Chapter 31 Sora
SORA
I wake to warmth enveloping me and hum contentedly. The soft blankets are tangled around my feet, sunlight bleeding through the curtains in gentle golden stripes across my pillow.
The scent of salt clings to the sheets, mingling with Leo’s familiar cypress and lemon cologne.
But as I reach out in search of him, I find the space beside me empty. I blink blearily, stretching an arm across his cool side of the bed. Rolling onto my back, I smile as I stare at the ceiling.
Last night replays in pieces—the quiet laughter as he carried me into the house wearing nothing but my robe, stumbling through the doors into his suite and barely getting them closed before he was taking me to bed, his fingers brushing across my skin as we stripped beneath the covers, his kiss that deepened, lingered, and set my soul on fire.
He took his time with me, as if to worship every inch of my body.
There was no distance, no cold formality—just him and me, like something real was finally beginning between us. I touch my lips, still able to feel the ghost of his mouth on mine.
For the first time since this marriage was arranged, I don’t feel like someone’s bargaining chip.
I feel wanted, chosen—not for politics, not for power, but for me.
Sitting up, I press a hand to my stomach.
My heartbeat quickens, but not with fear.
For the first time, excitement blossoms in my belly when I think about telling Leo.
Suddenly, our baby doesn’t feel like a consequence or a duty but a small, perfect sign of the unexpected love growing between us.
But before I say anything, I need to be sure everything’s okay.
The fall yesterday was a considerable one—the plunge into cold water and the panic that gripped my lungs as I struggled to reach the resurface.
Leo had pulled me out, wrapped me in his arms, stayed with me all night like I might slip away again.
Still, what if something happened to the baby? What if it was deprived of oxygen for too long?
Leo said my heart stopped beating, that I stopped breathing for long enough to be dead.
And if my life stopped, even for a brief time, I have no clue what damage that would cause to a fetus.
Cold anxiety trickles into my belly, and I push the thought away. I can’t think like that.
I just need to have a doctor examine me and make sure the baby’s alright.
That’s what matters right now.
Slipping out of bed, I pull on a loose-fitting summer dress and step into some flats.
One of the house staff will know who to call. And once I’m sure everything’s alright, I’ll tell Leo.
Tonight.
Hope bubbles up inside me at the thought, a nervous, giddy excitement.
We’ve never talked about whether he wants to be a father, though I know he was prepared for the eventuality. And suddenly, I’m looking forward to seeing his reaction.
I step into the hallway, the wide corridor quiet in the midmorning lull.
The air smells faintly of espresso and polished wood. No voices, no movement, just the sound of my footsteps as I move down the hall, checking rooms for one of the maids.
There’s no sign of Leo, either, but he probably had an early meeting and chose not to wake me.
Making my way toward the breakfast room, I hope to catch one of the maids before I run into any of the Chiaroscuro brothers—or the don. I’m halfway across the foyer when I hear voices—low, tense—coming from down the hall, toward Don Augusta’s study.
I pause, my pulse kicking up a notch when I hear Leo’s voice, low and sharp, slicing through the thick wood of his father’s study door.
Something’s wrong.
I know I shouldn’t eavesdrop, but my stomach knots when I think about what happened yesterday and my part in it.
If tensions with my family have escalated because of me, I should know. I might be able to do something to fix it.
“Maybe we should give her back,” Don Augusta suggests, his voice hard and cold. “Since she’s no use to us anyway. You can get married to a good Italian wife when the time is right.”
My blood turns to ice.
Give her back. No use. A good Italian wife.
I freeze, ears ringing as I press my back to the wall outside the office. My heart hammers so loudly, I’m sure someone will hear it. I should walk away. I should not be listening. But my feet don’t move.
Then Leo laughs. It’s not the laugh I know—the low, tantalizing one that slips out of him when I catch him by surprise with something amusing.
This laugh is hollow, bitter. It echoes with a frustration I thought we’d made it past.
“Now you want to let me have my way?” Leo snaps.
“Now that she’s been living in this house, sleeping in my bed for over a month?
You’re unbelievable. Here I was thinking you might someday want my opinion, but all you’re looking for is a good little soldier.
Well, I’m sure you’ll be happy to hear I have no emotions, no ability to fall in love, that I’m willing to use my wife for whatever the family needs—after all, our marriage was only intended to put puppet strings on the Tanaka family.
Wasn’t it? So, what should I care if we send her back? ”
The floor tilts beneath me, and I stumble back.
It was all a setup. Our marriage, the passionate nights. Leo told me he loved me last night, but today, he’s more than willing to send me packing.
Was it all a lie?
When I looked into his eyes, I didn’t doubt his feelings. But maybe he’s even better at hiding his true emotions than I am. I thought we were past the facade.
I thought maybe, just maybe, Leo and I had found something real.
But I was wrong. So stupidly, blindly wrong. Heart lodged in my throat, I turn to tiptoe back into the foyer. Then, I run.
I don’t stop until I reach our suite, my breath ragged and my chest aching like something inside me is collapsing in on itself. I can’t breathe.
It’s agony to know the man I love was just using me for his family—to gain control, power over mine. If only he knew how little that would work. After yesterday, his father must have realized that. She’s no use to us anyway.
And all this time, I was falling for him.
I press a trembling hand to my stomach.
My excitement this morning over telling Leo about our child feels like a bad joke now. What do I do? Do I stay? Pretend I didn’t hear? Pretend it didn’t crush something sacred inside me? Or do I run?
I think of my family, the house I haven’t stepped foot in since the wedding, and my mother, who I barely got the chance to speak to yesterday before I went head over heels over the yacht’s railing.
We don’t always see eye to eye, but she’s the closest thing I have to a confidante in this world. It’s time I paid her a visit.
The Tanaka estate is the same as it always was—cold walls dressed in tradition, silence wrapped in tension, tranquility draped over indifference.
I step through the gate like a ghost, half-expecting to be turned away.
But they let me in.
My mother meets me in the sitting room, perfectly composed in her deep navy wrap dress, not a hair out of place. She watches me closely, as if trying to figure out why I’ve returned. “I didn’t expect to see you,” she says. No hug. No warmth. Just an observation.
“I needed to talk to someone,” I say quietly, not trusting myself to look her in the eyes. “I… could use your advice.”
She raises a brow but doesn’t interrupt, and I sink onto the cushion across from her, fingers twisting in my lap.
“I’m pregnant,” I say.
The room stills. For a moment, I think she might show emotion—joy, surprise, concern. Something.
But when she speaks, her words hit me like a slap. “You weren’t supposed to get pregnant so soon.”
“What?” I’m genuinely sure I must have heard her wrong.
“For God’s sake, Sora. You’ve barely been there a month. Did you fall into bed with him every chance you got? Did you even try to show restraint? A child was supposed to be a long-term contingency, not an immediate complication.”
A complication? I stare at her, heart sinking into the pit of my stomach.
“But… this marriage was your idea. To stop the fighting. What did you think would happen if I took a husband? That he wouldn’t want to touch me?
That he would just be fine with the idea of not consummating the marriage?
I have spent weeks enduring a family who hates me.
But this was supposed to be for our family, so I tried to make my marriage work! ”
She sighs. “You were meant to secure the alliance—not bear a child that ties you to them irrevocably.”
Something inside me fractures, and suddenly, I feel so utterly alone in this world. I’m not a pawn in their chess match. I’m the tennis ball being served between two courts. No one wants me. I’m only here to be used in their twisted game for dominance.
“They’re going to die, Sora,” she continues, as calm as if she were discussing the weather. “The Chiaroscuros are done. Their reign is over. And when we’ve killed every last one of them, you won’t need to be married to that brute anymore.”
My stomach twists, my blood turning to ice in my veins. “What are you talking about?”
“There’s already a plan in place. I’ll admit, it took longer to come to an agreement with the Murrays than I would have liked.
We probably could have avoided this whole pregnancy issue altogether if they’d stopped dragging their feet.
But your visit couldn’t have come at a better time.
Your father intended to spirit you from the Chiaroscuro estate during the attack, but this way is less risky.
You’ll stay here until it’s done, and once they’re gone, we’ll handle your little…
problem.” Her eyes flick down to my belly, a look of distaste curving her mouth downward.
“You’ll get an abortion—quietly—and when the time is right, we’ll find someone more suitable for you to marry. ”
I can’t breathe. The walls close in. My hands fly to my stomach as my protective instincts kick-in at full force. “No.”
My mother lifts her chin. “This isn’t your decision, Sora. You belong to this family.”
“I won’t kill my baby,” I snap, voice rising. “You can’t make me.”
Her eyes harden. “Watch your tone. You were never meant to become emotional about this. You’ve forgotten your role.”
“I haven’t forgotten anything,” I whisper. “Except maybe how heartless you really are.”
She doesn’t flinch. She simply gestures, and before I can react, two guards appear at the door.
“Sora will remain here,” she says to them, voice sharp. “Take her to her room and keep her there.”
“No,” I say again, louder this time, backing away from them. “You can’t do this.”
But they’re already closing in.
And I realize, with terrifying clarity, that I’ve walked into a trap.
The Chiaroscuro estate is already under attack. I know it in my bones, even before the whispered conversations confirm it.
My family wasn’t trying to find peace with the Chiaroscuros.
They’re trying to wipe Leo’s family out entirely. And I gave them the perfect opportunity to do so, because Leo and his father will never see it coming.
They think they have the upper hand, that they’ve been manipulating my family, when the reality is, they were being deceived from the start. Just like I was.
My mind calls a vivid image of Leo before my eyes, and my heart shatters.
He’s going to die.
And despite everything—despite the pain, the betrayal, the hollow words he said last night—I don’t want him to.
Tears burn my eyes, spilling over to fall down my cheeks, and I collapse to the floor, one hand pressed to my belly.
I’ve come to care about him.
More than I meant to.
More than I ever thought I could.
He might have used me, but I still saw him the good in him.
I still saw the man behind the anger, the son caught in the crossfire of his father’s expectations.
I saw the way he looked at me like I was the only woman in the world, felt the way he brushed my hair off my face when he thought I was asleep.
I remember the way he held me when I woke from my nightmares.
I don’t know if he loves me. Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he can’t.
But I don’t want him to die.
I don’t want our child to grow up never knowing him. And I sure as hell won’t let my family win.
Not like this.