The weight of the evening pressed against my shoulders like a noose tightening around my throat.
I never let my guard down. Not once. Not with Alessia. Not in this house. Not in this world where loyalty was nothing more than a fragile illusion.
Yet, as I stood in the dimly lit hallway outside Andrew Young’s office, my fists clenched at my sides, I realized that no matter how much I tried to convince myself otherwise—I had failed.
I had gotten too close.
Too attached.
And now, the world was reminding me of exactly where I stood.
A bodyguard. Nothing more.
But that illusion shattered the moment Valentino De Luca turned to me, his voice low, taunting, the corner of his mouth tilting up in a smirk that made my blood run hot with rage.
"You’re getting too attached, bodyguard," he murmur
