Chapter 6 - VOWS UNDER GUARDI read the message three times before the letters blurred.
Damon took the photograph from my hand. His eyes moved over Eli’s smiling face, the black X drawn across mine, and the red sentence beneath it.
“Who delivered this?” he asked.
“A courier.”
“Where is he?”
“Gone.”
He turned to Nico. “Find him.”
Nico nodded and left.
I looked at Damon. “Cancel the wedding.”
“No.”
“They want us to marry because it gives them a target.”
“They already have a target.”
“Then don’t make it easier.”
“The marriage gives you legal protection.”
“It gives them a public date, a public location, and a room full of witnesses.”
“The ceremony will not be public.”
“Nothing is private in your world.”
“This will be.”
He said it with such certainty that I almost believed him.
The ceremony took place that afternoon in a small chapel hidden behind a private library. There were no flowers, no musicians, and no guests except Nico, Dr. Shaw, a judge Damon trusted, and Miriam Vale, who appeared ten minutes before the vows wearing the same black coat.
I wanted to throw something at her.
“You left us in a gunfight,” I said.
“You survived.”
“That is not an apology.”
“It is the only one I have.”
Damon stood beside me in a black suit. His wounded arm was bandaged beneath the sleeve. He looked at the judge, not at me.
The judge began reading the legal language.
I heard almost none of it.
My mind kept returning to Eli’s photograph. To the black X. To the tiny shape beneath my ribs that moved whenever fear filled my body.
When the judge asked if I accepted Damon Kalas as my husband, the room waited.
I looked at Damon.
He finally met my eyes.
There was no triumph in his expression. No satisfaction. Only a promise so intense it frightened me.
“I do,” I said.
The judge turned to him.
Damon’s voice was low and steady.
“I do.”
The rings were simple. Mine had belonged to Damon’s mother. It was too large for my finger, so he slid it onto a chain around my neck instead.
“Until we can resize it,” he murmured.
“Or until this arrangement ends.”
His eyes held mine. “Or until then.”
The judge pronounced us married.
Outside, thunder rolled over the city.
Miriam approached us while the others signed the documents.
“The message was not from Marcel,” she said.
“How do you know?” Damon asked.
“Because Marcel never threatens a baby. He threatens the mother.”
I touched the ring at my throat. “Who wrote it?”
Miriam looked at Damon. “Someone who wants you to believe the child is not Eli’s.”
“Again with the child belonging to the Kalas family,” I said. “Why?”
“Because blood gives power in your world.”
“The baby is not Damon’s.”
“Not biologically.”
Damon’s gaze sharpened. “Explain.”
Miriam placed a folded paper on the table.
“Eli was not your only brother.”
The room went still.
Damon opened the paper.
It contained a birth certificate.
The name of the mother had been blacked out. The father was listed as Matteo Kalas, Damon’s father.
The child’s name was Adrian Kalas.
“My father had another son?” Damon whispered.
“A son he gave away.”
“Where is he?”
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
I felt the answer before Miriam said it.
“The night Eli died?”
Miriam nodded.
“Adrian was the man who carried the original ledger. Eli found him before he found the killers. They were working together.”
Damon crushed the paper in his fist.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I did not know whether you would mourn him or blame him.”
“He was my brother.”
“So was Eli.”
The words cut deeper than any insult.
That night, Damon and I slept in separate rooms. I expected the walls to feel safer because we were married. They did not.
At two in the morning, I woke to the sound of a door closing.
I reached for the watch.
It was gone.
I climbed out of bed, one hand against my back, and opened the door. The hallway was dark except for the pale light beneath Damon’s study.
Voices came from inside.
“You should have told me before the wedding,” Damon said.
Another man answered. “You would have stopped it.”
I recognized the voice.
Nico.
“Stopped what?” Damon demanded.
“The child is not safe here.”
“No one is taking him.”
“That is not what I mean.”
I opened the study door.
Damon turned.
Nico stood beside the desk with Eli’s watch in his hand.
“Why do you have that?” I asked.
Nico looked at Damon.
“Tell her,” Damon said.
Nico set the watch down.
“We found a second message inside the casing.”
My heart started racing.
“What message?”
Nico pressed the watch face.
The tiny compartment opened again. Beneath the black paper was a sliver of transparent film.
Damon held it beneath the desk lamp.
Words appeared in pale silver.
I leaned closer.
The message was only one line.
“TRUST THE MAN WHO HAS ALREADY BETRAYED YOU.”
I looked at Nico.
May you like
He went pale.
Then the lights went out.
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