The first thing Elena noticed as she stepped out onto the terrace of the DeLuca estate was the silence. The air was thick, heavy with a sense of loss that seemed to have settled over everything, like dust on a forgotten bookshelf. The ruins of their once-thriving empire were all around her: the cracked walls, the overgrown garden where blooms once flourished, the burned remnants of their former glory.
The world beyond the estate seemed distant, as if it had moved on while they remained, stuck in the shadow of what had been. The fields, once lush and vibrant, now appeared barren—stripped of life and promise. The mansion that had housed their dynasty loomed behind her, its grandeur a cruel reminder of how far they had fallen.
She stood there for a long time, staring out over the land that
