LOGINThe mansion had never felt so small.Gabrielle stood in the surveillance room beneath the west wing, arms folded behind his back, eyes fixed on the wall of screens. The house looked peaceful from every angle,hallways gleaming, chandeliers glowing softly, guards pacing in their assigned routes. Order. Control.Illusion.The accident was days behind them now, but its echo lingered like a bruise that refused to fade. The screech of tires. The shattered glass. The way Alexa’s name had ripped from antonio’s throat when he thought just for a second that he’d lost her.Cordelia’s voice still rang in his head.“Protect her at all costs.”He intended to.That was why the house had become a cage. No one entered without clearance. No one left without explanation. Staff schedules had been quietly rearranged. Guards reassigned. Phones monitored. Conversations logged.And still,someone had tried to kill them.“ master Gabrielle.”Antonio’s voice came from behind him. Calm. Controlled. But there was
The car should have exploded.That was the first thought that crossed Gabrielle Casanova’s mind as he stood beside the mangled vehicle, surrounded by flashing emergency lights and the muted chaos of men pretending this was just another accident.The front end of the black sedan was crushed inward, metal folded like paper, the windshield webbed with cracks. The smell of burnt rubber and overheated engine oil clung to the air. If the collision had occurred a second later,if the brakes had failed completely,there would have been no survivors.Alexa would be dead. Antonio would be dead.And the Thorn would have lost more than it could afford.Gabrielle’s face was carved from stone as private investigators finished their work. Alexa sat on the curb, wrapped in a shawl,a faint bruise already forming along her temple. Gabrielle had forced them out to the scene of the accident, hoping to find some answers. Antonio stood nearby, jaw clenched, arm vibrating through his tight sleeve, refusing t
The morning carried a strange quiet.Antonio noticed it first as he drove out of the gates of Gabrielle’s mansion , the wrought iron closing behind them with its usual mechanical precision. Alexa sat beside him, her sunglasses perched on her nose, one hand absently resting against the door. Neither spoke much. The silence between them wasn’t awkward,it was weighted.“You sure you don’t want extra guards?” Antonio asked, eyes flicking briefly to the rearview mirror.Alexa shook her head. “We’re just going to the mall. Public place. Cameras everywhere.”Antonio didn’t argue, but the tension in his jaw remained. Ever since the oath,ever since Cordelia had bound Alexa more tightly to the Thorn,the world felt sharper, more brittle. Like glass under pressure.Traffic flowed easily. The city moved like it always did: indifferent, busy, alive. Nothing about the morning suggested danger. That was what unsettled Antonio the most.They reached the mall just before noon.Inside, the air smelled o
Antonio closed the door to the small sitting room with deliberate care, ensuring the latch made no sound. Olivia stood near the window, arms crossed tightly, watching the early morning light filter across the manicured lawn.Neither spoke at first.They didn’t need to.“You saw it too,” Olivia finally said, her voice low.Antonio nodded once. “I did.”“The way he looked at her,” she continued. “Not like a wife. Not even like a partner.”Antonio leaned against the wall, exhaling slowly. “Like a ruler looking at his equal.”Olivia turned sharply. “That’s exactly it. And it scares me.”Antonio’s jaw tightened. “It should.”They both fell silent again, replaying the drama before in their minds,the raised voices behind closed doors, the sharp edge in Gabrielle’s tone when the oath was mentioned, the way Alexa didn’t back down. And then, later, the silence. Not the angry kind. The heavy, settled kind.“The house feels different this morning,” Olivia said quietly.Antonio’s gaze flicked towa
Gabrielle stepped inside. The air shifted instantly. The warmth evaporated.His presence filled the room with a thick, unspoken tension. He didn’t speak. He didn’t greet anyone. He didn’t even glance at the spread of food on the table. He simply stood there, dressed in crisp black, his hair slightly tousled as if he’d run a hand through it too many times that morning.Alexa’s teacup paused halfway to her lips.Ava stiffened. Olivia straightened.Antonio, who had just walked in through the side entry with the morning reports, froze mid-step, eyes darting between Gabrielle and Alexa.The silence was heavy, brittle.Gabrielle’s gaze finally lifted slowly, deliberately and settled on Alexa. His eyes were unreadable, but his jaw was tight, and the muscle beneath his cheek twitched in a way that told everyone in the room that something was very, very wrong.Ava cleared her throat gently.“Good morning, sir. Breakfast will…”“Not now,” Gabrielle said quietly.Ava’s words died immediately.Ol
The aroma of sizzling butter filled the kitchen long before the sun had fully risen. Ava moved around her domain with quiet efficiency, her apron dusted with flour, her expression stern in the way of someone who had been worrying since dawn.Alexa stepped in first. There was a softness to her character this morning, a looseness to her shoulders, a glow she couldn’t quite hide. She tried to tug her hair behind her ear as if that could conceal the warmth still clinging to her skin from the night before.Olivia noticed. Of course she did. She had been with Alexa long enough to read every shift in her mood.“Well, well,” Olivia murmured as she slid onto a stool at the counter. “Someone looks… refreshed.”Alexa shot her a warning glare, but the smile tugging at her lips ruined the intimidation. “Don’t start.”“I didn’t say anything,” Olivia replied, eyes sparkling. “But someone had a very good night.”Ava turned from the stove, her brows raised not in amusement, but in concern so sharp it







