Forbidden Love

Forbidden Love

Chapter 1 - The Silent Gaze

The villa stood perched high on a cliff, its pale stone walls gleaming under the harsh sun. From its balconies, the ocean stretched endlessly, an infinite expanse of deep blues and foamy whites. The breeze carried the scent of salt and distant rain, yet the air around the villa felt still, heavy with unspoken words. A large house with eight rooms, its size was as imposing as it was beautiful—grand, yet cold. It was a monument to wealth, to a life built on luxury, but inside, it held a silence as profound as the sea below.

The wife, Elena, stood at the edge of the balcony, her gaze fixed far beyond the horizon. She was beautiful—her blonde hair framed her face in soft waves, and her eyes, the color of the ocean she stared at, shimmered with a sadness no one ever seemed to notice. She wore a loose silk robe, the kind meant for comfort but never truly felt. It was always too fine, too delicate, like everything in her life.

In the quiet of the villa, she often found herself alone, surrounded by rooms filled with treasures, but with no one to share them with. Her husband, Vincent, was a man of constant motion—always busy with his business, always away, always focused on the chase. He had built this life, this home, with his own two hands, but in doing so, he had forgotten the most important part of living: love. Elena had long ago resigned herself to his indifference. The house, the wealth, the views—they meant nothing if they could not be shared. And Vincent? He rarely even noticed her.

She thought of him now, his retreating figure earlier that morning, as he hurried off to yet another meeting. The hurried kiss he gave her on his way out had been cold, detached, a mere formality.

Her thoughts wandered, as they so often did. She wasn’t certain when she had started to feel so invisible, so inconsequential. But it had been a slow erosion—a gradual withering of the hope that one day Vincent would notice her, hold her, or love her.

She sighed, the sound almost swallowed by the vastness of the ocean.

The villa was vast, yes. But in its emptiness, it was as much a prison as a palace.

Elena turned from the balcony, her fingers brushing lightly against the cool stone of the pillar, the smooth surface offering no comfort. She walked toward the back of the house, through the long hallways that had once felt like paths leading to a world of possibilities, now merely corridors of routine. She passed the guest