Page 56 of Vows of Silence

I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

Silas remained completely still, but the atmosphere in the room shifted anyway. Rafael noticed it too. I saw it in the way his posture changed slightly, some of his rage giving way to something more cautious.

“You were trained better than this,” he said, quieter now but somehow even more venomous. “One woman should not be enough to compromise you.”

Rafael stepped closer, fury overtaking caution once again. “I should have killed this obsession before it ever started.”

Before I could fully process the meaning behind the words, his arm suddenly lifted.

I genuinely thought he was going to hit him.

The movement happened fast enough that I gasped aloud, instinctively flinching before the blow could even land. But it never did. Silas caught Rafael’s wrist effortlessly mid-swing, his gloved hand wrapping around the older man’s arm with terrifying ease.

The room fell silent. A dangerous silence that had the breath stuck in my throat. I was scared to move. Scared to even blink.

I stared at the gloved hand locked around Rafael’s wrist whilst my pulse hammered painfully against my ribs. Silas didn’t shove him away or retaliate violently. He simply held him there, the silver mask angled slightly downward as though studying him.

For the first time since entering the basement, genuine uncertainty crossed Rafael’s face.

Silas slowly tilted his head.

No warning shake this time. No silent correction. He simply stared at the older man whilst his grip tightened ever so slightly, just enough to make the leather at Rafael’s wrist creak softly beneath the pressure.

And suddenly I understood something that shifted the ground beneath my feet entirely.

Rafael Falcone wasafraidof Silas—his own grandson.

But why? Everyone knew that Silas was Rafael’s silent assassin. That he struck on Rafael’s commands.

Just what exactly was Silas capable of, if even his own family feared him?

And why didn’t that thought terrify me anymore?

Rafael slowly lowered his arm, and Silas released him immediately. The older man straightened his suit jacket with visible irritation, but he made no further attempt to strike him.

“Office,” Rafael snapped sharply. “Now.”

Silas didn’t move straight away.

Instead, the silver mask turned toward me once more, and from across the room I heard the rough sound of his breathing beneath it. One gloved hand flexed slowly at his side before curling tightly into a fist, the leather creaking faintly as though he were physically restraining himself from something.

Rafael noticed the hesitation immediately. “Do not make me repeat myself.”

The mask remained fixed on me for one final second before Silas finally turned and followed his grandfather from the basement without a word. The heavy door slammed shut behind them, leaving silence flooding back into the room once more.

I sat frozen on the bed long after they were gone, staring at the closed door whilst my thoughts spiralled faster than I could organise them.

Until now, Silas had felt untouchable to me. Like some terrifying creature lurking in the dark, silently controlling every inch of my world without answering to anyone. But monsters didn’t get dragged into offices and screamed at by their grandfathers. They didn’t stand there absorbing insults with clenched fists and restrained breathing.

Slowly, I pulled my knees to my chest and stared toward the door.

For the first time since waking up in this basement, a thought slipped into my mind that unsettled me almost as much as Silas himself.

Maybe this wasn’t only my prison.

Maybe it was his too.

Chapter 20