Chapter 17

• Chapter 17
• {CATERINA}
• I woke up to the kind of hunger that clawed at my insides, sharp and relentless, like an animal demanding to be fed. The weight of the past few days pressed down on me, heavier than the thick duvet tangled around my legs. Memories of Alessandro’s cold stare, the suffocating silence of this gilded prison, and the constant reminder that I wasn’t just a guest here—I was a prisoner—flooded in all at once.