Chapter 28: RUNNING AWAY
The hours after their fight dragged endlessly, silence pressed down on the mansion like a stormcloud ready to split. Aria sat curled on the edge of the bed, her thoughts replaying Luca’s words until they burned into her chest. He had admitted it. Every suspicion, every nagging doubt, confirmed. Their marriage wasn’t born of choice or chance. It was orchestrated. Calculated. A leash wrapped around her throat.
No matter how tender his touch had been the night before, no matter how convincing the softness in his eyes, beneath it all lays betrayal.
And she couldn’t breathe inside these walls anymore.
When the clock struck midnight, the house fell into a hush. The guards outside the room shifted positions, their boots scraping faintly against the marble floors, but the corridor otherwise lay in silence. Aria stood, her pulse a frantic drum in her ears, and crossed to the wardrobe. She grabbed the simplest clothes she could find, dark jeans, a sweater, sneakers tucked at the bottom of the shelf, and changed swiftly, her hands trembling.
On the nightstand sat her phone, sleek and heavy with his control. He had eyes everywhere. If she carried it, he’d track her within minutes. She left it behind.
Every step toward the door felt like a betrayal of its own, but she pressed on. She opened the window instead, heart thundering, the night air rushing against her face. Below, the manicured gardens stretched into darkness. Beyond them, the city glimmered faintly. Freedom shimmered just out of reach.
She climbed down the trellis with scraped palms and aching fingers, her breath shallow as she touched the ground. Her sneakers sank into wet grass. For the first time in weeks, she felt something close to hope.
Aria ran.
Her feet carried her across the gardens, past the looming gates where shadows of guards loomed against the floodlights. She ducked low, her heart hammering, weaving through hedges until she found the small servant’s path that wound toward the back. She had memorized it weeks ago, during one of her restless wanderings.
Every step away from the mansion tightened her chest and loosened it at once. She was terrified, but also alive. She told herself she could make it to the nearest train station. She told herself she could vanish. Somewhere, anywhere, beyond Luca’s reach.
But lies have a way of finding their way back.
"Aria."
The voice cracked through the darkness like a gunshot.
She froze, blood draining from her face. Slowly, she turned.
Luca stood in the shadows of the garden, coat thrown over his shoulders, tie loosened as if he had risen from some restless half-sleep. His eyes, though, sharp, furious, alive with betrayal, locked onto her like a predator sighting prey.
"What the hell do you think you’re doing?" His voice was quiet, but the quiet was worse than a shout.
Her throat tightened. "I can’t stay here. Not after everything."
"You thought you could just run?" He stepped closer, his long strides eating up the space between them. "Leaving me? Leaving this house? Do you have any idea what would happen to you out there?"
"I’d rather take my chances than live in your cage!" The words ripped out of her before she could stop them, raw and trembling.
He stopped, only feet away now, his chest heaving, jaw clenched so tight it could break. "You think the world out there is safer than me? That you can just walk away from this life? From me?"
"Yes," she whispered, even though fear burned her lungs. "I have to try."
Something dangerous flickered in his eyes, something equal parts rage and desperation. In two strides, he closed the distance and grabbed her wrist, his grip iron, unyielding. "No. You don’t get to try. Not with them hunting you. Not with every rival family waiting to snatch you the second you step outside these walls."
Her chest heaved, tears pricking her eyes. "Maybe I’d rather be taken by them than used by you."
The words cut him. She saw it, the sharp flinch in his eyes, the way his grip faltered for half a second. But then his jaw set, and he pulled her closer until his breath was hot against her face, his voice trembling with fury.
"Don’t ever say that again."
"Why? Because it’s true?" She struggled, trying to wrench free. His hand held her tighter, and it terrified her how small her strength was against his. "You don’t love me, Luca. You love control. You love owning me. But I am not yours to keep."
His chest rose and fell sharply, the words hitting him like blows. For a moment, she thought he might snap, might drag her back kicking and screaming. But instead, he leaned down, his voice low and ragged.
"You think I don’t love you? God help me, Aria, I wish I didn’t. It would be easier. Safer. But I do. And you can run as far as you want, hate me as much as you like but you’ll never outrun what I feel for you."
Tears burned her eyes, but she shook her head, refusing to let them fall. "Love isn’t supposed to feel like chains."
He exhaled sharply, releasing her wrist only to grip her shoulders, steady but unrelenting. "And you think freedom feels like this? Running through the night with nothing but fear in your chest, nowhere to go? That’s not freedom, Aria, that’s death waiting for you on the other side of these gates."
She faltered, the weight of his words pressing down. She knew he wasn’t lying. The families would devour her if she appeared vulnerable, unprotected. Her name made her valuable, but it also made her a target.
Still, the fire inside her refused to die. "Then let me choose, Luca. If I’m going to die, let it be on my own terms. Not chained to yours."
His face twisted with anguish, with fury, with something deeper she couldn’t name. For a long moment, he said nothing, only stared at her as though she were both the weapon aimed at his chest and the only thing keeping him alive.
Finally, he let go.
The sudden absence of his grip made her stumble back a step, breath catching.
But his eyes, stormy, unyielding, followed her every move. "Go then," he said hoarsely. "Run. See how far you make it before they find you. But don’t you dare come crawling back when the world shows you just how merciless it is without me."
Aria’s chest heaved, torn between terror and defiance. For a heartbeat, she almost bolted again. But something in his gaze, broken, desperate, dangerous, rooted her to the spot.
Her knees shook. Her resolve trembled. And in that fragile silence, the reality of her prison snapped shut once more.
She didn’t run.
Not because she didn’t want to, but because she knew she couldn’t.
Not yet.
Luca stepped forward, his coat brushing against her arm as he loomed over her, his voice a harsh whisper. "You belong here. With me. And I’ll break every bone in this city before I let anyone take you."
Her tears spilled then, hot and silent, her chest aching with the weight of his words. She wanted to scream at him, to fight him, to collapse into his arms all at once. Instead, she let him take her hand—gentler now, though still possessive, and lead her back through the gardens, back to the mansion, back into the cage she’d tried and failed to escape.
And as the gates closed behind them, she realized the cruelest truth of all.
Running away hadn’t freed her.
It had only shown her how deeply trapped she really was.