Se connecterThe war room was loud and intense.It was the kind of noise made by intelligent men trying desperately to solve a puzzle with half its pieces missing.Papers covered the table as well as walls.Maps of the Valtieri Estate are by Dominic’s reach as well as security reports, board member profiles, corporate structures that he managed to get from those that are secretly loyal to his father.Sebastian stood near the large whiteboard with a marker in hand.He wrote names, crossing out possibilities, building connections but then destroying them minutes later while letting out curses.Antonio sat with both feet propped on another chair, gripping his third coffee while Vincent beside him is reviewing financial reports.Roberto is on a secure phone, calling old contacts while Ulysses sat quietly, reading historical council records.Michael had arrived half an hour earlier and was now examining Valtieri Holdings' organizational charts with August beside him, commenting from time to time when h
Years.She wrote years.Alessandro.Eighteen years.Luca.Twenty-one years.Matteo.Thirty years.She froze as she looked at the numbers.Thirty years.Thirty years.Thirty years.The realization sent chills down her spine.Matteo wasn't absent but was patient.Althea stared at the page."Oh my God." The words escaped again.Nobody noticed or heard because suddenly, everything looked different as she stared at the papers in front of her.Her brain moved rapidly."No." She said to herself as she placed down the papers on her desk. "He wasn't forgotten. He let himself be forgotten. But he stayed in the margins and stayed invisible."Then she stopped and her eyes widened."That's why."She looked toward the window and saw that the estate grounds below looked peaceful.Matteo never competed with Alessandro.He never competed with Luca.He never competed with Dominic.He waited and the realization terrified her because ambitious people made mistakes while patient people didn't.She grabbed
The Medical Wing never slept.While mostly the other parts of Blackstone had quiet moments, the medical wing never did.There will always be someone needing help.Someone always needed medication.Someone always needed reassurance.Someone always needed saving.It was one of the reasons Althea loved it and hated as well.Today was one of those days because for the first time in years, she just wanted her brain to stop.However, it refused.Seven-thirty in the morning, Althea, taking over the rounds since Helena told her that she needs to go back to her island to check on a patient that one of her doctors had operated on last night, stood beside the bed of the patient she had operated on the previous day.Mr. Carlos Lind.Forty-nine years old.Collapsed lung.Three fractured ribs.Internal bleeding.He should have died but instead, he’s awake and complaining to Althea, which is a very good sign.She checked his chart."Pain?" She questioned calmly."Five."She looked up and gave him a
The mattress shifted again, returning her to the present.Dominic still hadn't slept neither had she.Hours earlier, before they even came to bed, she had already told him.The moment she was finally done from her surgery, Helena informed her about the emergency board announcement.The moment everything changed.Althea still remembered entering their room and finding Dominic sitting on the edge of the bed. He looked exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally.The interrogation.The Axis.The vault.Aurelio.Weeks of stress.Months of uncertainty.Years of responsibility.It all sat visibly on his shoulders."Dominic." She called gently as she closed the door.He looked up and immediately noticed her expression."What happened?" He asked slowly as he stood up.The words had come slowly because even then she sensed it wouldn't end well."There's news." She replied and watched Dominic trying to hide a sigh.That action alone made her chest ache. It was not because he was annoyed but
The room was dark though not completely.Moonlight slipped through the gaps in the curtains, casting pale silver across the bedroom, enough to illuminate outlines of the room.The bed.The dresser.The armchair near the window.The broad shape of Dominic beside her.Althea lay on her side facing away from him, her eyes closed but she wasn’t sleeping.Neither was Dominic.She knew because Dominic had shifted positions four times in the last twenty minutes. The movement is not enough to disturb most people but enough to disturb her because she knew him.Every version of him.The younger Dominic who used to sneak into her study room back at the apartment after an online meeting because he missed her.The determined Dominic who spent nights taking care of her when she’s sick while she fell asleep on his shoulder.The angry Dominic who carried the burden of Alessandro's expectations.The broken Dominic she thought she had lost forever.The man beside her now.She knew all of them and she k
The estate had become unusually active for the night as guards started to occupy positions that have previously been left unguarded.Certain archives had been sealed and several staff members had either been terminated or promoted.Everyone was adapting and adjusting, learning the new order from the new Valtieri patriarch.Matteo approved.Control wasn't seized but maintained.The distinction mattered.He entered the old council chamber, a room most family members avoided.Massive oak table at the center with twelve seats where history has been embedded into every surface.Power.The room smelled like old wood and older secrets.Matteo sat at the head, the seat that was previously occupied by Luca and their father, grandfather. It could have been Alessandro sitting before but Matteo had made sure that he wouldn’t get the chance.He had made sure of that.The symbolic weight alone felt intoxicating.For several moments he simply sat there, enjoying it, the silence as well as the victor
Althea felt the moment stretch too thin as she glanced around them.Too many eyes and ears pretending not to notice or listen.The tension between Dominic and Michael lingered like a live wire, and she knew well enough that once it snaps in front of everyone, it would not be forgiven.Not by the De
The gala had been on Althea’s calendar way before the bloodlines resurfaced and names were dragged back into the light.She decided not to attend and had argued against attending.Althea, at first was quiet about it and finally became stubborn.Helena had listened, arms crossed, gaze steady.“Althe
The first blow from the Valtieri’s did not come with gunfire or sirens.It arrived as information. A leak that is controlled but precise and merciless.By midmorning, the name Althea Johnson no longer existed in the circles that mattered.It quietly replaced throughout the diplomatic channels, fina
Dominic woke with a gasp.His body jerked upright as if pulled from deep water, breath tearing into his lungs, heart slamming against his ribs with violent insistence.The room was dark, darker to be within the walls of the Devereaux complex, where emergency lighting never truly sle







