning through my veins. This wasn’t right. I could feel it in my bones, in the pit of my stomach, like the air before a storm. It was as if I had stepped willingly into a snare, a trap woven to devour me and everything my father had built.
No, Valeria. You shouldn’t have asked him for help, I screamed silently within myself, the words pounding in my skull, relentless. My pride rebelled, my rage burned, but desperation had already betrayed me.
And then when I forced myself to face him
I froze.
His eyes pinned me in place, daring me to speak. I opened my mouth, but my voice betrayed me, leaving me stranded in silence. What was I even thinking? Asking Luciano for anything after everything I’d done to him was madness. Everyone still blamed me for his mother’s death.
“It’s fine,” I muttered, turning to leave. “Forget I asked…”
“I’ll do it.”
His words froze me in place. Before I could react, he closed the distance between us, his hand snatching mine in a bruising grip.
“What are you…?”
But he didn’t answer. He slid a cold ring onto my finger, the gesture so intimate, so mocking, it made my breath hitch.
“Making the engagement look real,” he said softly, his tone laced with menace. “Your father isn’t a fool. He’ll be suspicious enough as it is. But don’t get comfortable, Valeria. If I feel like killing you before this is over, I will.”
His deep blue eyes locked with mine, and for a moment, my body refused to move.
“Fine,” I whispered. “Let’s get this over with.”
I grabbed his hand and dragged him toward the hall of my would-be wedding hall. My father and brothers were already there, pacing like caged animals. When they saw us, the air shifted. Horror and disbelief froze them where they stood.
I cleared my throat, my voice steady despite the storm raging inside me.
“Father, I can’t marry Noah Boneman. I’m engaged to Luciano Rocco.”
The room erupted. Gasps. Whispers. Noah’s face twisted with rage as he lunged forward, grabbing at me. I shoved him aside without hesitation, sending him sprawling to the floor.
“Stop this nonsense, Valeria! Come and say your vows!” my father thundered, his fury rising like a tidal wave.
“I’m not joking,” I said through gritted teeth.
Luciano finally spoke, his voice calm, deadly. “When I heard you were giving my fiancée to another man, I thought I’d crash the party. But she came to me first.”
Before I could process what he’d just said, he leaned in and kissed me.
The room fell silent.
My first kiss. Stolen by the man I hated most in this world.
I shoved him away and wiped my lips furiously, but the ghost of his touch lingered, warm and infuriating.
“Pull yourself together, Valeria,” I whispered to myself, willing my heart to stop racing.
When I glanced at Luciano, he was grinning mocking me.
“Son of a bitch,” I hissed under my breath, turning back to my father.
He strode toward me, rage etched into every line of his face. I refused to look away, my chin held high. I had learned long ago never to back down from a fight.
The slap came hard and fast, snapping my head to the side. Tears burned in my eyes, but I swallowed them down. When his hand lifted again, Luciano caught it mid-air.
“That’s called harassment,” Luciano said softly, but his voice was sharp as a blade.
My father’s glare shifted from Luciano to me, his fury barely contained.
“What have you done, Valeria? He’s the enemy and you bring him here?”
“You wanted freedom so badly?” His voice dropped to a deadly whisper. “Fine. Have it.”
His guards closed in, guns raised.
The hall once meant for a wedding became a battlefield. My mother’s sobs rang in my ears as I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the shot that would end me.
But the shot never came.
I opened my eyes to find Luciano standing calmly, cigarette between his fingers, smoke curling around him like a demon’s halo.
Three of his men had appeared like shadows, guns aimed at my father’s head.
“You came to kill me, in my own house?” my father spat, though I saw the flicker of fear in his eyes.
“You pointed your guns first,” Luciano said coolly, lifting his hand slightly. His men didn’t move, but the tension doubled.
“Let us walk out of here alive, and no one gets hurt,” Luciano said, taking a slow drag from his cigarette. “But if you try anything stupid, if you breathe wrong” He exhaled smoke and smiled coldly. “All I have to do is snap my fingers, and everyone including your precious wife, my future mother-in-law, dies.”
I hated him. Hated the way he used this moment to corner my father, hated the way he tightened his grip on my hand as though claiming me in front of everyone.
My father’s gaze was a blade, sharp and unyielding, cutting through the air between us. With a single flick of his hand, his men lowered their guns,the silence that followed was deafening, like the pause before a storm.
I took a step toward him, my chest tight with desperate hope, but his hand shot up, halting me mid-breath.
And then he said it.
“As of this moment, you are dead to me, Valeria.”
The words struck like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs. A cold, electric shock tore through my body, leaving my fingers trembling and my vision blurring. It felt as if the floor had opened beneath me, and I was plummeting into a darkness I could never crawl out from.