เข้าสู่ระบบThe 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
The old Valtieri Estate had always belonged to ghosts.Not the literal ones but to something much worse.Memories.Legacy.Power.The weight of the Valtieri generations lingered within every corridor, every staircase, every carved stone archway.Men had ruled empires from these halls and wars had been funded from these rooms.Governments influenced, dynasties being built and destroyed.For nearly three centuries, the ancestral seat of the Valtieri family had remained unchanged.It endured as it watched generations rise and fall, brothers becoming enemies, sons becoming fathers and watching ambition consume everything it touched.Tonight, the estate belonged to Matteo Valtieri.Finally. The thought brought a smile to his face.A small and dangerous smile.Satisfied.Long overdue.Matteo stood alone in the western gallery overlooking the main courtyard.Night had fallen hours ago and he looked at the ancient estate glowed beneath carefully positioned floodlights.Security personnel move
VALTIERI HOLDINGS ANNOUNCES EMERGENCY LEADERSHIP TRANSITIONSilence.Absolute silence.The female reporter continued speaking."...following recent instability within the organization...""...new leadership structure...""...board approval...""...effective immediately..."Dominic frowned."What?!" He asked tightly.Then the screen changed and a photograph appeared.The room froze, not one moving or breathing.Because the man on the screen wasn't Dominic.Wasn't Aurelio.Wasn't anyone expected.Older.Silver-haired.Sharp-featured.Elegant.Dangerous.The reporter continued. "Matteo Valtieri, son from the second wife of the late Don Riccardo Valtieri has officially assumed executive authority over Valtieri Holdings..."Antonio stood so quickly his chair crashed backward."What?"Vincent looked genuinely stunned."No." Sebastian said out loud as he stared at the screen, pure disbelief visible on his face. “How the f8ck did that happen?!”Dominic didn't immediately react as his brain wa
The flight back to Blackstone was in complete silence not because each of them has nothing to say. It’s more like there was too much to talk about.The sea stretched endlessly beneath the helicopter.Dark blue water.White foam.Grey skies.Normally Ulysees would have complained about something like the weather, the prison, the atmosphere or just anything.However, after they went out of Blackgate, he remained unusually quiet.That alone told Dominic how much the meeting had affected everyone.Across from him, Sebastian stared out the window.Vincent is looking on his phone while Roberto sat with his arms crossed, his face solemn.Ulysses looked thoughtful.While Enzo, looked annoyed.Not angry or frustrated.He looked completely annoyed, the kind that appeared when he couldn’t solve a problem.Dominic knew the feeling because he felt exactly the same way.Aurelio had told them almost nothing. Yet somehow, he had managed to leave them with more questions than answers.The first fractu
Dominic Valtieri entered his office just as the sun cut through the high-rise blinds, slicing thin bands of gold across his polished desk. The city below hummed with its usual rhythm, but up here, in his corner office on the forty-third floor of the Valtieri Tower, the world felt heavy, charged, an
Althea found Michael in the dimly lit lab lounge. He greeted her when she entered and sat across from him.The hum of AURELIA’s diagnostics from the nearby testing room was a low, persistent reminder that the world outside the island still existed but here, now, it was just the two of them.“Had a
That night, Althea slipped out to the veranda overlooking the sea. The night breeze lifted her hair, cooling the sweat still clinging to her skin. She didn’t even remember walking there, one moment she had been staring blankly at her lab notes, the next her feet were carrying her outside, to the on
The grape sat on the metal table beneath the surgical lights—not a patient, not a simulation, just a fragile sphere of skin and pulp.“A grape?!” Michael asked in disbelief as they finally decided to start the trial of AURELIA. He looked at the two women in front of him. “All this tech and our firs







