Chapter 53 Fifty Three
The click of the door echoed through the room.
Then the silence followed.
Mira lay perfectly still, staring at the ceiling as her thoughts crashed over one another.
What the hell did I just do?
A bitter laugh escaped her.
She had given herself to the one man she had sworn to hate. The realization and shame settled like a stone in her chest.
“God…” she whispered, dragging a trembling hand over her face.
She felt stupid. So unbelievably stupid.
She’d imagined that their first time would mean something to him that he’d stay, hold her, say… anything. Instead, he’d walked away as though leaving her bed like she was just some random hookup.
What was she expecting?
He was Salvatore. A man who inspired fear, not tenderness. A man who killed in cold blood and wouldn’t even feel a drop of remorse.
So why had she expected to be any different?
She swallowed against the lump in her throat, refusing to let the tears gathering in her eyes fall.
“Nah, you’re not doing this,” she muttered to herself. It’s just sex, so get it over with.”
She wouldn’t cry over him. She wouldn’t become another woman foolish enough to mistake what they had as nothing more than it was.
Drawing the blanket around herself, she curled onto her side, but his scent still lingered on the sheets, making it impossible to escape the memory of him.
Morning arrived quietly.
Thin rays of sunlight slipped through the curtains, stretching across the bedroom floor before climbing onto the bed.
Mira’s eyes fluttered open.
For a few blissful seconds, she simply lay there, staring at the ceiling. Then the memories came crashing back.
The candlelit dinner. The way he’d looked at her as though he already knew every secret she carried.
Her heart tightened. The way his lips felt on hers, the way he had been screaming his name. She slowly turned her head toward the other side of the bed.
The sheets beside her were cold.
She reached out anyway, her fingertips brushing the place where Salvatore and her had a wild night.
It left no trace of him… Not even a wrinkle remained.
She picked up her phone from the counter to see if he dropped a message… nothing
“Of course.” Why had she expected anything else?
He took what he wanted, then walked away as though nothing had happened.
She closed her eyes.
What the hell have I done?
The question refused to leave her.
She came here to build a case against him, not to be in his bed.
Her stomach twisted.
Was she still capable of seeing him for what he really was? Or had she started seeing the man instead of the monster everyone believed him to be?
She sat up slowly, pulling the blanket around herself.
His scent still lingered a bit on the pillow.
Cedarwood. Bergamot.
It irritated her that she recognized it so easily now.
“Get yourself together, Mira.”
She swung her legs over the side of the bed. The sharp ache in her ankle reminded her she’d nearly forgotten about the injury.
She hissed under her breath before carefully standing. Across the room, she spotted her clothes neatly folded on the chair.
She frowned. She hadn’t left them there.
Did he come back into her room when he left? Even after everything, he’d somehow found a way to stay in her thoughts.
She quickly dressed before limping toward the bathroom.
Cold water splashed against her face. She stared at her reflection. Dark circles rested beneath her eyes.
Her lips were swollen.
She looked… Different.
“You slept with the prime suspect.”
The words sounded worse when spoken aloud.
Her phone began vibrating on the nightstand. She quickly tied a towel and stepped out. A name lit up on the screen
Anna.
Mira answered almost immediately.
“Finally you decided to pick up,” Anna snapped before she could speak. “Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been?”
“Good morning to you too.”
“Bullshit. Have been calling you since last night; your phone was off.”
Mira rubbed the back of her neck. I just forgot to charge my phone.” The truth is she’d turned it off
“You’re a journalist; you know your phone should never be turned off.”
Mira stayed silent; she had no excuse. A part of her already felt guilty.
Anna sighed. “We’ve got a problem.”
Mira immediately straightened. “What happened?”
“We went back through every missing person’s report.”
“The six women?”
“Yes.”
“What did you find?”
Anna’s voice became serious. “We missed something this time”.
Mira felt her pulse quicken. “What?”
“Every single one of those women reported being followed before they disappeared.”
Mira froze. “What do you mean followed?”
“They were stalked. There’s a lot of file on different days of report for over three months”.
Anna shuffled through papers. “Different dates. Different officers. Different neighborhoods.” But the stories were almost identical.”
Mira slowly sat back on the edge of the bed. “They all believed someone was watching them.”Her mouth suddenly felt dry. “Why wasn’t this connected before?”
“Because the reports were filed weeks apart.”
Anna sighed.Different detectives handled every case. No one realized the pattern until recently.”
Mira stared at the floor. “So someone stalked all six of them…”
“Exactly.”
A long silence followed.
Then Anna quietly added, “We don’t know if it was Salvatore.”
Mira’s grip tightened around the phone.
“Or someone working for him.”
The words settled heavily in the room.
“Either way,” Anna continued, “whoever targeted those women… it was well planned.”
Mira swallowed.
Anna’s voice softened. “Mira… listen to me.”
“I’m listening,” Mira said, trying to shake off her shaky voice.
“I don’t trust Salvatore… whatever you’re doing, be very careful of that animal. I don’t want you getting...” Anna paused
She didn’t finish. She didn’t have to. Mira already understood.
“You could be next,” Anna said
A cold chill crawled down her spine.
Just as she opened her mouth to reply— A scream echoed through the mansion.
High-pitched. Terrifying.
Mira shot to her feet.
Another scream followed. Then another.
Something heavy crashed downstairs, followed by the sound of glass shattering.
Anna’s voice crackled through the phone.
“Mira?”
“Are you there?”
“I…”
Another loud crash interrupted her.
Someone was shouting. Doors slammed.
Running footsteps echoed through the hallway outside her room.
“Mira!” Anna called
“I have to go,” Mira said hurriedly. She dropped the phone onto the bed without waiting for a reply. She ran out of the room and down the stairs. The hallway was already filled with servants.
Some were crying. Others looked completely frozen.
Everyone was running toward the grand staircase.
No one stopped to explain. No one even noticed Mira.
“What happened?” she shouted.
Nobody answered. Her heartbeat thundered inside her chest as she pushed through the crowd.
She reached the staircase and hurried down as fast as her injured ankle allowed. The closer she got to the entrance hall, the quieter it became.
The screaming had stopped.
But a heavy, unsettling silence settled. She stepped into the marble foyer.
Then froze at the sight in front of her.
A young maid lay sprawled across the white floor.
Her uniform was stained red. Blood spread beneath her body in a widening pool. A silver serving tray rested several feet away.
No one moved.
Several servants stood with trembling hands covering their mouths.
Mira’s eyes drifted away from the body. Something black rested beside it.
A dead raven. Its feathers were soaked in blood.
Pinned beneath one wing was a photograph.
Her photograph. The blood drained from Mira’s face.
Beside it, written boldly across a white card stained with splashes of blood, were three chilling words for everyone to see.
YOU’RE NEXT.
A cold shiver ran through her.
The message wasn’t hidden. She didn’t need a soothsayer to know who it was for. It was meant for her.
The killer wanted everyone in the room to know exactly who the next target was.
The room remained deathly silent.
Then, from somewhere behind her, a calm, familiar voice broke it.
The grand foyer fell deathly silent.
No one spoke. No one dared move.
Then a trembling voice broke the silence.
“Another death… in just a month…”