登入Giordano stood completely frozen in the dark, paralyzed by pure, unadulterated shock. His fingers lost all feeling, and the heavy steel sidearm slipped from his hand, thudding softly onto the thick rug near his bare feet. He took a trembling step forward, his bloodshot eyes stretched wide with complete disbelief. His frantic mind raced, trying to figure out if he had finally lost his mind after ninety days of torturous grief. Months of drowning in cheap whiskey, suffocating in total isolation, and staring at the dark walls made him wonder if his brain was playing another sick trick on him. He had seen her shadow in the corners of his room before. He had heard her voice in his sleep a hundred times. "No," Giordano muttered, backing away slightly and shaking his head in total denial. "No, this is not happening. I am hallucinating again. I am losing my mind." "Giordano," Victoria said softly, her voice steady and warm. "No!" Giordano yelled, his voice cracking as he slammed his hand
Midnight struck in Manhattan. Inside the top floor penthouse, Giordano was losing his mind. He paced back and forth across the freezing, pitch black living room like a caged beast. Empty whiskey bottles littered the hardwood floor, clinking together loudly whenever his heavy, unlaced boots kicked them out of the way. Crushed cigarette packs sat piled up on the glass table next to overflowing ashtrays. Giordano looked like a total mess. He was dangerously thin and hollowed out, his skin pale and sickly from months of barely eating. A thick, unkempt beard covered his sharp jawline, and his messy, unbrushed dark hair fell wild over his tired, bloodshot eyes. He had lost his temper, his empire, and his sanity, but he refused to accept the cold truth everyone else was trying to shove down his throat. He jammed his phone against his ear, his hand trembling with rage as he barked into the receiver. "I do not give a single shit what Interpol says!" Giordano screamed into the phone, his vo
The rain beat hard against Kany’s apartment window, making a loud, lonely sound in the dark room. Water droplets trickled down the cold glass in dark, unending streams, mirroring the storm raging inside her chest. Bruce sat on the sofa beside her, staring down at his broad, calloused hands. He had come over to check on her because he knew she was spiraling just as badly as Vito and Giordano. Neither of them wanted to be alone in their empty apartments with their dark, suffocating thoughts. Kany sat on the very edge of the cushions, looking at the hardwood floor with blank, tired eyes. Her face was pale, almost ghostly in the dim gray light filtering through the blinds. She looked small, fragile, and completely broken, a stark contrast to the sharp, unstoppable woman she usually was. "You haven't eaten all day, Kany," Bruce said softly. His voice was low and quiet in the still room, stripped of its usual gruff authority. "You need to stay strong." "How can I eat, Bruce?" Kany asked
"VICTORIA! GIORDANO!" Vito’s agonized scream tore through the deafening roar of flames and churning waves as he sprinted toward the edge of the collapsing pier. Blinding rain slammed into his face, nearly washing away his vision as he watched Giordano’s body plunge off the speedboat deck, disappearing into the pitch-black, freezing Atlantic sea right after Victoria was dragged down. "Get the spotlights on the water!" Vito screamed, spinning back toward the boat deck and violently grabbing Malik by his tactical vest. "Right now! Get your men in the water! They are both in there!" "Vito, the whole boathouse is going under!" Malik shouted back over the thunderous roar, his hands shaking as he shoved Vito's hands off his vest. "The current is pulling everything straight into the deep channel! It is too dangerous!" "I do not give a damn about the channel!" Vito yelled, stepping right back into Malik's face, his bloodshot eyes wild with terror and rage. "That is my sister down there! An
Giordano’s dark, breathless chuckle cut through the suffocating silence of the bunker. The red digital timer on the vault terminal ticked down mercilessly: 00:15... 00:10... 00:05... "Press it, Eleanora," Giordano taunted, his voice smooth and cold as steel, despite the blood dripping down his temple. "Go on. Do it." "Burn in hell, both of you!" Screaming in unhinged, manic rage, Eleanora slammed her trembling palm onto the master execution button. Nothing blew up. No gas pipes ruptured. No seismic shockwave shook the concrete floor. Instead, the screens on both the EMP briefcase and the vault terminal flickered violently, glitching into cascading lines of bright crimson code. A massive surge of hijacked power burst through the roof vents, projecting a blinding, gigantic golden hologram high into the stormy ocean sky above the island. It was a glowing, ancient Chinese character for marriage: 囍. Eleanora stumbled back, her eyes wide with unadulterated horror as she stared up thro
Vito stood motionless in the broken doorway, his chest heaving under his tactical vest. The dim red emergency light washed over his mud-stained jaw and the blood splattered across his neck. His dark eyes locked onto Eleanora, ignoring the ticking red numbers flashing on the cart beside her. "Step away from the console, Eleanora," Vito growled, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. Eleanora let out a high, bitter laugh that echoed off the damp concrete walls. "Or what, Vito? You will shoot your own mother?" "You stopped being my mother the day you faked your death and abandoned me," Vito spat, his voice cracking with a lifetime of buried rage as he took a heavy step into the room. "You staged your own bloody murder, left me as a child in that empty house, and disappeared. You never loved me. You never even saw me as a son! And Victoria, you didn’t even care about her either!” Beside Giordano, Victoria’s breath hitched. She blinked through the haze of her dizziness, her brow furrowing
Fifteen years ago“Dad, does mummy hate us?”Eight-year-old Victoria asked, clutching the white and silver-studded teddy bear designed specifically for her by her father, Damien De Luca. Smiling down at his daughter, whose gray eyes shimmered with innocence, Damien crouched to her height.“Honey, m
“...we’ve got news on your father’s death.”The cold night air outside Helms Cove hit Victoria like a slap. She didn't gasp or scream. She just stood there by the open door of her car, her silver-gray eyes fixing on Kany."Get in," Victoria said, her voice dropping to a flat, hard whisper.The mome
Friday night. 8:58 PM.The air outside Helms Cove was freezing. At exactly nine o'clock, Victoria stepped inside. Her crimson leather dress was sleek, simple, and fit like a second skin. She scanned the empty room until she spotted Giordano in a corner booth.He had a quiet, relaxed posture, comple
The sharp, rhythmic clinking of designer stiletto heels shattered the pristine silence of the DanTech corporate reception lobby. Victoria’s grand entry struck the room like a sudden drop in atmospheric pressure, instantly radiating an aura of absolute dominance that left the employees frozen in pla







