Chapter 48: Creepy hidden shadows
The rage of Luca Morano was enough to set an entire city trembling.
His voice, laced with lethal command, echoed through the mansion halls and spilled into the streets as his orders traveled like wildfire.
"Rage the whole city. Burn the sky red if you must".
"Let the rain fall as fire, let blood spill if it has to. Find Alessia, and finding my woman is a must "....
His men stood rigid, fear and loyalty locking their spines straight. Luca’s jaw clenched, his expression as hard as stone.
The man who rarely showed weakness now radiated desperation, and that desperation was dangerous.
He turned sharply to Fredo, his right-hand man, eyes blazing, after fredo suggested they should alert the police.
"Not the police. This is family business. The mafia will handle it. Whoever’s behind this will pay, shamefully and publicly."
Fredo nodded, already dialing numbers, already setting the wheels of war in motion.
Within an hour, the city was in chaos.
Luca had announced a reward so tempting it sent every greedy soul running into the streets: five million dollars, a luxury car, and a house for anyone who brought him information about Alessia’s whereabouts.
The deal spread like smoke from an open flame, everyone whispered about it, everyone wanted a piece of it.
And yet, behind the allure of the prize, there was terror.
Luca Morano’s fury was legendary, and no one wanted to be caught on the wrong side of it.
The city bled red lights that night.
Sirens screamed though no police were allowed, streets boiled with whispers, mafias marked territories with silent patrols. It was no longer a hunt, it was war.
From the upper balcony, Mrs. Bianchi, Alessia’s mother, watched in awe. Her chest ached, not only with fear for her daughter but with the staggering realization of Luca’s devotion.
Few men would rage against the world for a woman, but Luca had just declared war on an entire city.
"Such boldness," she whispered, pressing her trembling fingers against her lips.
Daisy, pale and restless, slipped away into a corner of the house to dial Romeo.
Her voice cracked with urgency when the call connected.
"Romeo, please tell me you know something. You worked under Seraphina. You must know if she’s behind this. Please, don’t let Alessia be lost."
The phone vibrated in her hand, but the other end was silent. He refused to pick up. With trembling hands, she ended the call, a bitter taste of hopelessness on her tongue.
Returning to Alessia’s mother, she forced herself to stay strong, though her heart sank deeper with each passing second.
*****
In Virenkai the mystical land of Virenkai, Princess Elowen pressed her forehead against her father’s chest, tears soaking his royal robe.
"Papa... maybe he’s dead. Donato... maybe he didn’t survive."
Her father’s voice was firm, detached, as though the subject itself was poisonous.
"Do not assume, my daughter. Their curse is theirs. Allow it. Do not involve yourself."
"But Father..... "
"Enough" His voice thundered, rattling her already broken spirit. "I will not have this discussion again. You are forbidden from pursuing it."
Her sobs intensified. She turned, running from the hall before her mother could console her, shutting herself into the golden silence of her chambers.
Hours later, Elowen stared into the mirror hung in her room.
Her reflection was unrecognizable hair matted, eyes swollen and red, lips pale, skin sickly from refusing food.
One day of grief had destroyed her, and yet the torment inside her chest grew heavier.
"Why do I feel this way?" she whispered, her voice trembling. "Why can’t I breathe without knowing? Why does his absence feel like death to me?"
She pressed her palm against the mirror, as though she could touch Donato’s face on the other side of reality.
"So it’s true. I’ve fallen deeply in love with Donato Morano."
The words broke free like a curse and a prayer at once. Her chest tightened with the truth.
"Donato cannot die. He mustn’t. I cannot sit still while my father turns his face away. If he is dead, I must see his body with my own eyes. If he lives, then I will find him even if I have to run away, even if I have to cross into the stars."
The decision struck her like lightning. She straightened, tears still staining her cheeks but fire burning in her eyes.
... Tonight, she would elope into the outer realms of Virenkai to seek him. Even if it meant facing death itself.
*****
Back in the Morano estate city
Luca’s phone buzzed. A message appeared anonymous, threatening, sharp as a dagger:
"Come alone. Location is at Atun mountain. Alessia dies in 24 hours if you fail."
His chest froze. His grip tightened on the device. No hesitation, no second thoughts, he grabbed his car keys and strode to the garage without informing a soul.
"Luca?" Fredo called after him.
But Luca didn’t answer. He couldn’t. If this was a trap, better he walked into it alone than risk Alessia’s life.
His heart thundered as he drove, night swallowing the car in shadows, headlights carving through the darkness.
Hours passed, four grueling, endless hours before he reached a mountain shrouded in mist.
Silence ruled here, the kind of silence that spoke of buried secrets and broken souls.
As he stepped out of the car, a loud crack shattered the air.
A massive tree toppled to the ground before him. Dust rose, the earth quaked, and within the gaping hole beneath its roots, something glowed faintly.
Luca’s muscles tensed. His instincts screamed at him to retreat, but the message in his chest the thought of Alessia in chains, afraid and drowned out reason.
Drawing closer, he saw words etched in crimson paint across the soil:
"Walk into the hole, Luca."
The command bled with menace.
He raised his phone, the dim torchlight cutting into the yawning tunnel below.
Cold air seeped out, biting against his skin. Every sound vanished. The world narrowed until only the dark mouth of the tunnel existed before him.
Luca inhaled, steadying his pounding heart, and descended into the abyss.
The tunnel was suffocating, walls damp and slick, the air sharp with mold and iron.
The deeper he walked, the colder it became.
The ground sloped downward, dragging him into an underworld designed to break a man’s spirit.
Shadows twisted along the walls, shifting with his movements, as though the darkness itself was alive.
His breath echoed, harsh and loud in the silence.
Somewhere ahead, a faint sound stirred dripping water, a hollow clang, and something else.... A whisper.
"Luca..."
His blood froze.
The voice was sounded like Alessia’s.
The silence of the decrepit placr pressed against his ears like a curse.
Luca’s boots scraped over the cracked floor, the faint echo swallowed by shadows that smelled of damp wood and old blood.
His chest rose and fell sharply, each breath jagged with dread.
Then he saw her. His woman - Alessia.
She lay motionless on a pale, rotten mat her skin ghostly under the thin wash of light seeping through a shattered window.
Her hair fanned across the dirty floor, strands clinging to her damp cheek, her lips parted as though she had whispered his name and lost consciousness mid-breath.
His blood roared. Rage and terror crashed together inside him.
"Alessia..." His voice cracked, torn between tenderness and fury.
He dropped to one knee, his hand hovering above her still form, terrified to touch, terrified to confirm what his eyes told him.
The silence deepened. Then footsteps.
Every muscle in Luca’s body snapped taut.
His hand slid instinctively to the gun at his waist.
His heart pounded like a war drum as his gaze shot toward the doorway.
A shadow moved. Then a figure stepped forward.
For the briefest second, he thought it was another enemy, another faceless soldier of Seraphina’s hellish schemes.
But when the light struck the figure’s face, Luca froze.
His heart missed a beat.
It wasn’t a stranger. It was someone he knew,,
someone who shouldn’t be here.
The mafia princess -Hikky.
The very woman with whom he had once signed a fake marriage contract, a move meant to buy peace with Alessia instead it was pieces it bought, a truce written in lies.
And she wasn’t alone.
From behind her, another familiar silhouette emerged, her smile curling with venomous satisfaction.
Bianca.
Luca’s breath hissed between his teeth as realization slashed through him.
Two women from his past both entangled with him in ways that had already drawn too much blood now stood before him in the shadows of the room where Alessia lay unconscious.
And that was when Luca knew, this night wasn’t just about saving Alessia.
It was about facing the ghosts he thought he had buried....
Luca’s chest tightened as the scene unfolded before his eyes.
For a moment, he stood frozen, his heart pounding with a mixture of betrayal and disbelief.
But he wasn’t a man who rushed to judgment not when shadows danced so deceitfully in the world he ruled.
Bianca and the mafia princess-Hikky, stood before him.
And At first glance, Luca thought their rigid stance, their unnatural stillness, was nothing more than arrogance wrapped in elegance perhaps a new fashion of defiance they had chosen to wear.
But then, the truth revealed itself in a cruel twist.
When they shifted, turning ever so slightly, the faint clink of metal broke the silence.
His sharp gaze caught the shimmer of cold steel. Their wrists were bound tightly with handcuffed chains, pulled behind their backs in merciless restraint.
A storm of emotions surged inside him, anger, confusion, and the dangerous ache of betrayal.
Yet Luca’s instincts sharpened, refusing to be clouded by what his eyes saw alone. Someone had orchestrated this.
Someone dared to play a game in his territory, us ing Bianca and Hikky as pawns in a spectacle meant to wound him.
The sight left Luca stunned, but beneath the stillness of his expression, a darker fire kindled in his soul.
"Now, show yourself ".... Luca said