Lahat ng Kabanata ng Engaged to the Devil, Loved by His Shadow : Kabanata 111 - Kabanata 120

Morning in the mansion always starts quietly.Not the peaceful kind of quiet.The strange one.The type where you can hear your own footsteps too clearly as you walk across the marble floor.I had just finished arguing with the coffee machine in the kitchen for almost five minutes because the stupid thing refused to give me sugar.Yes.A whole mafia mansion.Men with guns everywhere but the coffee machine is the real villain of this house.I finally gave up and poured the bitter coffee into a mug anyway, muttering under my breath while leaning against the counter.“Fine. Kill me slowly.”Lucia, the house maid, stood near the sink cutting fruits.She glanced at me and laughed softly.“Madam, maybe you should stop threatening the coffee machine every morning.”I looked at her with a straight face while taking a small sip.Immediately my face twisted.“This thing tastes like regret.”Lucia laughed again.“You said the same thing yesterday.”“And the day before that,” I replied while walk

The first call came six minutes after Serafina’s car stopped answering.I was in my office when Vittorio walked in without knocking.That alone already told me something was wrong.Vittorio never forgets his manners.Never.But this time the door opened so fast it almost hit the wall behind it.I looked up from the report on my desk and immediately noticed three things.His glasses were slightly crooked.His breathing was too fast.And his face had lost all color.Something bad had happened.Very bad.I slowly placed the pen in my hand on the desk while watching him carefully.“What happened,” I asked quietly while leaning back in my chair.Vittorio didn’t answer immediately.He closed the door behind him first, which made the room feel smaller somehow.Then he walked toward the desk.“Serafina’s convoy was attacked.”The words landed in the room like a stone dropping into water.I didn’t move.I didn’t react.Because reacting too fast leads to mistakes.So I simply asked one calm que

The first thing I noticed about the villa was the smell.Old dust. Damp wood. Something sour that had probably been sitting in the walls for years. Every time the wind pushed through the broken windows, the smell moved around the room like the house was breathing.I shifted in the chair again.The rope around my wrists rubbed against my skin and burned a little, but honestly that was the least annoying thing about my current situation.One ankle was tied to the leg of the chair.Very dramatic.Very unnecessary.I lifted my head and watched the two men standing near the door.One of them kept pacing back and forth like a nervous dog. The other leaned against the wall with his arms folded, looking bored.The pacing one checked his phone again.Then again.Then he shoved it into his pocket with an irritated huff.“Relax,” the man against the wall said, tilting his head toward him. “The boss said Matteo would come. This whole thing only works if he shows up.”I let out a loud sigh.Both m

The strange thing about peace is that at first it feels wrong.For weeks after Luca died, I kept waking up in the middle of the night expecting something terrible to happen. My body had gotten used to chaos. Loud noises. Sudden phone calls. Men rushing through hallways with guns.But now the house was peaceful.Very peaceful.The first morning it really hit me, I was standing in the kitchen staring at the coffee machine like it had personally offended me.Lucia, the housemaid, stood beside the counter watching me with concern.“Madam,” she said gently while holding a mug, “the coffee is ready.”“I know,” I answered while squinting at the machine. “I just don’t trust it.”Lucia blinked.“You don’t trust… the coffee?”I leaned closer to inspect it.“Too peaceful,” I muttered. “Nothing in this house has exploded in weeks.”Lucia slowly placed the mug in my hand.“I believe that is considered a good thing.”I took a sip.It was good.Annoyingly good.“Hmm,” I said while staring at it sus

A full year had passed since the chaos ended, since Matteo and I had finally taken back control of our lives. The city had quieted, the empire stabilized, and for the first time, we could breathe without glancing over our shoulders. Today was different. Today the garden was full of laughter, not fear. Our child’s first birthday had arrived, and the small courtyard glowed with sunlight, decorations, and the soft chatter of friends and family who had survived alongside us. For the first time in a long time, everything felt ordinary. Safe. Real. And I couldn’t stop smiling.Alessia hovered near the cake table, hands folded quietly in front of her. She wasn’t loud, wasn’t trying to steal attention but her eyes were full of the kind of soft pride you feel when someone you care about finally gets peace.She crouched down briefly to tickle the baby’s tiny feet, letting out a quiet laugh that blended with the chatter around her. “Look at them,” she whispered to me, “happy, unafraid… finall