Dante’s pov
The news of Zara’s death had arrived like an unexpected gift.
Dante was not a man who wasted opportunities, and he recognised this one immediately for what it was — a door left open, an alarm system switched off, a moment in which the people standing between him and what he wanted were too broken to stand at all. He moved quickly and without sentiment. He retrieved the documents Adrian had manipulated Victor into signing, took them to his lawyer, and by the end of the week the transfer was complete.
He had been right about the grief. They didn’t fight back. Not one of them. The Ashford household had folded inward like a house with all its windows shut — dark, silent, consumed. He had expected at least some resistance, some last-gasp legal challenge from Victor or Marcus, but
