LOGINAurora 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
Dominic POVDominic does not do this alone anymore.He has always had a small, loyal group, but now it’s tripled in size. There are more headlights behind him turning into the Caruso estate than there used to be, more engines idling in the driveway, more men stepping out, their movements efficient,
Gianna sighs softly. “I’m worried about my father, too. You know whatever Francesco is doing, he’s dragged my dad into it.”I want to assure her, to tell her that Dominic won’t hurt her father, that he’ll understand Stefano is a good man and who is simply being loyal to a tyrant who doesn’t deserve
Aurora POVI try to keep my eyes on the lecture slides, but the words blur into meaningless shapes, floating in front of me like smoke.Economics of Transitional States. Market Forces in Post-Industrial Regions. All this could be useful someday to the family’s business. And yet my pen taps restlessl
For a moment Dominic considers grabbing Beatrice by the throat. Not out of rage, but out of principle. Disloyalty like this poisons everything it touches.Instead, he steps back. Francesco, he thinks, got what he deserved in a wife.He holds up his hands.“Go,” he says.She hesitates, surprised. The







