Alessia didn’t get far from the penthouse. Still, the moment she stepped outside, something changed like crossing a line she couldn’t go back from. The air felt different. Cooler, sharper, as if it carried the weight of everything she’d just faced. Her heart pounded, still tangled in the remnants of that confrontation. Not just with him, but with all the things he chose to leave unsaid. Particularly the silence between them it was becoming clear that silence was Rafael’s deadliest weapon.
Once inside the elevator, Alessia pressed her fingers to her temple, trying to steady the whirlwind inside her mind. The phrase echoed in her thoughts over and over. “You’re closer to this than you realize.” What did those words even mean? How could she be connected to something that had happened years a
