Lorenzo’s world was collapsing in slow motion, each second dragging out the unbearable weight of betrayal and looming destruction. The room around him—the sprawling penthouse overlooking the city—felt colder than ever, the sharp lines of marble and steel mocking the chaos in his chest. The news that the Romano family had infiltrated deeper than he imagined wasn’t just a threat anymore; it was a blade pressed against his throat, one he could feel inching closer with every heartbeat.
He stood by the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the city lights flicker, but they offered no comfort, only a cruel reminder of how far the rot had spread. The woman he thought he knew—the woman whose bare skin he traced in the dark—was a ghost draped in venom. Alessia Romano. His enemy. His weakness. His down
