MasukAurora POVI sit in the lecture hall with my notebook open and my pen resting uselessly between my fingers.The professor’s voice washes over me without meaning. Words drift past but my gaze keeps sliding to the window toward the outside world where everything that matters is happening without me.D
My chest tightens.“There you are,” he says as his gaze instantly finds me.“Here I am,” I smile as I cross the room to him, feeling drab in my school clothes next to him. “Where else would I be?”His hand comes to my waist like it belongs there—because it does. When he looks at me, the weight of ev
Aurora POV The hotel room smells faintly of oud and sandalwood, the most trendy and expensive perfume of the moment. This is the kind of place that knows it’s expensive and doesn’t let you forget it.I sit cross-legged on the edge of the bed in jeans and a sweatshirt, my dress hung carefully so it
Aurora POVThe coffeehouse smells like burnt espresso and pastries, like safety in the form of routine.I sit in my usual corner between classes, my back to the brick wall, the small round table pressed close enough that no one, not even my usual friends, can slide in uninvited. I am too distracted
Then she looks past Dominic and the body to the other older man standing waiting, his face full of resigned dignity so unlike what had been Francesco’s final moments.“Can Gianna’s father live?” she asks hoarsely, her soft voice barely reaching him across the empty space of the warehouse.The words
Aurora POVGianna is finally still.The pill I offered her dissolved beneath her tongue, and within minutes the sharp edges of her panic soften. Her lashes flutter as she slumps against the pillow, breath evening out, the fight draining from her limbs.I brush her hair back from her face with shakin
Aurora POVThe kiss changes everything.One moment I’m standing in a quiet park with the man I was supposed to blackmail back trying to protect my own and the next I’m falling into him, letting his hands slide down my sides, gripping onto his jacket like it’s the only thing anchoring me to the earth
Oh god, if he’s taking me out here to kill me, I’m an idiot for not taking the proper measures ahead of time. Then again, Gianna knows what to do if I suddenly turn up missing. My best friend will be smart enough to figure out what happened and release the info.That, at least, brings me a little bi
Dominic POV“Knock her up?” Dominic repeated. Not because it angered him but because, for a split second, it intrigued him.He hadn’t considered that. Hadn’t even allowed himself to think that far ahead outside of killing his father. Leonardo’s death was supposed to be the climax, the explosion that
Still a man who lives by blood and betrayal, one who knows exactly what happened and chooses to stay silent because it benefits him to do so.I’ll never be one of them no matter how good I try to play the hand that’s been dealt to me. I’ll never be inside the inner circle, or get the privilege to kn







