Veiled in Rivalry | The Dark Tale of Passion and Power| [18+]

Chapter 52: Shadows of Justice

"In the shadows, justice wears many faces; some are kind, while others are draped in the blood of the fallen."
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Viktor Giovanni

The road to Volkov Castle stretches before me, a path carved into my mind with every trip I've taken to and from her world. It’s a road that I’ve traveled far too often, and yet it always feels new. The silence inside the car grips me, thick and suffocating, as if it knows the weight I carry. The steering wheel hums beneath my fingers, but my mind spins in a thousand directions, most of them revolving around her.

Lara.

Every thought of her sharpens inside me like a blade, cutting through the calm I force myself to wear like armor. I drop her off at the castle gates, watching her disappear inside, knowing she’ll be waiting for me to return. But the hours that stretch between now and then—they belong to me. They always do. They are the hours of shadows and secrets, of things best left unspoken.

The hospital looms before me, a monument to sterile coldness. Under the dim streetlights, it’s lifeless, dead. I move through its halls like a phantom, slipping past patients and nurses without so much as a glance. What I come here to do... it’s necessary, buried under layers of silence and blood, like so many things in my life.

I’m efficient. I handle what needs to be done, no distractions, no loose ends. That’s always been my strength—the ability to keep my world tightly controlled, a well-oiled machine with no room for mistakes.

But even here, in the sterile hallways and cold air, she lingers. Her scent, her laugh, the way her eyes meet mine and flicker with that spark of defiance, as if she knows that no matter how far I go, I’ll always return to her.

I don’t linger. I never do. There’s no time for that, not when the world I’ve built is held together by threads I can’t let snap. I finish what I came to do and leave as quietly as I arrived.

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Night swallows me whole by the time I return to Volkov Castle. The iron gates tower before me, dark and imposing, like everything in this life we share. This time, I’m not leaving without her.

She’s waiting by the door when I pull up, the headlights catching her figure, casting her in shadow and light. There’s a flicker of relief in her eyes when she sees me, though she tries to hide it. She always tries. But I know her too well.

“You’re back,” she breathes, her voice soft, as if my absence had carved a hole in the air around her.

“I told you I would be.”

I open the passenger door, and she steps in without hesitation, moving with the kind of grace that comes naturally to her. The click of the door closing is final, sealing us into the intimacy of the car. Her presence beside me is a balm to the restlessness that’s been clawing at me since I left her.

The drive is silent, but it’s a silence I’ve grown used to—a silence that holds more between us than words ever could. I can feel her there, every breath she takes, the faint brush of her arm against mine. I don’t need to speak. Not yet.

The castle rises before us, dark and gothic, its very walls whispering the secrets I keep from her. And yet, she is the one person I can’t hide from, the one person who could rip through my defenses if she ever tried.

She glances at me as we pull up, her voice low, almost too quiet. “I’ll go take a shower.” There’s exhaustion in her tone, a weight that mirrors my own.

I nod, watching her walk inside. I can’t help but follow her movements, every step she takes another hook in my chest, pulling me tighter to her. Even when she disappears upstairs, her presence clings to the air like a ghost.