The sound of Marco’s team approaching was a distant, efficient thunder — the closing of a net Gabe had been too arrogant to see. But inside the sun-drenched villa, a different kind of reckoning was unfolding, silent and devastating.
Isabella stood frozen, caught between the ghost of her father’s ruined studio and the living, breathing man who represented the family that might have destroyed it. Alessandro’s plea hung in the air, but the damage was done. Gabe’s poison had found its mark, and the trust she had fought so hard to build felt like a sandcastle against a tidal wave.
Gabe’s triumphant smile didn’t falter as the footsteps grew closer. “Too late, Alessandro. The truth is out. I’ve won.”
“You’ve lost everything,” Alessandro countered, his voice dangerously calm, though his eyes re
