Bound to the Don

Chapter 39

Salma's Pov

Armando didn't call for me.

Not that day.

Not the day after.

Not even the week after.

Two whole weeks had passed in silence, and not once did I hear my name from his lips or get summoned by one of the guards. Nothing. It was like I didn't exist anymore.

I didn't know what to make of it.

Part of me was confused. Another part was Terrified. But deep underneath all that, buried quietly somewhere in me... there was relief.

His silence felt like oxygen.

It almost made me believe I had imagined everything, the table, the threat, the cruel promise wrapped in velvet words. But I hadn't. And no matter how long it's been, it still felt like yesterday when he told me I was his plaything

I had turned eighteen last week.

No cake. No smile. No joy. Just a quiet ache in my chest and the reminder that nothing about my life belonged to me anymore. I was technically an "adult" now. Legal. Grown.

But I felt more lost than ever.

Then one morning, I overheard Lady Victoria talking on the phone in the hallway. I was walking past when I heard her scoff and mutter something about how "he left for China without a damn word."

Armando.

He left?

I didn't know how to feel. He hadn't told me either, not that I expected him to. But still. If Lady Victoria , his fiancée, was angry about being left in the dark, what did that make me?

A nobody.

Maybe that's what I needed to remember.

Still... a cold dread settled in my chest. If  she  ever found out what Armando had said to me, what he wanted from me. I didn't even want to imagine how she'd react. The woman already looked at me like she wanted to rip my skin off.

I hoped he'd keep it to himself. I didn't need more hate. Not from her.

Giulia was enough.

That girl hated me from the day Louis and I walked in together after the chaos at the ball. I saw it in her eyes, her posture, her forced smile. All of it screamed jealousy. But why?

Does she like Louis?

Is that why she looked at me like I ruined something? Because she saw him standing up for me? Because she saw the way Armando and Louis fought?

Honestly... I didn't care.

I didn't care for any of the drama. I didn't care for the stares or the whispers or the stupid tension that lived in every corner of this mansion.

I didn't want anyone here.

Not Louis. Not Armando. Not anyone.

They were all devils in expensive suits and polished shoes. And I hated them.

All of them.

Even Louis, the one who had done nothing but be kind. Because kindness meant nothing in a place where people wore masks and played power games. He was still one of  them. Still part of the world that crushed me and called it mercy.

So I stayed in my room.

Quiet.

Alone.

Waiting for the next moment I'd be dragged back into the chaos, or worse— the arrangement.