Chapter Four
301 Words
The ceremony was swift, secret, and suffocating.
A priest arrived without question, his eyes wide but his lips sealed. The room was heavy with silence, guarded by men who looked more like executioners than witnesses.
Adaora wore no white dress—just the silk gown one of Leonardo’s maids shoved at her, still smelling faintly of another woman’s perfume. Her wrists bore faint bruises from where she’d been dragged, hidden poorly under lace.
The priest’s voice droned through vows, words Adaora barely heard. Her gaze locked on Leonardo, standing tall in his tailored suit, radiating command.
“Repeat after me,” the priest said.
Leonardo’s voice was steady, each word like steel. “I vow, till death do us part, to bind her to me. Body, Mind & Soul.”
Adaora’s lips trembled when her turn came. She wanted to scream no, to spit in his face, to run. But the glint of guns around the room froze her tongue.
“I vow…” her voice cracked, “…till death do us part”
Leonardo slipped a ring onto her finger. Heavy and Cold, more of shackle than jewel.
As the priest closed the book, Leonardo leaned close, his breath brushing her ear.
“From this moment, Adaora, you are mine. Not just in name. In blood.”
The kiss was not tender. It was a claim. A brand. Her lips burned under his, not from passion but from the terrifying certainty that she had just sealed her fate.
When he pulled away, his eyes gleamed with possession. “Welcome to the family, Mrs. Moretti, he said with a big grin on his face”
Her stomach dropped. She wasn’t a bride. She was a hostage draped in lace.
And yet when his fingers lingered against hers, a shiver betrayed her.
- Writer
