The ballroom of the Hôtel de Crillon buzzed with a quiet, underlying tension masked by the elegance of the evening. Beneath the glimmer of chandeliers, political elites, business magnates, and socialites mingled in quiet conversations. Glasses of champagne clinked, and the murmur of laughter filled the room, but Luca Santoro felt the weight of the night's true purpose pressing down on him.
In the crowd, his sharp gaze moved constantly. The target—Lucien Marchand, a high-ranking official who had been causing trouble for the Santoro family's expansion—was somewhere in this room. Marchand had become a liability, cozying up to rival families and undermining Santoro business deals, making it imperative that tonight's mission succeed. Luca had a simple objective: eliminate Marchand quietly and
