Chapter 6 THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR NAME

The moment Sister Camila was taken, the air shifted. Not just in the garden, but inside Catalina's chest, like something had been knocked loose, and every breath afterward came fractured and wrong. She stood there for too long, trying to replay the nun's last look – the warning in her eyes, the weight in her voice – when she felt the air tighten again. Footsteps. Measured. Clean. She turned before the shadow fell across the path, and there he was. Don Esteban Torres. Lucien's father. Now walking alone. No guards. No fanfare.

Just silence and precision and silk shoes that didn't dare collect dust. He didn't say anything at first. Just looked at her. Smiled slightly. Like he was looking at a chess piece that had wandered off the board. Then he said it. Not loud. Not threatening. Just a whisper dressed in a suit.

"Valentina." She didn't try to make a move. Her blood stopped moving. Her bones turned to ice. He smiled again – small, polite, unbothered. Then walked past her like he hadn't just detonated everything she'd built. She didn't turn around. She didn't chase him. Her entire body remained rooted in place as though movement would break whatever illusion had just been shattered. Valentina. He knew. He had always known.

She made it back to the room, locked the door, peeled off her scarf, and dropped to the floor like her knees couldn't hold her. Her pulse was in her mouth, in her ears, in her stomach. How long had he known? How much had he seen? And, God help her – how the hell did he know she was pregnant? Her hand drifted to her stomach, still flat, still hers. But no longer hidden. She scrambled to find the burner phone she kept beneath the floorboard, powered it on with shaking fingers, and hit Isa's code. The line picked up fast. "Tell me you're alone," Isa said immediately, voice low. "I'm alone," Catalina whispered. "He knows." There was silence on the other end. "Esteban?" Isa asked. Catalina nodded even though no one could see her. "Sh*t," Isa breathed. "He said my real name."

There was another pause. Then Isa spoke again, her voice clipped. "He's known for a while, Valentina. That's what I was calling to tell you. I just got into an internal channel. Audio logs. Surveillance time stamps. They flagged your face the day you walked into the Velvet Room. That wine you poured? That wasn't just a moment. It was protocol. You were the test." Catalina's mouth dried out. "A test?" "To see if Lucien would fall. To see if he'd betray the code. You weren't meant to survive this long. You were meant to be tempted. Measured. Controlled. Removed. The minute he started protecting you, you became a liability." Catalina leaned back against the bed frame, vision swimming.

"There's more," Isa said, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Esteban ordered your execution." Catalina's breath caught. "He wants you erased. And the baby too." She gripped the edge of the dresser, stood slowly, heart thudding like a scream inside her ribcage. "Does Lucien know?" she asked. Isa hesitated. "Not when the order went out. But I think... I think he does now."

---

The explosion came that night. It didn't happen with bullets or sirens or blood smeared across marble. It happened in whispers. In locked doors. In a wing of the house where sound didn't travel and no one interrupted the devil's family when they argued. Valentina didn't see it start. But she heard the aftermath. Doors slamming. Glass shattering. A single shout. Then silence. She left her room slowly, moving through the hallway like a ghost, barefoot again, this time not by choice but necessity. The air was thick with heat, with static, with something raw and unfinished. Then she saw Lucien.

Standing in the corridor, shirtless, blood smeared across his knuckles. He didn't speak. His eyes met hers, and for the first time since she arrived in this cursed house, she saw something close to panic behind them. She stepped closer but he didn't stop her. She reached out, touched his wrist, and he let her; then he took her hand, and without a word, he led her back into his room. Lucien kissed her like he was trying to climb inside her body, to disappear into her skin and drown in whatever wasn't haunted. His hands were desperate, rough, not cruel but hungry – like he'd been starved for something only she could give. Valentina didn't resist. She let him consume her, fingers digging into his back, mouth tasting the salt and iron on his throat. Clothes were torn. Buttons snapped.

Her body opened for him like it had been waiting, aching, and when he entered her, it wasn't love. It was possession and grief with a touch of blood that was still drying on his hands. He took her on the bed, then the dresser, then the floor. No sweetness. No softness. Just need. Raw and unforgiving and full of questions they didn't dare speak. When she came, she bit his shoulder, leaving a mark that would bruise for days. When he finished, he collapsed beside her, breath ragged, chest heaving. He didn't ask where she'd been. She didn't ask who he killed. But they both knew something had changed. The house had shifted. The air had thickened. And somewhere deep in the foundation, a king had fallen.

---

The next morning, Catalina woke to silence. Lucien was gone. But the guards were different. No longer house guards. These ones wore different suits. Stood taller. Watched harder. And when she passed them on the way to the terrace, they nodded. Not because she was a mistress. But because she was something else now. Lucien Torres had taken control of the empire. The word was already spreading. Don Esteban had suffered a stroke. Or an accident. Or vanished during a private retreat. The stories weren't aligned yet. But the message was clear. There was a new king.

And Catalina-Valentina-stood at the edge of the empire like a woman who'd been burned and asked for more. He still didn't know who she was. He didn't know she came here to end him. He didn't know she carried a child that wasn't part of the plan. And yet, she couldn't stop shaking when he touched her. She couldn't stop craving the man she came to ruin. Because power didn't just corrupt – it seduced. And now, she was deep inside the devil's bed...and deeper inside his kingdom than she ever meant to go.