Chapter 73: The domino’s effect
The intruding guard’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, his eyes darting toward the shadows.
"You two are planning to escape, aren’t you? Let me join. I have had enough of Seraphina’s chains. I can’t breathe here anymore."
Romeo’s jaw tightened, his gaze sharp. Beside him, Bianca’s pulse quickened, her palms damp against her dress.
For a long moment, Romeo said nothing.
Then, fast and low, he replied, "Fine. But you follow my lead. No mistakes."
The trio slipped out with calculated ease, their footsteps blending with the silence of the early hour.
By the time they reached the outer gate, the morning sun had begun to blaze across the compound, drawing out the guards already stationed at their posts.
"Walk as if you’re on duty," Romeo instructed in a clipped tone.
His eyes scanned the perimeter, hawk-like. "No sudden moves, no nervous glances... Just breathe."
One by one, they split into separate directions, slipping into the cracks of the shifting crowd.
For a heartbeat, it worked freedom felt close enough to touch.
Until Richard Rick the intruding guard stumbled.
His boot caught the edge of a decorative vase, sending porcelain crashing against the marble floor.
The shatter split the air like a gunshot. Sharp shards tore into his skin, and a raw scream ripped from his throat. Blood spattered across the tiles.
Instantly, heads whipped around. Guards inside and outside surged toward the noise.
Rick’s trembling hand shot forward, pointing desperately at Romeo and Bianca as they inched toward the open gate.
Romeo cursed under his breath. Bianca’s chest heaved, ready to run, but his grip on her wrist was iron.
"No," he hissed. "They will cut us down before we reach the street. Let’s get back inside.. And blend in."
The battalion came thundering, their boots pounding the ground, helmets gleaming, masks veiling their faces. The uniforms were identical to Romeo’s and Bianca’s. In seconds, they mix up in between the giant crowd of the guard, their feigned innocence flawless as they were herded back within the compound walls.
From the balcony above, Seraphina’s crimson lips curved into a predator’s smile.
She raised her hand, halting the commotion with a gesture too elegant for the violence she carried.
"Double the security at the gates," she ordered coldly. "Replace the old iron with digital locks. Fingerprint access only. Limited prints. No one breathes without my permission."
Her gaze slid to Richard Rick, now on his knees, clutching his bleeding arm.
Guards had dragged him forward like a captured animal. His voice cracked as he begged, "Please, ma’am... please, it was temptation. I swear I never wanted to leave."
Seraphina tilted her head, her amusement dark and chilling. "Oh, Ricky. You thought you could slither into the world outside, whisper our secrets to the wind? After swearing an oath to remain with us forever or perish forever?"
She stepped closer, her stiletto heels clicking softly against the floor.
The scent of her perfume mingled with the iron tang of his blood.
She wrinkled her nose.
"Your filthy blood is staining my floors. I detest the smell. You want salvation? Then give me what I want."
Rick’s breath hitched. "W-what is it?"
"Your accomplices," she purred, eyes glittering with malice. "Point them out, and perhaps you will be treated better and be spared to live long enough to be patched up."
Her laughter rang sharp, slicing the silence like a blade.
Then she turned her gaze toward her ever-efficient personal assistant, Alex dickson.
"Number one, summon the doctor, I won’t have him dying before he names his friends. Give him first aid, just enough to speak." Her eyes flickered, a cruel light dancing in them. "After that, full treatment commences, if he delivers." she said with a wicked smile across her face.
Alex bowed his head. "And number two, Madam?"
Her smile widened, beautiful and terrifying.
"Number two, summon every single guard. No excuses, let them abandon their duties if they must. I want them gathered here, before me. We will see who trembles when Richard Rick decides to open his mouth."
The hall thickened with silence, broken only by Rick’s laboured breathing.
In that stillness, Bianca felt Romeo’s fingers brush against hers, a fleeting reassurance that said.. We are not safe yet. But we will be.
And as Seraphina’s laughter echoed through the walls, Bianca realized escape was no longer just a dream. It was survival.
********
In the Morano estate, inside the room Alessia still stood holding the diary.
The wardrobe had always been Luca’s sacred space.
To anyone else, it was just wood and steel lined with his perfectly tailored suits, the fragrance of cedar, and the faint musk of his cologne clinging to the air.
But Alessia didn’t know better.
Luca guarded it like a vault, never letting anyone clean it but himself.
But then her trembling fingers brushed open the diary and she saw a hidden compartment.
Her pulse raced. She hesitated, biting her lip, torn between guilt and curiosity.
But the thought of Luca, so guarded, so haunted gnawed at her.
Why did he keep it locked away from her?
Her breath came shallow, but the pull was too strong.
Slowly and carefully, she opened it.
Ink sprawled across the first page, bold, deliberate, the strokes dark as though his hand had carved each word into the paper with fury and fear.
The words weren’t a confession of murder.
They weren’t names of enemies.
They were about her.
She read the Prophecy which says: "Her blood is the coin. Her life is the door. The Morano curse was never meant for men, but for her the woman who carries the moon in her veins. If she ever touches the book, it will awaken. If she ever bleeds on its torn pages, the world we know will no longer belong to us. And yet... I cannot let her go. I cannot give her up, even if it means destruction."
Alessia’s vision blurred. She clutched the edge of the wardrobe for balance as her heart thundered.
Her blood, the book and the moon.
Luca knew.
He had known all along.
The breath in her lungs turned heavy, sharp, as though every letter carved into the paper had lodged itself in her chest.
Was this why he always watched her so closely? Why he never let the subject of the book leave his sight?
Her fingers turned another page before she could stop herself.
he next part was captioned the Obsession, she reads slowly : "Every night I dream of her drowning in blood, her eyes wide, her hands reaching for me. And every morning, I wake with her in my arms, alive, breathing, soft. My curse, my salvation, I cannot tell her. If she knows, she will try to run, and if she runs, I will destroy the world to bring her back."
Tears pricked Alessia’s eyes. She had never known the depth of the storm inside him.
He had hidden it so well. His smile, his strength and his silence.
But here... here was his soul, bleeding in ink.
Her trembling fingers turned more pages, desperate, terrified, needing to know everything.
Alessia closed the diary, she thought that was all until she stare and saw few letters beneath where the diary was kept.
The Letters He Never gave her. She carried it and look at it, the letters weren’t prophecy.
They were letters, addressed to her.
Her name, written over and over.
Her breath hitched as she read the first one. "Alessia, I write this because the words burn my tongue when I try to say them. You are my ruin, my salvation, and the only softness left in me. I swore I would never love, because love is the sharpest weakness. But you.. Damn, you tear through me like fire. If you ever read this, know that I fear you more than I fear death. Not because you will hurt me, but because one day I might lose you. And when that day comes, it will be the end of Luca Morano."
A sob broke from her throat, quiet but raw.
She pressed her hand to her lips, afraid the sound would echo through the walls.
She opened the next letter. "I dreamt once of leaving you. I told myself it would keep you safe. I even wrote the plan down. But I tore it apart the moment you smiled at me again. I am too selfish. I would rather watch the world burn than live without you."
Her tears dripped onto the page, smudging the ink.
Her Luca, her brutal, merciless and ruthless Luca is afraid of losing her.
The pages blurred as she read another one: "You think I am stone, Alessia. You think I do not break. But when you look at me with those eyes, I am nothing but a man who would kneel if you asked. You are my weakness, and if the world discovers it, they will destroy us both. But let them come. I will slaughter them all before I let you go."
Alessia shut the remaining letters , clutching it to her chest, her body trembling as though the words had set her veins on fire.
Her mind raced.
Luca had known about the prophecy.
He had known her blood was the key to the book. And instead of pushing her away, instead of turning his back, he had chosen to love her in silence, to guard her with a ferocity that shook her to the core.
He had hidden his fear, his vulnerability and his devotion. All behind walls of iron.
And now, she knew.
She knew everything.
The diary suddenly felt heavy in her hands, as though it carried the weight of both their fates. She smiled sweetly as she closed her eyes.
Then she fold kept everything back in place as if it has never been touched.
Panic seized her as she turned and saw Luca standing with his folded arms at her back staring coldly at her.
Her trembling hands drop the piece of small cloth she was using to clean the shelves on Luca’s shoe.....
Even if it meant keeping the greatest secret of all, she had read the words he never meant her to see.....