THE UNFURLING PEARL
READING AGE 16+
Alaric stumbled into the cool, silent expanse of the Valenti foyer, the grand marble echoing his unsteady footsteps. The scent of polished wood and expensive lilies, usually a comforting aroma of home, now felt cloying, suffocating. He couldn't shake Emilia's terrified face from his memory, her wide, haunted eyes. He couldn't wash her scent off him, a cloying mix of innocence and fear that clung to his skin like a shroud. And her voice... her small, frightened voice when she'd whispered, "It hurts." He had been her first, and he hadn't been gentle. The memory twisted in his gut, a vile, burning knot of self-loathing
Unfold
A year passed swiftly at the Moretti estate, a period marked by quiet growth for Emilia and a fragile, uneasy peace within the household. The brutal events of the previous New Year's Eve, the swift and merciless downfall of Inanna's associates, and Isabella's dramatic banishment had underscored Leonardo's terrifying possessiveness.
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