"How many romantic scenes did he write?!" Viella rolled her eyes hard as she continued copying the jagged script.

"Eww, that’s so cheeky! He cancelled a high-stakes board meeting just because her stomach made noise outta hunger? That is so cheap!" Viella exclaimed, pointing at a passage where Dante was apparently feeding Alina strawberries while a million-dollar deal crumbled in the background.

"Are you, by any chance, jealous, my lady?" Lily asked, a smirk playing on her lips as she paused writting.

"Hey! Why would I be jealous?!! It’s not like I care or something!" Viella snapped, her face flushing a indignant pink. "I am just questioning Elias’s tastes. Like, seriously, what kind of stupid romance is this? It’s like those y/n and CEO stories!"

"Y/n and CEO... what?" Lily blinked, looking genuinely lost. "What do you mean, my lady?"

Lily felt like her lady was suddenly speaking a foreign language.

"Ugh, never mind, you wouldn’t understand,"

Viella waved her hand dismissively, though her heart was still feeling unusual feelings. "Let’s just continue this."

"Sure, my lady."

"No, wait!" Viella stopped her abruptly, her eyes darting toward the window.

"Hm?" Lily looked confused, her hand hovering over a fresh stack of papers.

"You should go and see if Dante’s car is fixed yet or not. And apart from that," Viella continued

"go and check up on Lucian. I have no idea when he’ll wake up, call Dante, and tell him to drag me away from here."

Lily’s face fell instantly. "I can do the first one, but the second one... can I pass? I’d rather scrub the floors with a toothbrush than deal with Lord Lucian’s attitude"

"No!" Viella pointed toward the door.

"Ughhh," Lily groaned, the sound vibrating with pure annoyance. "Fine."

She stood up, smoothed her apron with a huff, and left the room. Viella, finally left in the flickering candlelight, took a deep breath and turned back to the book.

Viella turned the page, her eyes scanning the words. Suddenly, her grip on the pen tightened until her knuckles turned white.

"Alina walked into his room by mistake when Dante came out of the shower with his body half naked..." Viella’s voice climbed an octave.

"NAKED?! WHY IS HE NAKED?! Oh, half-naked, but STILL! Is this a drama or a smut novel?! Okay, whatever." She forced herself to keep reading, her heart beating with pure irritation.

"Alina helped to dry his wet hair, suddenly her hand slipped and she fell on him and he caught HER..." Viella breathed out a sharp, jagged breath and leaned closer to the paper.

"Suddenly his eyes grew with an obsession he didn’t understand, and he leaned in and kissed the terrified Alina..."

"HE KISSED HER?!!! ARE YOU FOR REAL?! AND THE DATE IS TODAYYY?!!" Viella shrieked, slamming her good hand onto the table so hard the inkwell rattled.

"He’s a germaphobe! He thinks everyone is filthy! How does he just- ugh! Elias, you hack writer!"

Outside in the hallway, Lily paused mid-step as the loud scream echoed through the heavy oak doors. She let out a long sigh, a small smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth.

"And she says she’s not jealous..." Lily muttered to herself.

She continued her trek down to the expansive garage of the estate. She slipped past the guards and stood before the mangled remains of the Ferrari. She circled it once, poking at the shattered glass and the dented frame.

It was exactly as they had left it, it was impossible for any normal mechanic to fix, let alone magic.

"Guess it’s not working," Lily whispered, her eyes narrowing at the car. "The book didn’t take the bait. Or maybe Lady Viella’s blood isn’t ’author’ grade yet."

She checked her watch. "Now, first job is done... time for the second." Lily rolled her eyes. She headed toward the second floor, wondering if she should ’accidentally’ drop something heavy near his head to speed up the waking process.

Lily stepped into the room, the silence only broken by the soft, rhythmic sound of Lucian’s breathing. She noticed the door had been left slightly ajar.

She moved toward the bed without making any noise, her eyes scanning the room before landing on the sleeping figure on the bed.

Lucian was sprawled out across the silk pillows, his usual arrogance replaced by the heavy stillness.

Lily leaned in closer, her expression neutral. There was a tiny red bump right in the center of his forehead where he had met the floorboards earlier. She felt a small, fleeting prick of guilt for moving out of the way, but it vanished as quickly as it came.

"Should have stayed upright," she whispered to the empty room.

Up close, the family resemblance was undeniable. He had the same high cheekbones and the same elegant curve to his jaw as Viella, but his features were carved with sharper, harsher lines.

Those features were always twisted making him the bossy, irritating man she knew him to be.

But in sleep? Without the ego and the barking orders, he looked surprisingly harmless. He looked younger, almost like a young boy.

Lily reached out, her hand hovering just above his forehead as if checking for a fever. Then she paused. Her eyes fell on the bedside table. There sat his personal phone

She wondered if she should check the messages between Dante and Lucian, she knew something wasn’t sitting right.

Did he really faint, or was it intentional? Had he done it so he wouldn’t have to ask questions about the book?

Lily had seen it clearly, the moment he entered the room, his eyes didn’t go to Viella first. They had fallen directly on the book and those blood soaked pages. Anyone else would have found the sight horrifying and demanded an explanation immediately.

But he... he had just fainted. Was it a calculated move to avoid the conversation, or was he hiding how much he already knew?

Just as Lily reached out, her fingers inches away from touching his phone to uncover the truth, Lucian’s eyes snapped open.

Before she could recoil, his hand shot out like a predator’s, his fingers locking around her arm. The sudden jerk caused Lily to lose her balance on the polished floor, her feet slipped, and she fell forward, landing squarely on top of him.

The air left her lungs as she hit his chest. She found herself pinned against him, her face only inches from his. Lucian didn’t look like a man who had just regained consciousness, his gaze was piercing and cold.

"Searching for something, little maid?" Lucian rasped, his voice smooth and devoid of the "weakness" he had displayed moments ago.

"Yes, your dignity, which you lost the moment you fell on your face," Lily wanted to snap, the retort sitting right on the tip of her tongue. But she forced herself to stay still, her expression remaining a mask of professional maid.

"I was reaching for the glass over there," Lily lied smoothly, pointing toward the glass on the bedside table beside his phone.

Lucian followed her gaze, his eyes narrowing. After a tense beat, he scoffed and immediately let go of her arm. However, the sudden release caught Lily off balance once more. Before she could steady herself or find her footing, her center of gravity shifted, and she fell right back down on top of him again with an undignified thud.

"Get up. How long you’re planning to stay on top of me. You’re heavy," Lucian groaned, the air huffing out of his lungs as he looked up at her with a look of pure annoyance.

Lily’s eyes flashed with a momentary desire to murder him right then and there. She could think of ten different ways to silence him using nothing but the medical tape in her pocket, but instead, she took a sharp breath and pushed herself off him.

She stood up, her movements stiff and began meticulously smoothing out the wrinkles in her apron and cleaning the dust from her clothes.

"My apologies, My Lord," she said, her voice dripping with a sarcasm. "I didn’t realize your ribs were as fragile as your constitution."

Lucian let out a sharp, dry laugh, adjusting his silk collar. "You have quite the tongue for a maid. Tell me, does Viella pay you extra to be this insufferable, or is it a hobby of yours?"

"It’s a volunteer service, My Lord," Lily replied, her voice dropping into a tone of mock sweetness. "Someone has to keep your ego from floating away and hitting the ceiling. Though, considering the size of that bump on your head, the ceiling might have won this round anyway."

"Bump...?" Lucian’s voice trailed off as he caught his reflection in the ornate bedside mirror. For a second, there was a deafening silence as he processed the sight of the red swelling marring his otherwise perfect forehead.

Then, the air in the room shattered.

"VIELLAAAAAA!!!!!!"

The scream was so high-pitched that Lily winced, physically recoiling.

She slapped her hands over her ears, her eyes squeezed shut.

"My poor skin! This girl... my face is my whole world! Ahhhh!" Lucian continued to wail, clutching his cheeks as if he were staring at a crime scene rather than a minor bruise.

"She ruined me! I have a gala on Thursday! I look like a common street brawler!"

Lily didn’t stick around for the encore. She turned on her heel, walked out of the room, and pulled the heavy oak door shut behind her with a satisfying thud, cutting the volume of Lucian’s hysterics by at least half.

She stood in the hallway for a moment, enjoying the relative silence, though her ears were still ringing.

"These siblings really know how to scream their lungs out and make everyone else deaf," Lily muttered to herself, shaking her head.

____________

Dante looked down at the opened box, his eyes roaming over the contents inside, a satisfying smirk appeared on his face, he snapped the lid shut.

A knock came.

"Come in," Dante commanded, his voice returning to its usual gravelly chill.

The door opened, and his lead assistant stepped in, clutching a tablet. "Boss, we have a conference tomorrow morning regarding the port expansion. Should I just cancel it like every other time?"

"No," Dante said, leaning back in his leather chair, the shadows of the room playing over his sharp features.

"Let it be. Tell them I will join."

The assistant stood still, his shoes practically glued to the floor in shock. This was a first. Lord Dante rarely, if ever, joined public conferences, preferring to rule from the darkness of his estate.

But it wasn’t just the schedule change that had the assistant worried. He thought about the chaos of the afternoon, the way the media had swarmed when Dante was seen in public with a mere maid.

The headlines were already being written- The Mafia King and the Scullery Girl, or worse, Moretti’s Fallen Grace.

There would be a shark tank of reporters there tomorrow waiting to tear him apart with questions about his private life and his fiancé, yet he had agreed to walk right into it?

"Is there a problem?" Dante asked, his eyes narrowing as he noticed the man’s hesitation.

"No, Boss. I’ll... I’ll update the board immediately," the assistant stammered, bowing quickly and backing out of the room.

Dante turned his gaze back to the box on his desk. He knew exactly what the media would ask. He also knew that by tomorrow morning, the "plot" would have everyone expecting him to announce his undying love for Alina. But as he ran a thumb over the cold metal of the box, a dark thought crossed his mind.

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TO BE CONTINUED