Darkness hums.
It's alive here, thick and heavy, pressing against my skin like a second layer I can't peel off. I come to slowly, my head pounding, my wrists aching.
I'm tied to a chair.
My mouth is dry. My vision blurs, then sharpens as the dim light overhead flickers back to life.
Where am I?
The room is cold. Concrete walls, no windows. A metal door with rust at the corners. There's only one chair—and me in it.
No Alessio.
No guards.
No escape.
Panic claws its way up my throat, but I swallow it down. I won't give them the satisfaction.
Then I hear it.
Footsteps.
Measured. Slow. Expensive.
The door creaks open, and the last person I expect steps inside.
Riccardo De Rossi.
Alessio's uncle.
A man I've only seen in the shadows—quiet, calculating, always watching from the corners like a vulture circling something already dying.
"Well," he says with a polite smile. "You're awake. Good. I was hoping we could have a little chat."
I glare at him. "Where the hell am I?"
"A safehouse. One of many." He steps closer. "And don't bother screaming. No one's coming."
"What do you want from me?"
He crouches in front of me, that snake-like smile never slipping. "I want to tell you a story. About a woman named Isabelle Romano."
My pulse stutters.
"My mother."
He nods. "Your mother. Brilliant. Beautiful. And foolish. She thought love could save her. She thought it could protect you."
I try not to react, but he sees the way I flinch.
"She loved Alessio's father, you know. Before Enzo. Before you were born. But when she realized what he really was, she ran. She married into a rival family and thought she could escape this life."
"You killed her," I whisper.
His smile slips, just for a moment.
"No. Your father did. Enzo found out about her past. Her secrets. The files she kept. He thought she was still in love with Giovanni. So he beat the answers out of her."
I freeze.
"That's a lie."
He shrugs. "Believe what you want. But your mother didn't die because of Giovanni. She died because she wouldn't give up the truth. Because she protected you."
A tremble ripples through me.
"She left you those files," Riccardo continues. "She wanted you to expose the Syndicate. To finish what she couldn't."
"No," I breathe. "She wanted me to survive."
"She wanted you to choose." He stands. "And now, you have to."
I look up at him, every cell in my body screaming for Alessio.
"What choice?"
He moves to the door.
"You can be with him. Alessio. Pretend none of this matters. Pretend you're just his little obsession. His weakness. Or…"
He glances back over his shoulder, eyes glittering.
"You can burn the empire down from the inside. Just like your mother planned."
He leaves me alone in the dark.
My heart thunders.
Because I don't know what scares me more—what he said…
Or how badly I want to believe it.