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Chapter 44: Public Fire

ผู้เขียน: HIL’Bray
last update ปรับปรุงล่าสุด: 2025-08-26 18:18:17

The insistent buzz of Marco’s phone was the first discordant note in the otherwise sterile silence of Alessandro’s penthouse office.

It was dawn, the city skyline just beginning to blush with pale pink and gold, a sight Alessandro usually found grounding. Today, it felt like the prelude to an execution.

“Sir,” Marco’s voice was tight, strained, cutting through the quiet like shrapnel. He stood rigidly by the floor-to-ceiling window, staring at his screen, his face unnaturally pale.

“You need to see this. Now.”

Alessandro looked up from the financial reports he hadn’t truly been reading. The cold detachment that had been his armor since Sicily felt brittle, thin.

“See what, Marco?” His voice sounded hollow, even to himself. “Another fabricated email? More ‘proof’ of Isabel’s treachery?” The name tasted like ash. He’d tried to purge it, purge her, from his mind. The flash drive sat locked in his desk drawer, a Pandora's box he refused to reopen.

“Worse, sir.” Marco’s knuckles w
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