CHAPTER 27 — THE PRICE OF VISIBILITY
The city did not sleep.
It only pretended to.
From the balcony of the estate, Amara watched the distant lights flicker against the dark horizon, each one representing a life untouched by the war she had become part of. Somewhere below, people laughed, argued, loved, and lived without knowing that power was shifting above them, that alliances were bending, that violence was being calculated with cold precision.
She wrapped her arms around herself—not from fear, but from the weight of awareness.
Visibility had a price.
And tonight, she could feel the bill coming due.
Behind her, the door opened softly. She didn’t turn. She already knew who it was. Alessandro’s presence had become familiar in a way that unsettled her—not because it weakened her, bu
