Lorenzo’s mind was a storm—chaotic, relentless, and suffocating. The night had stripped away every illusion. Celeste’s threat was no longer a shadow lurking at the edges; it was a dagger pressed against his throat, cold and unforgiving.
The ledger she claimed to possess wasn’t just a book of secrets—it was a weapon, one that could annihilate everything his family had built. Every whispered alliance, every buried sin, every crime covered in silence. It all hung by a thread, fragile as glass.
And Alessia? She was caught in the middle of this maelstrom, a living reminder of every betrayal he’d ever vowed to punish. Yet she was more than that now—she was a beacon of unexpected loyalty, a flicker of something dangerous and forbidden that gnawed at his soul.
“Tell me,” he demanded, his voice
