Page 32 of Vows of Silence

I vaguely remembered Adrien saying that he wanted to partner the Falcone casino with his hotel. Instead, the Falconeshad burnt his casino to the ground—“small fire,” myass!—and rushed the rebuild of their own hotel on top of the casino.

A hotel that already had a reputation less than a week after opening. Though logic told me most of that was unfounded rumour and gossip stemming from previous hotels and circumstances.

I’d also tried looking up my dad, seeing how he tied into it. Minus the news of my engagement, there wasn’t much tying us to the Vescari Empire. And it was really fucking hard trying to find anything when the internet was flooded with stories about me and Adrien.

I hadn’t bothered to read a single one. I knew myself and my truth. It didn’t matter what these reporters said. They were just after making a quick buck off the latest big hitting news.

So then, when everything else had been done, I searched up Luca.

And, of course, drew a blank. As I had expected.

His name didn’t appear to connect anywhere. Not even when I had braved visiting the dark web. Not that I knew what I was doing on there, and had left as quickly as I’d logged in. But wasn’t it weird that the name didn’t appear once?

All in all, I was more confused than ever.

I’d tried to break into my dad’s office again, but without Luca, I couldn’t get past the code. And though I knew he was probably still watching me—especially as I couldn’t cover the cameras outside this bedroom since they belonged to my dad—I didn’t want to risk it. Because if he unlocked the door for me and I entered the office, I would be acknowledging Luca’s presence. I would be accepting his help.

And I didn’t want to do that.

With an angry sigh, I grabbed my laptop off the desk and hauled it onto my knees.

Luca:What are you doing, Belle?

The chat head popped up instantly. I had blocked the IM programme he had made me download. But he kept hacking his way back in.

I closed the chat and ignored it, clicking on the internet icon and typing inSilas Falcone.

Luca:You’re playing a dangerous game, little ember.

No.

Everyone else was playing a dangerous game. I was an innocent pawn, finally ready to make my own move instead of having my moves played for me.

The results were the same as they always were.

Silas Falcone.

Thirty years of age.

No surviving parents.

Victim of a brutal acid attack that had killed his father and permanently disfigured him at the age of seven.

Wears a silver mask permanently.

Never speaks.

Mother murdered in a mob attack.

Sole-surviving family member, Rafael Falcone.

Rafael was seen entering a hospital clinic, and rumours were flying that he was seriously ill, though no evidence had been discovered.

He hadn’t looked ill that night in the office, that’s for sure!

I shivered at the memory and clicked on the next article, rereading words I’d already memorised.

Silas had been arrested for the murder of three men last year. He was later released after psychological evaluation, though once again the results of that hadn’t been released—or they had been scrubbed from the internet.