Chapter 9
561 Words
The Viper’s Kiss
Chapter Nine — Bianca’s Game Begins
The hum of the city pulsed beneath the Rosetti penthouse, neon lights bleeding across glass walls as Bianca Rosetti stalked through her father’s private study.
The skyline glittered like distant promises, but all Bianca saw was threat.
“Aria Leone is still breathing,” she seethed, slamming a dossier onto Matteo Rosetti’s mahogany desk. “Worse, she’s inside Dante’s house. His protection, Father.”
Matteo barely reacted, his lined face carved from the same stone as the empire he’d built. His silver hair caught the city’s glow, but his expression stayed unreadable as he sipped his whiskey.
“You’ve been emotional about this girl for weeks,” he replied, voice measured. “Control yourself.”
Bianca’s jaw tightened, fury simmering beneath polished restraint. She didn’t rise through this world on emotion — only calculation. But Aria’s reappearance, the whispers of her bloodline, the way Dante’s gaze lingered on the girl — that rattled everything.
“She’s a Leone,” Bianca pressed, stepping closer, heels clicking like gunshots on marble. “She shouldn’t exist, yet here she is — breathing our air. Walking through Moretti’s halls. Turning his head.”
Matteo’s eyes sharpened. “Turning his head, or exposing his weakness?”
Bianca froze.
It wasn’t just jealousy anymore. It was instability. The Moretti empire stood on alliances, secrets, blood debts — and Aria’s return was a fissure cracking wide open.
“Dante’s distracted,” Bianca admitted. “The council senses it. The rival families—”
“They smell blood,” Matteo finished coolly, setting his glass down. “Which is why you’ll end this before it spirals.”
He slid a sleek, black folder across the desk. Bianca flipped it open, scanning the contents — photos, floor plans, classified intel.
“Rogues?” she asked, one brow arching.
“The best,” Matteo confirmed. “Mercenaries with no loyalty but coin. Savages Moretti can’t trace back to us.”
A cruel smile curved Bianca’s mouth.
She’d grown up in this world of hidden wars and whispered betrayals. She knew how to bleed an empire from the inside out.
“They strike tonight,” Matteo continued. “While Aria’s isolated. Make it quick. Clean. Untraceable.”
Bianca’s pulse thrummed, anticipation blooming. Eliminating Aria wasn’t just personal — it preserved legacy, control, her rightful place beside Dante.
“Once the dust settles?” she asked, slipping the folder into her designer clutch.
“We escalate,” Matteo replied. “Force Moretti’s hand, fracture his empire, and remind him where true power lies.”
A phone buzzed on the desk — coded message from Bianca’s embedded informant within Moretti’s inner circle: “Target confirmed. Estate perimeter vulnerable. Window secure.”
Bianca’s heart quickened. Perfect.
She straightened, smoothing her crimson dress, every movement precise.
“Tonight, we bury the past,” Bianca declared, voice sharp as a dagger.
Matteo’s lips twitched — approval laced with warning.
“Fail, and we inherit enemies we can’t afford,” he reminded. “But succeed…”
“The city remembers who rules,” Bianca finished.
With one final glance at the glowing skyline — Moretti’s fortress silhouetted against the dark — Bianca turned, her heels slicing through silence as she vanished into the night.
Let Aria run.
Let her beg.
In the end, the Viper always devoured the lamb.
- Writer
