Chapter 3 It's nothing but a contract!
Valeria’s POV
I didn’t know how long I had been unconscious. Minutes? Hours? Days? When I finally opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was the air soft, sweet, laced with vanilla and strawberries. It was the kind of fragrance I used to dream of as a child, when I still believed in freedom, in a future that was mine to shape.
But then my father’s words slammed into me like a fist.
"You’re dead to me."
The memory was so sharp it stole the air from my lungs. My chest ached, tears burned at the corners of my eyes. I clenched my fists, forcing myself not to let them fall. I couldn’t afford to be weak. Not here. Not now.
The room was dark and quiet, elegant but suffocating, every shadow pressing against me. I swung my legs over the bed and stood, my heart hammering. I barely made it to the door before it opened on its own.
A maid stood there, her head bowed.
“You’re awake, madam,” she murmured softly.
I nodded, my throat too tight to speak.
Her polite smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Mr. Luciano is waiting for you in the dining room.”
At the sound of his name, something inside me twisted. Luciano. My enemy. The man I had sworn to kill if it was the last thing I did. And now, I was in his house. His world.
“Take me to him,” I said, my voice low.
The dining room was bright, drenched in morning light that spilled across the polished floor and the long mahogany table. And there he was.
Luciano.
He sat at the head of the table like he owned the sun itself, the light bending around him as though it worshiped him. His dark hair was slightly mussed, his jaw sharp but softened by the faintest trace of stubble. Thin-rimmed glasses perched on his nose, giving him a quiet, dangerous elegance as he read the newspaper in his hands. He wasn’t just sitting there he was commanding the room without even trying.
My breath caught.
The memory of last night slammed into me without mercy the kiss, the heat, the way my lips still tingled from his touch. I hated myself for thinking about it, even for a second.
He didn’t look up when he spoke.
“Take a picture, Valeria. It’ll last longer.”
The casual cruelty in his voice set my skin on fire. My embarrassment made me straighten my back, my mask sliding into place. I walked to the far end of the table and sat, refusing to give him the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.
The maid began to serve breakfast, but I lifted a hand to stop her. My eyes stayed locked on him.
Luciano finally moved, tossing a brown envelope down the table toward me. It landed near my plate with a dull thud.
I picked it up slowly, almost lazily, but my pulse was wild. When I read the first line of the document inside, I laughed under my breath.
“You didn’t have to bother drafting a contract,” I said coolly, tearing my gaze from the paper to him. “I was going to handle this myself. I don’t need your help, Luciano.”
I lifted the spoon and brought the steaming chicken soup to my nose, letting the rich scent curl into my senses.
“It’s meant to be eaten, not admired,” he said, finally putting down the newspaper.
Our eyes met, his a piercing blue, hard enough to cut.
“Don’t worry,” he said softly, raising his glass. “I’m not as stupid as you were when you killed my mother. I won’t kill you. Not yet.”
He drank, the wine glinting red like blood.
My chest tightened. My mind screamed that asking for his help had been a mistake a desperate, foolish mistake. But I had no choice. If I walked away now, my father would come for me. And next time, he wouldn’t hesitate to marry me off to someone even worse than Luciano.
Luciano’s voice sliced through my thoughts.
“Sign it.”
He was standing now, moving toward me with deliberate steps, every one of them making the air grow heavier.
I stared at the contract, my fingers itching to rip it apart.
“I’ll sign it when I want to,” I said, my voice steady. “You don’t get to command me.”
I pushed the paper aside, but he only leaned down closer, until his breath brushed my ear.
His hand found mine, the one wearing his mother’s ring and his grip tightened until I could feel the metal digging into my skin.
“It looks good on you, Valeria,” he whispered, venom lacing every word. “It was my mother’s ring. Fitting that it belongs to you now.”
I yanked my hand back, but he caught it again, this time harsh enough to make me hiss.
“You know why I agreed to this little charade?” His voice was low, dark, and dangerous.
I didn’t answer, didn’t look away. My other hand slid under the table, closing around the handle of a fruit knife.
“Because I wanted you to feel exactly what I felt,” he said, his eyes glittering with something that looked like madness. “You broke my family, Valeria. Blood for blood that’s the only balance that matters.”
I let out a cold laugh. “If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t spare her. I’d kill her over and over again.”
The smirk vanished from his lips. His expression hardened as he reached for the gun on the table and leveled it at me.
But I was already moving.
The knife flew from my hand, a silver flash cutting through the air. Luciano dodged, the blade burying itself in the chair behind him.
“Go on,” I said, standing now, my lips curling into a dangerous smile. “Shoot me. But you’d better pray you kill me in one shot, because if you miss you’ll be dead before you pull the trigger again.”
My words hung in the air like smoke, sharp and poisonous.
And for the first time, I saw just a flicker of uncertainty in his ice-blue eyes. But my gaze never left his, I pulled the contract closer, and inscribed my signature on it before carefully stepping out of the room.