Chapter 5

Seraphina POV

I didn't bother turning on the lights. As the afternoon bled into a bruised, purple twilight, I remained on the floor, surrounded by the discarded silk and velvet catalogs. The silence in the room was heavy, thick with the anticipation of a storm. Eleonora was a creature of high society; she would run straight to her son.

The heavy oak door didn't just open-it slammed against the wall.

Julian stepped into the shadows. The polished, calculating financial elite facade he wore for the world was entirely gone. In its place stood the ruthless heir of the Moretti family, radiating a cold, suffocating fury.

"What did you do to my mother?" His voice was dangerously low, vibrating with a lethal edge.

I didn't flinch. I slowly pushed myself up from the floor, letting my hair fall wildly around my face. I tilted my head, offering him the same hollow, unhinged smile that had sent Eleonora fleeing.

"I just told her about the color scheme, Julian," I breathed, my voice taking on a manic, breathless lilt. "White is so sterile. So weak. We need red. Marino red." I took a step toward him, my eyes wide and unblinking. "Your family hides behind briefcases and laws. You don't know how to celebrate. My father, Don Antonio, knew. Bullets and blades, Julian! I want a *Vendetta* wedding. I want to smell the copper in the air when we say our vows!"

I waited for the disgust. I waited for him to look at me like I was a rabid animal that needed to be put down.

Instead, his jaw clenched, and his dark eyes flared with something far more terrifying than anger. It was a twisted, possessive hunger.

In two long strides, he crossed the room. His hands clamped around my upper arms like iron vices, hauling me off my feet and slamming me hard against the cold plaster wall. The breath was knocked from my lungs, but I forced my eyes to stay wide, maintaining the facade.

"You think playing the lunatic will save you?" Julian hissed, his face inches from mine. The scent of his expensive cologne mixed with the raw, metallic tang of his anger. "You think a few crazy words will make me throw you away?"

"I'm not playing," I gasped, letting out a jagged laugh. "I'm broken, Julian. The lake broke me. I'll ruin your perfect pictures. I'll bleed on your altar!"

"I don't care if your mind is shattered into a thousand pieces," he said, his voice dropping to a cruel, deadpan whisper. "The wedding happens. You are mine, Seraphina. And if you cannot behave in public, I will simply remove the public."

He leaned in closer, his chest pressing against mine, trapping me completely. "After the vows, I will lock you deep in this estate. You will be my beautiful, hidden secret. No one will ever see you again. You will exist only for me, in whatever cage I build for you."

The sheer, suffocating reality of his threat crashed over me. He didn't care if I was a monster, as long as I was *his* monster. The act had failed.

If I couldn't push him away with madness, I would have to use something he actually feared.

I stopped struggling. I let my body go entirely limp against the wall. The manic light in my eyes faded, replaced by a chilling, dead calm. I looked up at him, and a slow, sweet smile curved my lips.

"Perfect," I whispered, my voice dripping with venomous honey. I leaned my head forward until my lips were a breath away from his ear. "Lock me away, Julian. Keep me in the dark. And when I bear your heir, I will whisper the Marino legacy into his ear every single night."

I felt his grip falter slightly, but I didn't stop.

"I will teach him how to hold a blade," I continued, my voice a soft, rhythmic curse. "I will tell him exactly who slaughtered his grandfather. I will poison his mind against you, day by day, year by year... until he grows up and carves his *Vendetta* right out of your chest."

Julian froze. The air between us turned to ice.

He pulled back, staring at my face. For the first time since I had met him, the absolute control in his eyes fractured. Genuine revulsion and a flicker of deep, unsettling horror crossed his features. He looked at me not as a prize, but as a viper he had foolishly brought into his bed.

He released my arms so abruptly I almost stumbled. He didn't say another word. He turned on his heel and walked out of the room, his strides rigid.

The door shut. The lock clicked.

I slid down the cold wall until I hit the floorboards, my chest heaving as I gasped for air. I had won the skirmish, planting a seed of disgust that his mother would surely water tomorrow. But as I stared at the locked door, the terrifying truth settled in my bones. I couldn't just break the engagement; I had to break out of this house.