SOFIA’S POV**

The family chapel on the estate was small, ancient, and heavy with the scent of incense and old wood. Moonlight streamed through stained-glass windows, casting colored patterns across the marble altar and the polished pews. A single row of candles burned along the sides, their flames flickering like they knew what was about to happen.

I stood at the entrance in nothing but the black silk ribbon still tied around my throat like a collar, my body already trembling with anticipation and fear.

Matteo waited for me at the altar.

He wore only black pants, his powerful, tattooed chest bare, the silver cross he sometimes wore dangling between...