Chapter 37: THE LOCKED ROOM TRUTH
The house was never truly quiet, not even at night. Guards’ footsteps echoed in distant hallways, faint murmurs drifted through the walls, and the hum of security systems reminded her that this place was more fortress than home. Yet somehow, tonight felt different. The silence carried weight, as though the walls themselves were holding their breath.
Aria couldn’t sleep. Not after the way he had kissed her the night before, not after hearing his whispered promises in the dark. Her mind spun in dizzy circles, torn between believing him and fearing what it meant to surrender. She had always thought of him as the cage—but now he was starting to feel like something more dangerous: temptation.
She got up, her bare feet soundless against the cold marble floor. Maybe a walk would clear her head. She pulled her robe tighter around her body and slipped into the hallway, careful not to wake anyone.
Her steps led her, almost unconsciously, back to the east wing. That wing of the mansion had always felt heavier than the rest, full of locked doors and unspoken warnings. She remembered the first time she had stumbled past it, how Luca’s voice had turned sharp: "Stay away from there."
Which, of course, had only made her curiosity worse.
She stopped before one particular door. Heavy oak, brass handle, no keyhole visible. The same door she had brushed her hand against once before, the one that seemed to hum with secrets. Tonight, something drew her to it again.
Her fingers skimmed the handle. She didn’t expect it to move—it never had before. But with the faintest click, the latch gave way. The door creaked open an inch.
Her breath caught.
She glanced behind her. No one was there. No guards, no Luca. Just her and the yawning dark of the forbidden room.
Her pulse pounded in her ears as she pushed the door wider and stepped inside.
The air was thick with dust, the kind that clung to forgotten places. Moonlight filtered through tall windows, painting silver stripes across the floor. At first glance, the room looked like an old study. Shelves lined with books, a mahogany desk cluttered with papers, a grandfather clock frozen in time.
But then her eyes caught the walls.
Photographs.
Hundreds of them. Framed, pinned, some stacked on the floor.
Her stomach flipped as she stepped closer. They weren’t of business associates or mafia dealings. No, these were personal.
A young woman laughing in a garden. A little boy in a suit, solemn even as a child. A family dinner frozen in black-and-white stills.
And then her gaze snagged on one photo in particular.
Her knees nearly gave out.
It was her mother.
Not as she remembered her sick and fragile in her final years, but vibrant, radiant. Her mother stood in the center of the photo, arm wrapped around a younger Luca, her smile soft and knowing.
Aria’s hand shook as she lifted the frame from the wall. Her mother, here, in his house.
It didn’t make sense.
"What are you doing?"
The voice shot through her like a bullet.
She spun, the frame still in her hand. Luca stood in the doorway, his expression unreadable. His steel-gray eyes flicked from her face to the photograph she clutched.
"You..." Her throat tightened. "Why do you have this? Why is my mother..."
"Put it down," he ordered, his voice low, dangerous.
"No!" She clutched it to her chest like a shield. "You don’t get to bark orders, not now. You’re going to tell me why my mother’s face is hanging in your locked room."
His jaw tightened. He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with deliberate slowness. The sound of the latch falling into place made her stomach twist.
"Aria," he said, softer now, almost pleading. "This isn’t how you were supposed to find out."
Her pulse raced. "Find out what?"
He hesitated, running a hand over his face, as though trying to decide how much to reveal. "Your mother... she wasn’t who you thought she was."
Her grip on the photo frame tightened. "Stop speaking in riddles. She was my mother, and you, you kept her here like some secret."
He crossed the room in two strides, his presence overwhelming, but she didn’t back down. His hands hovered near her arms but didn’t touch. "She was more than your mother, Aria. She was part of this world. My world. Before you were even born."
The words hit her like a slap. "That’s not possible. She hated violence. She kept me away from all of this."
His eyes softened, but his voice stayed steady. "Because she wanted to protect you. She was born into one of the old bloodlines. One of the families with as much power as mine. She walked away when she fell in love with your father, but she never stopped being who she was."
Her chest heaved. Her mind scrambled to reject it, but the photograph in her hand was undeniable proof. "So what? You’ve known all this time? You’ve been lying to me since the beginning?"
"I wasn’t lying," he said sharply. "I was protecting you."
She laughed bitterly. "Protecting me? By locking me in a gilded cage and keeping my mother’s face hidden behind a locked door?"
His jaw flexed, and he reached for the frame. She pulled it away.
"Aria, listen to me. Your mother saved my life once. When I was just a boy, caught in the crossfire of one of my father’s wars, she stepped in. She had no reason to, she was already out of the life. But she did. And I never forgot it. That’s why I..." His voice broke off. He looked away, as though the weight of his own confession was too heavy.
"That’s why you what?" she pressed, her voice trembling.
He met her gaze again, the truth burning in his eyes. "That’s why I could never hurt you. Not even when I wanted to. Not even when I should have."
The silence stretched, thick with revelations and unspoken feelings.
She looked back down at her mother’s smiling face, then at the man before her. All the pieces were falling into place, the strange protectiveness, the contract marriage, the way he looked at her like she was both curse and salvation.
Her voice cracked when she whispered, "You knew who I was before I even knew myself."
"Yes." His hand finally closed around hers, steadying the frame she clutched. "And now you know why I can’t let you go."
Her breath hitched. The truth should have made her hate him. Instead, it drew her closer, pulling her into the storm that was Luca DeLuca.
For a moment, she let herself lean into him, her forehead against his chest, her body trembling with the weight of secrets too big to carry alone.
But deep down, she also knew this truth changed everything.
She wasn’t just his reluctant wife anymore.
She was the heiress of a forgotten bloodline.
And the world would come for her.