Wolves at the Door
~SIMONE'S POV~
The photograph had haunted me for three days.
I kept it hidden in my room, folded between the pages of Papa's book where no one would find it.
Every time I looked at it, the image of my father with his arm around a teenage Nicholas made less and less sense of everything I thought I knew.
Papa had been his guardian. They'd lived together for six months. Which meant Nicholas hadn't just known my father…he'd been family.
I was still trying to process this when Carlos burst into the villa that morning, his usual calm behavior replaced by urgent tension.
I was having breakfast with Nicholas on the terrace when the commotion reached us.
"We have a problem," Carlos said without preamble, not even acknowledging my presence.
Nicholas set down his coffee
