ChapterTwo
1170 Words
Days passed after Aria was brought to Luca’s estate, but she couldn’t tell if it had been three days or ten. Time moved differently in a place like this, too quiet, too big, and too lonely. She woke each morning hoping this was a bad dream, but it wasn’t. Every time she opened her eyes, she was still in the same cold, beautiful room. And Luca was still the man who had taken her.
He barely spoke to her. Meals were quiet. Instructions came through servants. The only words she heard directly from him were reminders that she “belonged” to him now. He said them without emotion, like reading from a script. Aria hated the way he sounded: calm, in control, always distant.
She started noticing things. The guards shifted positions every few hours. How doors locked automatically behind her. How the staff avoided eye contact. She wasn’t just a guest. She was being watched.
One morning, she tried to ask the maid where she could find Luca.
“He’s busy,” the woman said with a quick bow. “He doesn’t like to be disturbed.”
Aria didn’t press. But later, when she walked by the grand staircase, she heard laughter. It came from the private dining room, the one she had never been allowed to enter. She slowed her steps, careful not to be seen, and moved closer to the door.
Inside, she saw Luca.
He was sitting at the head of the table, his back straight, a wine glass in hand. Next to him sat a woman Aria didn’t recognize. Tall, beautiful, with perfectly styled hair and a black silk dress that shimmered in the low light. She leaned into Luca as she laughed at something he said, her hand lightly touching his arm.
Something in Aria’s stomach twisted. She couldn’t look away.
The woman tilted her head, smiling up at him. He didn’t smile back exactly, but he let her touch linger. He looked at her in a way he never looked at Aria, not cold, but… attentive.
“They make a stunning couple, don’t they?”
Aria jumped and turned to see one of the maids behind her, holding a tray.
“I didn’t mean to....”
“It’s alright,” the maid said softly. “I thought you knew.”
“Knew what?”
“She’s the daughter of a politician. Very influential family. She and Mr. De Rossi have known each other for years.”
Aria said nothing.
The woman brushed her hand down Luca’s arm. Then she kissed his cheek.
He didn’t flinch.
He didn’t pull away.
Aria stood there watching them from the shadows. Her breath caught in her throat. Her chest tightened so hard she thought she might collapse. The woman turned toward him, her hand now resting lightly on his chest. She leaned in, her lips near his ear, and whispered something that made him chuckle under his breath.
And still, he didn’t move away.
He let her stay that close.
Aria felt something sharp snap inside her. She turned on her heel and ran back through the hallways, up the staircase, into her room. She slammed the door shut and leaned against it, gasping for breath like she’d been struck.
The betrayal stung more than she expected.
It wasn’t jealousy.
It was a humiliation.
She had been dragged from her home, from everything she loved, and placed in this gilded prison. Told she was nothing but a transaction. And now the man who took her, the man who once promised her forever, was parading another woman like Aria didn’t exist.
She didn’t cry. Not this time. Not yet.
She tore the delicate throw pillows from the bed and hurled them across the room. She gripped the edge of the vanity until her knuckles went white.
She screamed into the silence, not words, not thoughts, just the raw sound of rage and heartbreak.
And then she dropped to her knees on the rug, shoulders shaking with every breath. The tears came slowly, then all at once.
That woman had touched Luca like she belonged to him.
And he let her.
He didn’t even think of Aria. Didn’t stop to wonder if she was watching. Didn’t care.
That night, Luca went to her room. He knocked once, then walked in without waiting.
“You’re not to wander near the private dining rooms,” he said.
She stood by the window, her voice low but shaking. “Who is she?”
He didn’t answer right away. He crossed the room, poured himself a glass of water from the carafe on the table.
“She’s no one you need to worry about.”
“No one?” she echoed. “You were smiling with her. Laughing. That’s more than you’ve ever done with me.”
“She’s a political connection. An ally.”
Aria stared at him. “And what am I?”
He finally looked at her. “You’re a debt paid.”
She felt those words cut straight through her.
Luca left without another word.
She cried, but it wasn’t just sadness; it was a storm of feelings she couldn’t even name. Anger. Loneliness. Confusion. Her heart ached, and her pride burned.
The next morning, she refused breakfast. She stayed in her room all day, sitting by the window, watching clouds roll across the sky. She thought about everything: her father, the vineyard, the boy Luca used to be. That boy wouldn’t have treated her this way. He wouldn’t have let her suffer.
But that boy was gone.
A few days later, she saw them again.
This time, it was in the garden. Luca was walking with the woman in black. They looked like a scene from a painting, elegant, poised, perfect. The woman brushed her hand down Luca’s arm. Then she kissed his cheek.
Aria turned away.
She didn’t cry. She just stood there, heart pounding, her hands clenched into fists. It wasn’t about jealousy. It was about everything he’d taken from her: her home, her freedom, her dignity, and now this.
He had brought her here and shut her away while walking in the sun with another woman.
She felt invisible.
Later, a servant mentioned there had been a private party in the east wing. Important guests. The woman had stayed late. Almost until morning.
Aria didn’t speak.
But that night, as she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, something inside her shifted. If Luca thought she was just something to be locked away and forgotten, he was wrong.
She wouldn’t be quiet forever. She wouldn’t disappear.
She was still there.
And he would see her.
That night, she didn’t eat. She didn’t move from the floor until morning, her hair tangled, her voice hoarse.
But something in her had shifted.
This pain would not break her. It would build her.
She was not a silent figure in the corner of Luca’s world.
She would make him see her. Whether he wanted to or not.
- Writer
