The Devil's Vow

te was thick with the weight of history-old stone walls steeped in secrets, each room echoing with the lives of those who had walked thi

would solidify alliances and bring peace between two powerful families. Instead,

hat danced in the hearth. He hadn't turned when she walked in, as if her presence was nothing more than an inconvenience. His postur

sound confident. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. The opulence of the room-the polished mahogany she

saw something flicker behind his cold eyes. It wasn't affection. No, it was somethin

at didn't reach his eyes. "If this were a celebration, I'd be drinkin

hing more than a partnership of convenience, a marriage based on power and survival. But hearing him spea

e?" she asked, the words slipping out before she could stop them. "If we're both here for reasons

ighing her words. He didn't answer immediately, and Alessia

rriage is a chain for both of us. You're bound to me, whether you like it or not. And I..." He paused, his g

ruth. Both of them were bound to this curse, this unholy union. She didn't know exactly what

stood in this mansion tonight, her future uncertain and cloud

d, her voice steady, though the pulse

not asking you to be," he replied, his voice a low rasp. "But you will fear what's coming. Yo

s returning to the flickering fire. The heat from the flames reached h

r. "Your father's disgrace wasn't just a mistake. It wasn't just about power o

, now reduced to nothing more than a shadow of the man he had been. But the truth had never been clear to her. Her father had always spoken in riddles, his

ely a whisper, as though speaking th

ight not know it, but your bloodline is tied to something ancient, something darker than the criminal world

se? Her family's downfall wasn't just about betrayal-it was something far older

swers-she couldn't stand the uncertainty, the feeling of being trapped in a ga

war for decades. And when they united through your father's marriage to my mother, a Romani woman placed a curse on our bloodlines. She cursed us to never know peace, to neve

er breath coming faster. "An

This marriage was never meant to bring us together-it was meant to des

asn't just a mafia rivalry that threatened them. It w

why marry me at all?" she whispered. "If we'r

ecause, Alessia, we are already too deep in this. The moment your father made his choices, we were bo

skipped a beat.

don't know. But if there's a way out of this

for survival, a desire to protect her family's name. But now, standing before Luc

was the key to ending it, she would have to decide if she coul

that every choice they made would have consequences. The b