The silence after the gunshot was louder than the sound itself.
Hikky Valká's scream tore through the chapel like a blade through silk, raw and heart-splitting.
"Dante.... "
Her voice echoed against the stone walls, bouncing between the shattered candles and fallen roses.
She fell to her knees beside him, her trembling fingers clutching his lifeless face.
His eyes—those fierce, commanding eyes that had once ruled empires of fear—were open, but fading, the light in them slipping away like smoke.
"Dante, please… please stay with me," she whispered, shaking him.
Blood seeped through her gown, hot and thick, staining the black silk crimson.
Her tears blurred everything. The guests, the priest, the marble floor—until all she could see was him.
His hand twitched once in hers.... Then nothing.
The chapel erupted in chaos.
Guards lunged forward, people screamed, and somewhere near the back, someone shouted, "She's escaping.. "
Hikky looked up just in time to see Clara Bryan disappearing through the side door, her men covering her retreat.
The sound of sirens wailed in the distance, red and blue lights flickering through the chapel windows.
The corps were already after her—but she was far gone.
Gone like the sanity that left Hikky's soul.
She pulled Dante closer, his head resting on her lap, and sobbed until her throat burned. "You promised me forever," she whispered, "you promised me we would start again and sail through this together…"
The crowd began murmuring—low, cruel voices like the hiss of snakes.
..... "Poor mafia boss… fell for the wrong woman."
"They said it, didn't they? Any man who falls in love with her meets death."
"A curse… she's cursed."
The words cut deeper than any knife.
Her chest heaved, her tears spilling onto his blood-soaked suit..
The scent of iron and gunpowder clung to her hair, to her hands, to her soul.
She wanted to scream, to vanish, to follow him into whatever darkness he'd fallen into.
Then....
A hard, stinging slap struck her from behind.
"Leave him alone!"
The familiar voice made her freeze.
She turned slowly, her blurred vision finding the one face she wished she had never see.
Lady B.
Her long black veil swayed like a vulture's wing as she loomed over Hikky, eyes sharp with venom and grief. "Don't claim you loved him," she spat. "Knowing the fact that you are cursed, you could have avoided all this, but you went ahead and married him. Now look, my dear niece had meet his terrible death... " lady B burst into tears, she removed her mobile phone from her jacket and began to call, for hospital's emergency.
Hikky tried to speak, her lips trembling. "I—I didn't.... "
"Black is for mourning, right?" Lady B's voice cracked like thunder. "Your mourning has begun. You won't go scot-free. You've killed my niece, and now you've killed him too."
The accusation struck harder than the slap.
Hikky's whole body shook. She looked around desperately, searching for anyone who might defend her but all she saw were faces twisted in judgment.
Inside, her thoughts screamed: But Clara shot him… not me.
Yet no one would listen. No one ever did.
Her parents rushed forward, tears streaming down her mother's cheeks.
"Please, Lady B," her mother pleaded. "She just became a widow minutes after becoming a bride. Have mercy."
"Mercy?" Lady B scoffed. "Let the curse consume her. She carries death wherever she goes."
The sound of the approaching ambulance silenced them all.
The paramedics rushed in, their voices steady and professional, but to Hikky, it was all muffled.
She watched numbly as they lifted Dante's body from her lap, his blood leaving dark stains across her wedding dress.
She reached out one last time. "Wait—please… just one more moment…"
But the stretcher rolled away.
Her world, her love, her only reason—taken from her in the blink of an eye.
Someone tried to help her stand, but she couldn't feel her legs.
Her mind was a blur of voices—prayers, curses, accusations. And somewhere deep inside, a whisper rose like a ghost:
... " It's true… the prophecy has come to pass".
Any man who dares love her meets death.
Hikky's heart shattered completely.
When the crowd thinned and the chapel emptied into chaos outside, she rose slowly, her gown dragging against the floor, soaked in red. She no longer felt human, just a shell made of grief.
Without looking back, she slipped out through the side doors, her feet carrying her where reason could not.
The night was cold.
The forest loomed behind the chapel like an endless shadow.
She stumbled into it, branches clawing at her gown, tearing lace and silk, thorns snagging her veil until it ripped apart.
Her breath came in sobs, her vision blurred by tears.
She didn't care about the curse, or the whispers, or the prophecy.
All she knew was this....
There was no life left without him.
And if fate had written her as death's bride, then she would embrace it fully.
Step after step, deeper into the darkness.
Until her white dress vanished among the trees.
Until the forest swallowed her completely.
Because Hikky Valká had made up her mind as she followed the back door of the chapel, leading towards a thick forest.....
She was going to end it all.....