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The variable

last update publish date: 2026-05-03 15:16:03

Rico’s POV

Nella was the variable I had not fully accounted for.

I had known about her for years: pretty little Vito’s daughter, the pampered artist, the girl who was kept so carefully behind the walls of her father’s world that she had never developed the sharp instincts that world demanded.

From a distance, she had seemed entirely manageable. A soft pawn. Useful collateral.

But I had been watching her more closely since she moved into Giovanni’s villa. Since she began painting again. Since An
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    Nella’s POVThe baby had finally opened her eyes.I had been waiting for it without knowing I was waiting for her to open them, through the feeds, the quiet, long, strange hours of hospital night and when it happened it was so sudden and so complete that I simply stopped breathing for a moment.Golden-brown. Exactly like his. An adorable replica.Just like the saying that goes: blood is thicker than water and genes are the strongest you'd find in humans.Her eyes are the vague, unfocused blue that newborns sometimes arrive with, it wasn't that indeterminate colour that resolved into something else over weeks. Hers were already decided — warm, deep and sharp, carrying that particular cub-like intensity in miniature, in a face so small I could cup it entirely in one hand. She looked up at me with the specific gravity of someone who had arrived somewhere important and was already taking inventory.My heart made a sound I did not have a name for.I pressed my lips together and held her t

  • Forceful pleasures: Subjected to the Don   The variable

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