(Alessandro’s POV)
I woke to the soft light of dawn filtering into the bedroom. For the first time in a decade, the familiar emptiness of my bed was gone, replaced by the warm, living presence of Isabella. She was asleep, her back curled against my side, her breathing a soft, steady rhythm that felt like the only point of peace in a world at war. I watched her for a long moment, a new, terrifying level of protectiveness coiling in my gut. My life had once been a straightforward path of vengeance. Now, it was a fight for a future I hadn't known I wanted until she'd shown it to me.
The memory of the previous night was a raw, vivid brand on my mind—the fury, the fear, the desperate, almost violent passion that had followed. Our fight had been a brutal, necessary storm. It had cleared the ai
