THE MAFIA KING BROKEN ROSE novel Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Chapter 87

Aria’s POV

My eyes widened as I looked at the designer boxes spread across the bed.

Dior, Valentino. Cartier. Louboutin. Perfumes. Shoes. Silk dresses folded with tissue paper.

Jewelry glinting like bait.

Like bribes.

I blinked at the emerald necklace lying at the center of it all, it looked rich and heavy, gleaming in the morning light filtering through the windows.

“I thought you’d like green,” Dominic’s voice came from behind me, too careful. Too soft.

I didn’t turn around.

“You’ve barely said a word to me all day,” he added, his tone threading toward that line between guilt and manipulation.

“I’ve barely had anything worth saying,” I replied, arms crossed.

He moved into the room, his footsteps slow, hesitant.

“Aria…”

I finally turned.

He looked… tired. That was new. His black shirt was unbuttoned at the top, sleeves rolled, jaw shadowed with stubble like he’d forgotten to shave.

“I know what you’re doing,” I said flatly.

His brow furrowed. “What am I doing?”

“This,” I gestured at the mountain of gifts. “The jewelry. The apology silence. The careful touches. It’s all damage control, Dominic.”

He flinched slightly, then forced a smile. “Maybe I just wanted to see you smile.”

“Well,” I said, arms still folded, “You failed.”

His expression cracked a little.

I looked back at the bed, eyes scanning the sea of luxury. “You can’t buy your way out of this.”

“I’m not trying to buy you.”

I raised a brow.

He sighed, walking toward the window. “I hurt you. I grabbed you. I lost control. I’m not proud of that.”

“And Nico?” I asked, voice flat. “You nearly killed him.”

He didn’t look at me. “I should have.”

I grimaced. He did not just say that?

He turned back around, eyes darker now. “He kissed you. He put his hands on what’s mine. I hated that. So he deserved to die.”

I bristled. “I’m not yours, Dominic. I am a human being.”

His jaw clenched, but he didn’t respond.

Silence stretched thick between us.

I glanced at the necklace again. “What do you want from me?”

He stepped closer, his voice low. “I want you to feel safe again. I want to fix what I broke.”

I stared at him. “Then let me go.”

His expression shuttered instantly. The air turned cold.

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

He looked almost pained. “Because without you, I have nothing left. And I’m not strong enough to lose you.”

I looked down. I didn’t have the strength to argue that right now. Not again.

He is saying that because he won’t own me anymore.

I won’t believe those lies of his.

1/3

Chapter $7

Fuck tum

He stepped forward, reaching like he wanted to touch me–tet stopped leches any “You dont have to teena Just accept the gifts Let me take care of you”

“Yeah, let me have things that won’t take me anywhere thee try Domin

I rolled my eyes and walked around him, slowly, and left the room

Later, when the house grew quiet, I slipped out of bed and padded down the haberefore, mowing stendy past the ZA, many shery sent the guards stationed outside my door

I didn’t know where i was going at first. My head was a mess of questions, my heart full of things I couldn’t say out loud But my feet moved on their own toward the office I’d seen him ezit a dozen times

Dominic had made it clear that certain places in the mansion were off limits. Vitach, of course, made me more outon

I gently turned the brass knob.

Locked

But the door beside it–slightly ajar–creaked softly when I pushed it. A lounge? Ho a side room

Stacks of papers were scattered across the desk. A tablet lay charging beside an open laptop, it looked the someone had left in a hurry

I stepped inside, heart hammering. This was risky. I knew that. But something in me needed to know–what he was hiding What he wasn’t saying.

I reached for the tablet.

My fingers hovered, hesitating.

What if there was something in there? Information. Plans. Proof of everything Nico warned me about.

I tapped the screen.

Password.

Of course.

Ichewed the inside of my cheek, glancing over at the papers. Contracts. Business ledgers. One of the names made my stomach jolt–Mikael Petrov.

I leaned closer, scanning quickly. Shipment routes. Communications. Surveillance logs.

Then I heard it.

Footsteps. Approaching.

Panic moved through me like cold water.

I shut off the tablet, backed away quickly, and ducked behind the couch just as the door opened.

“Nico said Dominic wants this room cleared,” a voice muttered. Male. One of the guards. “Everything to the main floor.”

Another voice groaned. “Now?”

“Now.”

I held my breath as they began moving boxes, murmuring, too distracted to notice anything unusual. I waited until they moved toward the hallway again, heart still thundering.

As soon as the coast was clear, I crept back out and slipped into the corridor.

That was close. Too close.

But what I saw… the mention of Mikael. It confirmed my worst fear Dominic was preparing for something that may bring a clash. A war. A reckoning.

And if I stayed here, I’d be right in the middle of it.

I reached the door of my room and slipped back in, shutting it behind me carefully. I leaned against the wall, chest heaving.

There was a plan forming in the back of my mind.

Escape.

Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow. But soon.

I looked back at the bed. The emerald necklace still sat where I left it, mocking me.

Dominic was trying so hard to cage me in velvet and gold that he didn’t realize the bars were still bars.

Could I really do it?

2/3

Chapter 7

Could au ryting and why was out there wasting

I sat down on the edge of the bed pirking on the asce & teang

And for the frets myself the question that had been loguing no te tokyone-

At the fo

Or obsession dressed silk?

The choice wasn’t char yet

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