Mafia Prince

CHAPTER SIX (Broken Trust)

The silence in the warehouse was thick, almost suffocating. Only the soft hum of the single hanging bulb dared to make a sound.

Alessandro stood still, his back to her, fists clenched. His shirt clung to his body, stained with blood—not his.

"Who did this?" Aria's voice trembled, but not from fear this time. She was angry. Angry and… heartbroken.

He turned around slowly, face unreadable. "It was a message."

She took a step closer. "From who?"

He looked her dead in the eyes. "My brother."

Her heart dropped.

She remembered the name from the whispers in the shadows—Lorenzo Moretti, the ghost who was supposed to be dead. The real monster of the Moretti empire. Alessandro had only ever spoken of him once. A traitor. A killer.

"You said he disappeared years ago. That he was dead."

"I wanted to believe that."

Alessandro looked shaken, something rare for a man like him. But even now, there was a glint of something wild in his eyes. Something dangerous.

Aria took another step forward, her voice low. “Why send a message now? Why involve me?”

He moved fast—too fast. His hand gripped her wrist, not tightly, but enough to make her breath catch. "Because he knows, Aria. He knows what you are to me."

The words struck her harder than a slap.

She yanked her wrist free. "And what am I to you, Alessandro? Another possession? A weakness to be used against you?"

His jaw clenched. "No. You’re the only thing keeping me from becoming what he is."

Her heart skipped.

But she didn’t trust it.

Not after last night.

Not after she saw the photo—the one slipped under her door—of Alessandro and another woman, blonde, wrapped around him in a hotel hallway. Dated two nights ago. Hours before he’d whispered promises against her skin.

She hadn’t told him yet. She didn’t know if it was real. But the pain—that was real.

“You’re hiding something,” she whispered.

His eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

She threw the folded photo on the table between them. It slid across the metal surface like a silent bomb.

He looked at it. His face didn’t change.

But his silence spoke everything.

“I didn’t touch her,” he finally said, voice rough. “That night was a setup. I was drugged.”

“How convenient,” Aria snapped, her chest heaving. “Just like everything else in your world. A lie. A trap. A f*****g game.”

"Aria, don’t walk away." He reached for her, but she stepped back.

“I’m not walking away,” she said coldly. “I’m running. Before I lose myself in whatever this is.”

She turned and stormed out of the warehouse, ignoring the way his voice called after her—desperate, broken.

Outside, the wind hit her like a slap, and she welcomed it. Pain was easier to face than betrayal.

She didn’t see the shadow watching from the rooftop above.

Didn’t see the glint of a sniper’s scope aimed directly at her.

Didn’t know that as she walked away from Alessandro…

She was walking straight into the arms of Lorenzo Moretti.

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End of Chapter 6