Chapter 63: The face behind the veil
The narrowed road leading to virenkai’s gate stretched like a secret whispered across centuries, every curve carrying with it the heaviness of destiny.
The air was thicker here, heavy with an unspoken weight, as though the soil itself carried a thousand untold stories.
Alessia’s hand brushed against Luca’s as they approached the colossal gates, the burn of his touch grounding her amidst the storm building in her chest.
The guards at the entrance, armored in steel and shadows, straightened the moment Luca Morano stepped forward.
His name carried like thunder.
"The great mafia boss, Luca Morano, is here," they chorused, lowering their heads in reverence.
Their voices trembled, but their loyalty was sharp.
Luca tighten his face, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. "They know me," he muttered, almost to himself, though Alessia caught it.
Her heart pounded, How could guards in a mystical strange land, one hidden even from their blood-soaked world, recognize Luca so easily? She clutched the folds of her dress, unease sinking into her veins.
If fate had brought them here, then fate had already woven their names into this kingdom long before their arrival.
"Luca..." Alessia whispered, her voice fragile, uncertain.
He glanced at her, steel melting for just a moment.
His thumb brushed against her knuckles, a silent reassurance. "please stay close to me."
"How did the armies of Virenkai recognizes"? She asked luca.
"Maybe..... Just maybe, we are popular even till this moment"... He said to Alessia and his men, smiling.
"This is interesting any ways..."
*****
Far away, across seas and secrets, another story brewed.
Jackson’s mother stood like a fortress between Bianca and the boy.
The silver chain glimmered faintly against Jackson’s neck, the necklace Bianca had once clutched in desperation, the one she thought had vanished forever in the river’s cruel embrace.
"Don’t touch it," the woman snapped, her hand tightening protectively around her son.
Bianca’s lips trembled. "That necklace... it belongs to.... "
"I said don’t touch it... " the woman’s voice cracked like a whip. Her eyes burned with a fire Bianca had never seen, a fire only a mother who had lost too much could carry.
"Jackson," she called softly, forcing warmth back into her tone. "Follow the driver. Visit your friend at the hospital. I’ll join you shortly."
Jackson’s eyes lingered on Bianca, he was so curious,his young mind searching for sincere answers, what’s going on? Who was this woman that spoke to him in his school and even followed him home? He has alot of questions but he was too young to ask for clarifications so he obeyed his mother and went out of the house.
His elder sister tugged him gently, and they disappeared toward the waiting car.
Bianca’s chest rose and fell unevenly.
She had been seconds away from claiming him.
Seconds away from touching the truth she’d buried under lies and rivers.
"You threw him into the water years ago," the woman said, voice raw with memory. "And by a twist of fate, I found him while traveling by boat. Do you understand what that means to me? I had never borne a son. Never.... I choose him, i nurtured him, we are his family now in as much as he is also ours. We loved him as part of us, and he loved us as a parent and love my daughter as his elder sister. We are very use to him... And now you show up,,,, Bianca, from nowhere demanding what is mine?"
Her back straightened as she turned away, her pride cutting sharper than any blade. "I will not let you take Jackson away, I will protect him and make him stay with us in all cost, I don’t care if I’m harming myself in the process or not."
Bianca froze... The words slashed her deeper than expected.
Her throat tightened with guilt, with truths she had never wanted to face.
She had not been a mother not truly.
Selfishness had been her creed, survival her excuse.
The realization hit her like ice water, she looked selfish, desperate, and pathetic.
"Wait," Bianca’s voice cracked as she rushed forward. "Please... I don’t want to take him away from you. I only want to know him. To... to be part of his life. I swear I’m not a selfish woman."
The woman whipped around, fury painting her features. "Not selfish? You kept us from seeing the mafia boss Luca the last time we came. You knew, Bianca. You always knew.... And now you come crawling back with excuses."
Bianca’s mind stuttered. The mention of Luca twisted like a dagger in her chest, but even that wasn’t the most haunting part.
Her thoughts drifted suddenly, unbidden, to the memory of the black book.
That black book.
Her bag had been full, her greed swollen with the possibilities of its sale.
And then, just like smoke.. it had vanished. Disappeared, as if fate itself had stripped it from her.
If she had sold it to the Atlans, she thought bitterly, she could have been rich and highly respected.
Maybe even the kind of mother her son could one day be proud of.
Instead, she stood here with empty hands, empty heart, and empty excuses.
A slow, greedy smile curled on her lips at the thought.
That book was still somewhere.
And if she found it.. It’s everything could change her life.
****
Back in Morano City, beneath the glow of dimmed chandeliers, another storm gathered.
Daisy’s hands trembled as Romeo leaned closer, his shadow drowning hers. "Come with me," he whispered, desperation lacing each syllable.
"Let’s elope.... Just us.... Away from all of this blood and betrayal."
Her chest heaved, her heart slamming against her ribs.
For one brief, dangerous moment, she wanted to say yes.... To run and to abandon the chains of her world for the warmth of his arms.
But Seraphina’s face flashed in her mind, her merciless eyes, her venomous promises.
"I can’t," Daisy whispered, her voice a broken plea. "I’m sorry. What if Seraphina comes after you? After us? You will be hunted daisy,,, . I can’t condemn you to that."
Pain flickered across his features, but he masked it with a smile too sharp to be real.
He turned away, shadows wrapping around him like a cloak.
But before he left, his voice cut through the silence, low and dangerous.
"Do you love me?" Romeo suddenly asked.
The question stilled her world.
Daisy froze, lips parted, unable to answer. Her heart screamed one truth, but her tongue refused to release it.
Silence betrayed her....
And Romeo waited for an answer with that silence carved deep into his soul.
******
In Virenkai, the air shifted once more.
The guards led Luca, Alessia, and the men through towering halls carved from stone and secrets.
Fire torches flickered against walls etched with stories too old to comprehend.
But nothing compared to the moment they stopped before the grand chamber.
Luca’s breath caught. His entire world tilted.
Because hanging on the wall, above gilded pillars and beneath the crown of Virenkai’s legacy, was a familiar portrait.
The familiar portrait, is a portrait of Morano Alessandro - Luca’s late father.
The blood drained from Luca’s face.
His men shifted uncomfortably, Alessia’s fingers clutching his arm as if the earth had been ripped from beneath her.
"What... what is his picture doing here?" Alessia whispered, voice trembling with disbelief.
Luca’s fists clenched.
His father had never spoken of this place, he only mention virenkai as part of the places in the map given to Donato morano...
His father has never even hinted at its existence.
And yet here his father’s image it was immortalised on the walls of a kingdom untouched by time.
Before he could demand for more answers and a better clarifications...
Laughter rang out from one inside.
Their eyes turned after trailing the place where the laughter was echoing from and they froze.
Because there, at the royal table, dining and laughing with the king and queen of Virenkai... was Lauretta Morano.
Luca’s mother, she is alive, and happy.
Her eyes sparkled as though no shadows had ever touched her.
Her lips curved with the ease of a woman at peace.
Alessia’s stomach dropped, her breath catching as she gripped Luca tighter.
Hadn’t they been told she was kidnapped? Hadn’t they been haunted by the endless whispers of her suffering, of her absence tearing Morano bloodlines apart?
Was it all a lie?
Did they come this far, risk this much, bleed and burn for nothing but deception?
Luca’s heart thundered in his chest as his gaze locked on the woman who had birthed him, raised him, as she now abandoned him or had she...?
The weight of betrayal pressed against his ribs until he could barely breathe.
Alessia’s eyes filled with horror, her lips parting as the truth carved through the illusions of their world.
Had they been chasing ghosts?
Or had the ghosts been dining with kings all along?....
"Where’s is the kidnapped Lauretta Morano" - that was the question on their minds.....