Serafina’s POV
San Verità woke up screaming.
It wasn’t metaphorical. Sirens cut through the dawn, news vans crowded courthouse steps, and Luca De Santis’s name scrolled across every screen in the city like a curse finally spoken out loud.
By noon, his empire was bleeding in public.
I watched it unfold from a borrowed apartment overlooking the river, the curtains drawn just enough to let the light in. The television was muted, but I didn’t need sound to understand the damage.
DE SANTIS ASSETS FROZEN PENDING INVESTIGATION.
BANKS CUT TIES WITH MAJOR SHIPPING INTERESTS.
JUDICIAL INQUIRY LAUNCHED INTO SAN VERITÀ CORRUPTION.
The flash drive had done its work.
No—we had.
I set the burner phone down slowly, my fingers steady in a way they hadn’t been weeks ago. Fear still lived in me, bu
