The silence that followed Dante's words was thick enough to choke on.
Hikky's trembling lips parted, but no sound came out.
Her mind was spinning, her pulse thundering in her ears. Surely she'd misheard him. Surely this couldn't be real.
"Wh... what did you just say?" she finally managed, her voice fragile as glass.
Dante rose slowly to his full height, towering over her.
His expression was a storm contained dark, silent, but violent beneath the surface. "You heard me, Hikky.
Clara Bryan has been sleeping with the man she calls her father. It's not a rumor, I saw it. With my own eyes."
She shook her head in disbelief, backing away from him. "No… no, that's not possible. She's powerful, elegant, she... "
"She's corrupt," Dante cut in sharply. "And the corruption runs deep in her bloodline." He paced toward the window, his reflection glinting against the glass. "Her father, senator Bryan is one of the most dangerous men in the city.
The government bows to him.
The mafia listens to him, but I'm not part of them.
And that's exactly why he wanted our alliance.
To keep his filth hidden beneath layers of gold and law."
Hikky's throat felt dry.
Her knees weakened, and she had to steady herself against the table. "Then why marry her in the first place, if you knew?"
His jaw flexed, his knuckles tightening around the edge of the marble counter. "Because the alliance was worth more than the disgust. I needed access to the Senate's private vault, where the original curse scroll was stored. I thought marrying her would buy me freedom. Instead…" He exhaled slowly. "Instead, it tied me deeper into hell."
A small sound escaped her lips. Fear? Sympathy? She couldn't tell anymore. "And now? You're cutting ties with her. That's dangerous, Dante. She won't stop coming for you."
He turned then, and for the first time, Hikky saw something raw in his eyes, a flicker of fatigue beneath the violence of his control. "I know," he admitted quietly. "That's why I'm marrying you. Not just because of the curse or the natural love I had for you, but because she will never expect it. You are invisible in her world, Hikky, A maid, A nobody."
The word stung, even though it wasn't meant as an insult.
He stepped closer, his voice lowering. "But you are the one thing she and her father cannot predict. And that makes you dangerous to them both."
Her breath trembled. "I don't want to be dangerous. I just want to live."
Dante's lips curved faintly half smile, half regret. "Then you'll have to learn to survive in my world."
He reached out, brushing a loose strand of her hair behind her ear, his touch strangely gentle for a man capable of such destruction. "Starting tonight, you'll no longer sleep in the servants' quarters. You will stay in my room."
Hikky's eyes widened. "W-what? No sir.. That's improper... "
"Improper?" He gave a dark, humorless chuckle. "There's nothing proper about our arrangement, Hikky. The entire nation May call you my mistress long before the church calls you my wife."
Her face flushed crimson. "I… I can't, even thinking of marrying you is already sounding ridiculous, People will laugh at me and call me names."
"You can, and who dares laugh at who I call my wife?, who has the Authority to call you names." He turned his back on her, his tone final. "And you will. Because once Clara realizes what she's lost, she will come for your blood."
********
Her fellow maids knew something was going on and the whispers past her, but kept quiet immediately she was close to them.
During their free time they avoided her in their gathering, as everyone will keep quiet and began to move as soon as she entered their midst.
It's obvious they all began to avoid her.
******
That night, Hikky sat on the edge of the vast, cold bed in Dante's suite
The room smelled faintly of cedar and smoke, every surface gleaming under dim amber light.
Outside, thunder rolled across the horizon, echoing the unease twisting in her gut.
Dante was at his desk, reading a dossier. His profile sharp, stoic, inhumanly composed made him look like a statue carved from shadow.
"Why did you buy me, Dante?" she asked softly, her hands fidgeting in her lap.
He looked up slowly. "You were in the wrong auction, at the wrong time."
"That's not an answer."
His eyes narrowed slightly. "You're bold tonight."
"I'm scared," she whispered. "And when I'm scared, I talk."
He leaned back, folding his arms across his chest. "You think I bought you for pleasure?"
Her cheeks burned. "Didn't you?"
"No." His answer was a blade. "I bought you because when I saw you… I felt pain. The first human emotion I'd felt in years. I didn't understand it. I thought it was weakness. Now I realize, it was the curse screaming your name."
Hikky stared at him, heart thudding. "So you don't love me. You just feel bound."
He rose, his tall frame casting a shadow across the room as he approached her.
"Bound?" His voice dropped to a dangerous murmur. "Yes. Maybe. But tell me, Hikky if destiny binds me to you, would you prefer I cut the chain?"
She couldn't answer.
Her throat closed up, her heart pounding like a trapped bird.
He stopped inches away, so close she could feel the heat radiating off him. "You think I don't know the risk of keeping you here? You think I don't see the fear in your eyes every time I touch you?" His hand lifted, hovering near her cheek. "I do. But the moment you said yes, Hikky, your fate became mine."
Before she could respond, a loud crack of thunder shattered the air followed by a knock on the door.
"Boss," came a voice from the other side. It was Marco, one of Dante's lieutenants. "Urgent message from the Bryan estate."
Dante's eyes flicked to the door. "Enter."
Marco stepped in, soaked from the rain, holding a sealed envelope. "Delivered by Senator Bryan's courier. Priority."
Dante took the envelope, his fingers tracing the golden seal with suspicion.
He broke it open.
Hikky watched his expression chang. First a frown, then a hard, unreadable glare.
"What is it?" she asked quietly.
He didn't answer right away. Then, slowly, he read aloud; "To Don Dante Moretti,
You have violated the engagement agreement with my daughter Clara.
The consequences will be blood and ashes.
Return what is hers or prepare for war —Senator Bryan."
Hikky's stomach dropped. "War?"
Dante folded the letter carefully, tucking it into his jacket. "The man thinks he can threaten me with politics. He's forgotten that I don't negotiate with law... I own it."
"Dante, this isn't just politics," she pleaded. "This is power. They'll destroy you."
He turned toward her, his gaze cold. "They can try."
Then, softer: "You'll be protected. I've already sent Marco to secure the chapel for our wedding. I have sent gift to your parent and more preparations still going on already, Nothing changes."
Her pulse quickened. "Even after this?"
"Especially after this," he said. "The curse has already chosen. Breaking the bond now could kill us both."
Hikky froze. "Kill us?"
He hesitated just for a heartbeat but it was enough.
"Dante," she whispered, "what aren't you telling me?"
He looked away, his jaw tightening. "Every generation of the Moretti bloodline carries a curse of balance. To love the one who bears it… means to die in her place."
The words fell between them like ice.
Her breath caught. "You will die if you marry me?"
He didn't deny it. "If the curse isn't broken before midnight on the wedding night, yes."
"Then don't marry me... " she burst out, tears filling her eyes. "Please, I'll find another way. I'll leave, I'll disappear.... "
"Silence." His voice cracked through the air like a whip. "You think I fear death? I've lived half my life without a heartbeat. If dying for you means ending the curse, then I'll finally have peace."
The conviction in his tone made her chest ache.
He turned away, slipping on his coat. "Stay here. Don't open the door for anyone."
"Where are you going?"
"To end this before it begins."
She ran to him, clutching his arm. "Dante, please, what are you going to do?"
He paused at the threshold, his profile lit by a flash of lightning. "Visit Clara."
Her eyes widened. "No, You can't, she'll... "
"I'm not going there to talk." His gaze flicked to her hand, the one wearing the black diamond ring. "She wants to play war. I'll give her blood."
The door slammed behind him.
********
Hours later, the storm howled outside like an omen.
Hikky couldn't sleep. Every sound made her jump, the crack of thunder, the whisper of rain, the distant growl of engines.
Then, faintly, she heard something.
A knock, three soft raps against the windowpane.
Her breath froze. Slowly, she turned toward the window.
A shadow stood outside, drenched and unmoving. Lightning flashed.....
*******
Dante returned hours later, his suit soaked, his face expressionless.
Hikky rushed to him, words tumbling out. "Someone was here, I saw a shadow at the window. It had a crest, a knife.... "
Dante froze. "A black dagger?"
She nodded, trembling.
His eyes darkened, his hand going to his chest instinctively. "Then it's begun."
"What has?" she asked him.
He looked at her, and for the first time, true fear flashed across the face of the Mafia Lord.
"The curse's reawakening. She's taken something that belongs to me."
"What?" Hikky whispered.
He lifted his hand slowly and blood trickled down from beneath his shirt sleeve.
The mark of the curse glowed faintly across his wrist, spreading upward like veins of shadow.
"It's already inside," he said through clenched teeth. "If Clara completes the ritual before sunrise, I will be dead before our wedding."
Hikky's scream broke through the thunder. "No..... "
But his knees buckled, and he collapsed into her arms, the black veins spreading faster beneath his skin.
Outside, the church bells tolled midnight.
And from somewhere deep in the night, a woman's laughter echoed low, triumphant, and deadly.....