The Mafia's Heir's bride-Chapter 147: The Walkback_ secrets crack the ground

The wind along the riverbank carried a cold bite that didn’t belong to the early morning.

It threaded through Alessia’s hair, lifting the torn veil piece in her trembling hand as if the river itself was trying to reclaim it.

Luca stood close behind her—so close she could feel the tension rolling off him in waves.

His fingers twitched once, as though resisting the urge to snatch the torn veil and burn it out of existence.

Daisy and Romeo exchanged a look that was not shock—no. It was recognition. A quiet, heavy knowing.

And that terrified Alessia more than the dream ever did.

She swallowed, staring at the golden fabric. "This shouldn’t be here. It was on me last night, I didn’t leave the inn."

Luca’s jaw tightened. "Someone could’ve dropped it....."

"No," Daisy cut in gently but firmly. "It’s not dropped,Look."

She stepped closer to the tree roots.

The fabric wasn’t simply lying on the ground—it was caught, almost threaded between the roots.

As though something had dragged through this exact spot.

A shiver crawled across Alessia’s spine.

Her dream hadn’t been blurry. It hadn’t been symbolic.

It had been... mapped. Remembered.

Luca crouched beside the shoeprint, his hand hovering above it but never touching. "This looks fresh," he muttered. "Too fresh."

Romeo knelt beside him. "Could be Lorenzo," he said quietly. "Or... someone wearing his style."

Luca shot him a sharp look. "You think someone is trying to stage this?"

Romeo didn’t answer.

Because no one wanted to say the truth out loud:

Someone had been here last night.

Someone who wore Lorenzo’s shoes.

Someone who wanted Alessia to see this.

"Luca..." Alessia whispered. "In the dream, Lorenzo was behind me. I didn’t see him clearly, but I felt him, his hand, his breath, his voice."

She pressed a hand to her chest, breath shaky.

"It wasn’t just a dream. Someone touched me."

Luca stood so fast the air snapped around him. "We’re leaving," he said, grabbing her hand with a grip that was not gentle but desperate. "Right now. Before anything else happens."

But before she could move, Daisy knelt and lifted a small object from beneath the roots.

Alessia froze.

It was a pendant—a tiny silver coin engraved with a serpent coiled around a broken crescent.

Romeo swore under his breath.

Luca went pale.

"What?" Alessia asked, voice tight. "What does it mean?"

Luca hesitated.A long, too-long moment—before answering.

"It’s a sigil," he said quietly. "From Seriona’s past. From an old faction that shouldn’t exist anymore."

Daisy added softly, "They were called The Breakers. People who believed the river held memories—and could be forced to return them."

Romeo looked at Alessia with something she didn’t understand. "If this was left here... someone may be trying to recreate an echo."

"A what?" Alessia whispered.

Luca looked away not refusing to answer, but struggling to find words that wouldn’t terrify her.

Romeo didn’t soften it.

"An echo is when something that already happened gets pulled into the present.

It feels like a dream, but it’s not. It’s someone dragging the past into now."

Alessia felt the world tilt.

"So you’re saying that I..."

Her voice shook. "That I didn’t dream last night? That it happened? In another time?"

Daisy stepped close, squeezing her arm. "We won’t jump to anything, That’s why you need to see the Seriona seers.They’ll know."

Luca exhaled a harsh, broken breath. "We shouldn’t have come here," he muttered. "I should have taken you anywhere but our home in seriona."

Alessia touched his arm gently. "Luca... whatever this is, we’ll face it."

He nodded, but there was fear in his eyes she had never seen before.

Not fear for himself.

Fear of losing her.

And something told her he’d lost her once before—long before she ever dreamt of the river.

********

The four of them headed back toward the city, boots crunching through gravel and brittle leaves.

The festival fireworks had faded into silence, the air still thick with smoke and perfume and the faint ringing of distant bells.

But Luca walked like a man preparing for war.

Alessia slipped her hand into his. He squeezed, but his eyes kept darting to every shadow, every corner.

"Talk to me," she whispered. "What are you thinking?"

He didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he pulled her closer, slipping an arm around her waist.

"I’m thinking," he said quietly, "that if someone touched you last night—if someone tried to pull you into that river for real—then they dared to put their hands on my wife."

His voice darkened, low and lethal.

"And I’ll tear Seriona City apart to find who did it."

Alessia didn’t flinch—because this was Luca.

Her Luca.

Terrifying only to his enemies.

But Daisy’s voice broke the heavy silence.

"Alessia... when you were dreaming, did you hear anything? A word, a whisper, anything specific?"

Alessia searched her memory, heartbeat kicking uncomfortably.

"There was a moment..."

She swallowed.

"A voice said something. Very faint. Like it was underwater."

Romeo leaned in slightly. "What did it say?"

Her throat tightened.

"It said..."

She hesitated, terrified the words would make everything real.

"It said: Return what was taken."

Luca stopped walking completely.

Daisy froze.

Romeo cursed softly.

Alessia’s stomach sank.

"What? What does that mean?"

Luca turned to her slowly. His expression unreadable.

"I don’t know," he lied—she could see the lie in his eyes—

"but we’re not waiting for morning."

"We’re going to the seers now."

********

The temple was nothing like Alessia expected.

No incense.

No colored lanterns.

No charms hanging from the doors.

Just a towering stone building carved into a cliffside, its entrance lit by a single flickering torch. The symbol above the arch—a serpent wrapped around a broken crescent matched the pendant Daisy had found.

Alessia stopped cold.

"That’s the same symbol..."

Romeo nodded grimly. "The seers once consulted the Breakers. Before the faction twisted their purpose."

"And now?" Alessia asked.

"They cut ties," Daisy said, "but the symbol remains on the oldest temples, Forgotten by most."

Luca didn’t wait. He pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside with Alessia in his arms like he expected the walls to collapse around them.

The interior was dim, lit only by candles scattered across stone altars. Incense smoke twisted like ghosts, and the air carried a hum—a vibration that prickled against Alessia’s skin.

A woman stepped forward from the shadows, her hair silver as river frost, her eyes impossibly dark.

"I knew you would come," she said.

Alessia’s breath hitched. "You... knew?"

The woman nodded.

"You carry the mark of two timelines, Alessia Luca morano , One of the past... and one of the present colliding."

Luca stiffened. "What does that mean?"

The seer’s gaze slid to him and softened with recognition.

"You’ve been here before, Luca Morano. Many years ago."

Alessia jerked her head toward him. "Luca? You’ve.....?"

He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second-Regret, restraint.

Secrets he never intended to share.

"I came once," he said, voice tight. "A long time before we met."

Alessia’s heart pounded.

"For what?" she asked him.

Luca opened his mouth—But the seer answered for him.

"For the same reason you are here now," she said.

"To understand why a woman named Alessia drowned in the river of Serena... nineteen years ago."

The room went silent.

The candles flickered.

Alessia couldn’t breathe.

Daisy’s hand flew to her mouth.

Romeo swore under his breath.

Luca’s face went white—like the past had just reached up and dragged him under.

And Alessia—She whispered, barely audible:

"I... drowned?"

The seer stepped closer.

"You didn’t dream the river, Alessia.

You remembered it."

The floor seemed to tilt beneath her feet.

She grabbed Luca’s arm, needing his warmth, his presence—anything to anchor her.

But the seer wasn’t finished.

"And now," she whispered, voice echoing through the chamber,

"the river is remembering you back."

Then—The temple doors slammed shut behind them

with a force that made the candles blow out.

Every single flame.

Darkness swallowed the room whole.

And something moved

in the shadows

toward Alessia.....