The city was waking up, but Alessia felt like she was suffocating beneath a thick, unyielding fog. Dawn’s light poured weakly through the cracked window of the safe house, casting long, fractured shadows that seemed to crawl like living things along the peeling walls. Each breath she took was heavy, weighed down by the gravity of what had happened—and what was still coming.
Her hands trembled as she clasped the crumpled piece of paper she’d found slipped under the door last night. The message was brief, chilling:
They are closer than you think. Watch your back. Trust no one.
Alessia’s eyes burned with exhaustion, but sleep was a stranger now. Her mind reeled with questions and doubts, tangled in a web of betrayal that was tightening faster than she could escape.
Lorenzo was still aslee
