Vow of Destruction by Lisa Cullen

I’m handed to him in silk and silence.

A bride traded for power.

A vow signed in blood.

Sandro Chiaroscuro doesn’t smile at the altar.

He doesn’t touch me either.

Just signs the contract and walks away—

like I’m already his.

They call him the family’s mad dog.

The one they unleash when mercy fails.

He comes home smelling like violence.

I clean his knuckles without asking whose blood it is.

Somewhere between his restraint and my obedience,

my body starts keeping secrets.

I count days.

Hide nausea behind smiles.

Pray the truth survives.

Then the war finds us.

Steel bars.

Darkness.

His silence under torture.

Until they touch me.

Until fear tears something forbidden from my mouth—

something never meant to exist.

The chains don’t hold him after that.

The room doesn’t survive him either.

And as blood spreads across the floor, I finally understand—

I wasn’t married for love.

Or alliances.

Or heirs.

I was married to a man who will burn the world down

for what’s already growing inside me.