Chapter 3 Shattered Illusions

The silence in the De Santis mansion was deafening as Alessia lay in the oversized bed that had been prepared for her. The grand, dark canopy above her seemed to press down with weight, as if the mansion itself were watching, judging. The ornate room, full of rich velvet curtains and intricately carved furniture, felt more like a prison than a place of solace. Each creak of the floorboards, each gust of wind outside, felt like an intrusion into her already fragmented world.

She should have slept. After all, her wedding had been a public affair, and the following events had drained her. Yet, sleep eluded her. She couldn't shake the conversation with Luca-the coldness in his words, the heavy burden of their shared fate. The curse. The blood oath. The promise of destruction. Every part of her wanted to reject it, to call it superstition, but a small part of her, the part that had always felt the weight of her family's past, wondered if there was truth to it.

The night dragged on in restless stillness. Time was nothing in this world of shadows.

Alessia turned over, her eyes catching the faint light streaming through the heavy curtains. It was dawn, and with it came the realization that her life had irrevocably shifted. She was no longer the daughter of the disgraced Moretti family. She was something else entirely now-a pawn in a game much larger than herself.

It wasn't until her door swung open that she broke from her trance. A figure stepped inside, silhouetted by the dim light of the hallway. It was Luca.

"Did I wake you?" he asked, his voice low and cautious.

Alessia's lips parted, but no words came out at first. She had expected him to stay away-after all, their marriage was a practical arrangement, one of convenience. And yet, here he was, standing in her doorway as if he had every right to be there. As if he were still the man she was supposed to trust.

"No," she finally replied, her voice hoarse. "I was awake."

Luca stepped inside, his dark eyes scanning the room before resting on her. There was something in his gaze-an unreadable flicker-that made her stomach tighten. He wasn't just here out of duty. Something else drove him, though she couldn't yet figure out what that was.

"I came to speak to you," he said, his voice softer now, like a man who had been carrying an unseen burden. "I thought you should know what you're getting into."

Alessia sat up, clutching the covers around her waist as she steadied herself. "You've told me enough already. I understand the curse. I understand what we've both agreed to. But you're still not answering the most important question."

Luca's brow furrowed. "Which is?"

"Why me?" she asked, her gaze locked on his. "Why did you have to marry me? If the curse is real, and the union between our families brings only death and destruction, why did you choose this? Why not break away from it all?"

Luca's eyes darkened. He crossed the room to the window, looking out at the distant horizon, as if the answer were somewhere out there, waiting for him to find it. His voice was tight when he spoke again.

"I don't have a choice. I never did."

Alessia's pulse quickened, her heart thrumming painfully in her chest. She rose from the bed, standing only a few feet away from him now. "You always have a choice. You may have been born into this world, but you're not bound to it. There's always a way out."

Luca turned slowly, his gaze hardening once more, though there was a flicker of something softer beneath it-something she wasn't ready to confront.

"Trust me, Alessia," he said, his voice gravelly. "If it were that simple, I'd have already taken that way out."

The words struck her like a slap, but they were the truth, she realized. Luca was bound by something far more sinister than his family's expectations. His every action was tethered to the history of their bloodlines, the curse, the vendettas that stretched across generations. She wasn't sure whether to pity him or hate him for it.

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The only sound in the room was the low crackle of the fire, the distant murmur of the city beyond the walls, and the soft thrum of their shared tension.

Finally, Luca exhaled a breath, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly. He stepped toward her, his expression unreadable. "There's a lot more at stake here than you realize," he said quietly, his voice lowering with a note of regret. "I didn't ask for this. Neither of us did. But now that it's done, we need to be smart. We need to keep our enemies close."

Enemies. Alessia had already encountered enough of them, though she didn't fully understand who they all were yet. Her father's disgrace had brought more than just shame to the Moretti name-it had put a target on her family, one she would now wear for the rest of her life.

"And what do you expect from me?" she asked, her voice hardening. "Do you want me to play the part of the dutiful wife? Smile and nod, pretend we're a happy family?"

Luca's eyes softened for a brief moment. "No. I don't expect you to pretend. But you need to understand that I'm not your enemy, Alessia. Not yet."

Her breath caught. Not yet? What did that mean? Was this marriage just a stage, a delicate dance of shadows, where the rules could change at any moment?

Before she could respond, Luca turned, moving toward the door. He stopped just short of crossing the threshold, his voice low but firm.

"There's something else," he said, his gaze briefly flickering back toward her. "Something I haven't told you about your father's past. It's a story that's tied to this curse, and it's not one you'll want to hear."

Alessia's heart skipped a beat. "What do you mean?"

Luca hesitated, then finally spoke, his words carrying a weight far heavier than she could have imagined.

"Your father didn't just disgrace himself. He made a deal with the Romani woman who cursed our families. A deal that went wrong. And now, that deal is coming back to haunt both of us."

Alessia felt the blood drain from her face. Her father-her proud, secretive father-had made a deal with the very force that had condemned her to this life. The implications were staggering.

Luca left her standing there, the door closing behind him, leaving Alessia to piece together the shattered remnants of her understanding. A deal. A blood oath.

She was in deeper than she had ever imagined.