All Chapters of The Silence Of His Vows: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

The eastern corridor of the second floor was a dead end.Killian had told me I could move freely through the house, so long as I stayed away from the exterior doors. For two days I had kept to the main spaces. The library. The morning room. But the mansion was massive, and the silence inside my own head had driven me to walk farther today, pushing into hallways I had never seen before.The carpet in this wing was worn thin down the center. The air felt colder. A single wall sconce burned low at the far end, casting long shadows against the dark wallpaper. At the very end of the curved passage, tucked awkwardly into the corner, a heavy wooden door stood slightly ajar.I stopped.A thin strip of pale daylight leaked through the gap.I pushed the door open with my fingertips. The hinges gave a low, metallic groan.The room was small and choked with dust. Heavy curtains were drawn across a single window. Stacks of sealed cardboard bo

One week had passed since I shattered the glass in the dusty room.The cut on my right heel had closed into a tight, pulling scar, but the pain of it was nothing compared to the suffocating atmosphere that had taken over the mansion. I had not seen Killian lose his temper again. He had barely looked at me at all. Instead, a dark, calculated energy had settled into the walls of the house.I could feel it in my bones. An unknown, creeping dread that made the hairs on my arms stand up every time a door opened.The number of guards outside my bedroom window had doubled. Black vehicles arrived and departed at all hours of the night, crunching heavily over the gravel drive. The maids moved much faster than before. They kept their eyes glued to the floor, whispering rapidly in Russian when they brought my food, falling completely silent the second I looked in their direction.Then came the deliveries.I stood by the tall window and watched men i

The sky outside the tall windows turned from grey to pitch black.I had not moved from the floor.I was sitting with my back pressed against the foot of the bed, my knees pulled tightly to my chest. The side of my face throbbed with a dull, heavy heat where Killian had struck me. My inner lip had stopped bleeding, but the metallic taste of copper still coated my tongue.The massive diamond ring sat on my left hand, heavy and foreign, catching the dim light from the hallway under the door.My throat felt completely shredded. The brief, violent use of my voice had left my vocal cords feeling like they had been scraped with sandpaper. Every time I swallowed, a sharp, burning pain shot down my neck.I stared blankly at the pristine white handkerchief Killian had dropped on the rug.The heavy lock on the bedroom door clicked.I flinched violently, my entire body jerking backward against the bed frame.The door swung

The plaster ceiling was the first thing I saw when the gray morning light bled through the gap in the heavy curtains. It cast long, pale shadows across the floorboards. I had not closed my eyes once. My spine ached from lying completely rigid against the mattress for eight hours.Today was the day Carmina arrived.The dread had settled low in my stomach sometime around midnight. It sat there dense and heavy. The wedding was approaching, a permanent cage closing around me, and now Killian’s aunt was here to inspect the lock.A knock sounded at the door. It was too light to be Killian.The door clicked open before I could sit up. A young maid walked in and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the rug. She carried a stack of folded clothes."Miss," she said quietly. "I need to help you dress. The guests are downstairs."She went to the wardrobe, pulled out a pale gray wool skirt and a high buttoned white blouse, and laid them on the edge o

The heavy front doors of the mansion clicked shut behind us.I stepped into the grand foyer, my raw skin burning faintly under the cool air conditioning. The three-hour salon session had left me feeling entirely stripped, polished, and on display.Carmina did not even look at me. She handed her coat to a waiting maid, smoothed the front of her suit, and walked directly toward the east wing without a single word. I watched her disappear down the corridor, the silence in her wake feeling heavier than usual.I turned to head toward the stairs. I just wanted the quiet of the bedroom. I wanted to wash the heavy creams off my face and scrub the stiff waves out of my hair.But as I passed the wide archway of the main living room, I stopped.Killian was sitting on the center sofa.He did not look like the cold, buttoned-up Don today. He wore dark trousers and a black dress shirt, but the top three buttons were completely undone. The fabric hung loose, exposing the thick, scarred muscle of his