Luca hadn’t slept properly in days.
His study’s clock read 3:17 a.m. as he sat alone, surrounded by multiple screens displaying security footage, still images, and the latest threatening message. The words burned into his mind:
We warned you. Stop digging. The child will pay the price.
He rubbed his eyes, exhaustion weighing on him like lead. Victor was still missing. No ransom. No body. Just silence from the shadows that had taken him. Luca had quietly resumed the investigation through off-the-books contacts, but every lead went cold. And now this new message — a direct threat against their unborn child.
He leaned back in his chair, staring at the frozen image on one screen: a woman who looked exactly like Sofia walking through the east garden at a time when the real Sofia had been as
