Nico
I couldn’t breathe.
“You have three days, Nicholas,” he said calmly, as if he were offering me an invitation, not a death sentence. “Three days to leave her. To leave everything. Or whatever scraps of the Baldocchi empire are still standing. If you don’t… I’ll blow them to bits.”
My grip on the phone tightened. I couldn’t speak. My throat felt like it was closing.
“Gianna,” he said her name slowly, deliberately, letting it settle between us. “She’s your only hope, isn’t she? The last piece of peace you think you have. The only thing that makes you believe you’re still worthy of breathing. I wonder how it’ll feel to watch her burn too.”
Something inside me splintered.
“You motherfu—”
He laughed softly, as if amused by my attempt to hold ground. “You won’t win this one, brother.
