Chapter: SHORTERI walked back into the penthouse with the folded paper still in my pocket and the full weight of Irina’s words sitting heavy in my chest. The place was quiet. Too quiet. I had hoped for a few minutes alone to breathe and put my face back into something normal, but Matteo was already there. He stood by the big windows in the living room, arms crossed loosely over his chest, watching the door like he had been waiting for a while. The second our eyes met I felt it through the bond... that cold, settled thing he had picked up on while I was gone. It was not sharp panic or hot anger. It was quieter than that. Heavier. Like something inside me had locked into place and he had felt the click from across the city. He didn’t smile. He didn’t move toward me right away. He just looked at me with that quiet, knowing expression that always saw more than I wanted anyone to see. “You’re back,” he said. His voice was calm, but there was a question underneath it. “Yeah.” I set my keys down on the s
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-08-18
Chapter: MEETING IRINAI met her in a quiet café three neighborhoods away from the penthouse. Not one of the shiny places the family used for meetings or appearances. Just a small corner spot with scratched wooden tables, faded posters on the walls, and windows that looked out onto a narrow side street where almost no one walked by. I got there early on purpose and chose a table with my back to the wall so I could see the door. My coffee sat untouched in front of me, growing cold. My phone stayed face down on the table. No one knew I was here. Not Nico. Not Matteo. Not even Maria. The whole walk over I kept checking behind me without making it obvious. The document from the study still sat heavy in my chest. The four words Irina had sent still echoed in my head. Now I was about to sit across from the woman who had somehow reached me through a channel that should not have existed. My hands stayed steady on the table, but my pulse was faster than I wanted it to be. Irina walked in ten minutes later. She loo
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-08-18
Chapter: FOUR WORDSThe message came in the middle of the afternoon, when the penthouse was quiet again and I was alone in the living room with a half-finished cup of coffee that had already gone lukewarm.I had been sitting by the big windows for a while, trying to keep the morning’s perfect performance going even after Nico and Matteo left for their separate things. The document still sat heavy in my chest, solid and sharp, but I was breathing through it the same careful way I had all morning... steady, controlled, no cracks showing on the outside. My phone buzzed once on the cushion beside me. The soft vibration made me glance down without much interest at first. Mom sometimes texted around this time to check in. Jake would message if he needed something small or just wanted to complain about school. I picked it up expecting one of those ordinary, safe messages from the life I still tried to protect.It wasn’t either of them.The number wasn’t saved in my phone. It wasn’t one I recognized from anywher
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-08-03
Chapter: MORNINGI woke up before both of them and just lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling in the soft morning light. The document from yesterday sat heavy in my chest like a stone I couldn’t spit out no matter how hard I tried. Dante’s words. Voss’s reply. The date sitting four days before my dad died. The shape of everything was clear now, sharp and ugly, but I had decided last night that crying was for later. So I got up quietly, pulled on a soft t-shirt and some shorts, and went to make breakfast like it was any other normal morning in this penthouse. Maria was already in the kitchen when I got there, humming that old song she liked while flipping bacon in the pan. I smiled at her the way I always did and took over the eggs, cracking them one by one into the hot pan like my hands weren’t still remembering the way the laptop had clicked shut under my fingers. The smell of coffee filled the space, rich and familiar. I poured three mugs and set them carefully on the counter, then lean
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-08-03
Chapter: I WOULD BE READYI waited until the penthouse felt completely empty and still. Nico had left for some meeting across town. Matteo was handling something else. Maria had gone out to the market with her usual humming and shopping bags. The silence wrapped around me like a heavy blanket as I slipped into the study and sat down at the big desk. My hands were already shaking a little. I had been searching for weeks now... careful little checks when no one was looking, always deleting my history, always covering my tracks. Today something in my gut told me to dig deeper into one of the older shared folders Nico sometimes left accessible.I clicked through the files slowly, heart hammering in my chest. Most of it was boring business stuff. Contracts. Shipment logs. Emails about deals that meant nothing to me. But then I saw the folder labeled with Voss’s name. My breath caught. I opened it and started scrolling.There it was.A communication between Dante and Voss. Dated four days before my father died.It w
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-24
Chapter: NEVER WANT TO STOPMatteoI have always been the quieter one. The observer. The steady current that runs underneath Nico’s storms. But Aurora changed everything the moment she walked into this penthouse. I remember it so clearly. She stood there with her chin up and her eyes sharp, trying so hard to hide the fear underneath. When she reached for my water glass without asking... just picked it up and took a sip like it was the most natural thing in the world... something deep inside my chest cracked open. No hesitation. No playing small. She just took what she wanted in that small moment. And I have been falling for her ever since. Quietly. Devastatingly. The kind of fall you don’t come back from.This morning after the night we shared only made it clearer.I woke up slowly, the sheets tangled around us, her scent still heavy in the air. Nico was out cold on the other side of the bed, one arm stretched toward the empty spot where she had been sleeping between us. I lay there for a long minute, just breat
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-24
Chapter: TBCThe hospital room felt too small for all the fear packed inside it. Thirteen years had passed since that warm September afternoon in the garden when life felt perfect. Thirteen years of laughter, chaos, love, and building the family I once only dreamed about. Now everything was hanging by a thread. I hadn’t slept properly in days. My clothes smelled like antiseptic and stale coffee, but I refused to leave Ocean’s side. Not even for a minute. He lay in the bed, tubes and wires covering the strong body I had leaned on for so long. The Mafia king who once ruled with quiet power now looked exhausted and frail. The cancer had come out of nowhere and torn through him like wildfire. The doctors had been honest... it was only a matter of days unless something changed. Our children stood around the bed like silent guards. Storm, sixteen now, stood tall with his father’s jaw and my stubborn eyes. He hadn’t cried once. He kept clenching and unclenching his fists, like he could fight the ill
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-09
Chapter: EPILOGUELola’s POV Storm is three now, and he’s decided the top of the garden wall is his new office. Not sitting on it like a normal kid... no, he’s standing up there, arms out for balance, chin set exactly like his dad’s when he’s made up his mind. I’m down in the garden, eyes darting around to make sure every adult in sight is watching this absolute legend in action. “Storm,” I call up. “Get down from there.” He looks at me, makes that little grunt he does when he’s thinking. “That wasn’t a request, buddy.” He considers it for a second, then plops down on his bum instead of standing. Total compromise. He shoots me this proud little grin like he’s just negotiated world peace. He’s got Ocean’s face, my stubborn streak, and Hannah’s wicked sense of humor. We knew he’d be a handful. We were right. “Down,” I say again, firmer this time. He swings his legs over and drops straight into Ezra’s waiting arms on the other side. Of course Ezra was there. Of course Storm knew it. We all play al
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-09
Chapter: RAINLola's POV Rain arrived on a Sunday in December. Not early this time, not in some hidden cottage with gunfire popping outside and Hannah gripping my hand through every contraction while we waited for a doctor who was an hour away. Not scared out of my mind and not alone. This time Ocean was right there from the very first one. I woke him at four in the morning, just touched his shoulder and whispered that it was time. He was up before I even finished the sentence, wide awake like he'd been waiting for it. No groggy transition. Just instantly there. "How far apart?" he asked. "Twelve minutes." "Pain level?" "Manageable, it's still early." He nodded, got dressed fast, made the calls to Garrett and Hannah. All of it done in under ten minutes with that sharp focus of a man who'd been through this once and wasn't about to waste time figuring it out again. I stood in the bathroom, hands on the counter, watching my face in the mirror while another contraction rolled through me. I b
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-07
Chapter: PROPOSAL AND WEDDINGLola's POV Ocean proposes on a Tuesday evening in September. Not on one knee. Not with a prepared speech or some elaborate production like the stories you hear. He does it the way he does everything that actually matters. Directly. Without ceremony. In the kitchen after dinner, while Storm is asleep upstairs and the house has settled into that deep, comfortable quiet. I’m washing dishes and he’s drying them, the rhythm we fell into months ago without ever talking about it. He sets down the plate he’s been drying. "Marry me again," he says. I turn to look at him. He’s leaning against the counter, arms folded, wearing that steady expression he gets when he’s said something he means completely and is waiting to see what I’ll do with it. "We’re already married," I say. "I know." "Ocean..." "That ceremony was twelve people in a room and vows that only meant I will keep you alive and nothing else." He holds my gaze. "I want to do it right this time. Properly. With the people who m
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-06
Chapter: RAINLola's POV I find out on a Thursday morning in July. Storm is fast asleep for his nap, and the house has slipped into that particular kind of quiet it only gets during these stolen hours. Everything holds its breath. I can actually hear the low hum of the fridge and the faint creak of the floorboards settling, and I remember what silence feels like without a six-month-old attached to my hip. Usually I use this time to race through the million little tasks that get impossible once he’s awake. Today I do something different. I’ve been ignoring the signs for two full weeks. Not on purpose, or maybe it was on purpose. There is this specific way of ignoring something where you know exactly what you’re doing. You’ve made a quiet, private decision to keep shoving it aside until the moment comes when you can’t anymore. That’s exactly where I’ve been living for two weeks. The bone-deep tiredness I blamed on Storm’s sleep regression. The nausea I told myself came from something I ate. Tha
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-07-02
Chapter: VARIOUS SCENESSophia I fell head over heels for Storm Moretti on a Wednesday afternoon in March. Not the polite, fake kind of love adults do when they’re supposed to find a baby cute. The real deal. The sudden, goofy, can’t-help-it kind that hits you out of nowhere. He was four months old the first time I properly held him. Lola brought him over to the Romano estate for lunch. Just the two of them, like the old days when she used to stay with us. But everything felt different now. She carried herself differently. Walked through rooms like she owned the ground under her feet. That old wariness she used to have was gone, replaced by this calm confidence of a woman who finally knows where she stands. She put Storm in my arms. He looked at me real serious, like he was sizing me up. Then he made this little sound. I glanced at Lola. “What does that mean?” “Approval, I think,” she said. “Probably.” “He’s got a whole bunch of sounds. I’m still learning what they all mean.” I looked back at Stor
Terakhir Diperbarui: 2026-06-28
Masuk
