The city lights flickered against the night sky, restless and alive, but inside the private penthouse overlooking the harbor, the atmosphere was suffocating. No marble pillars, no grandeur, no haunting silence of the Delwunco estate just steel, glass, and the hum of the world below.Lia sat by the tall window, her reflection a ghost in the glass. She wore crimson silk, a deliberate choice too bold to be mourning, too sharp to be soft. Her hair spilled over her shoulders, dark waves framing a face that looked almost serene. Almost. But serenity was a mask, one she had perfected. Beneath it lived a storm.Behind her, Ruben was pacing. He had spent the last hour on the phone with men who once swore allegiance to him, only to hesitate now, fearing the shift of power they couldn’t quite name. He’d tried to rally them back into his grip, but whispers spread fast whispers that his wife was no longer standing behind him, but above him.He ended the call with a curse and threw the phone onto t
Lia stepped out of the sleek black car, her heels clicking against the sidewalk as though each step was a declaration. Her black silk coat swayed, catching the glow of streetlamps. To anyone else, she was just another beautiful woman in the city elegant, untouchable, dangerous. But inside, the fire that had consumed her since Julian’s death burned hotter than the night air.Ruben followed a step behind, silent, watchful, his presence as magnetic as it was shadowed. He looked less like a man escorting his wife and more like a soldier guarding a queen who was slowly slipping beyond his grasp.Tonight was not about mourning. Tonight was about power.They entered one of the city’s oldest private clubs The Glass House a place where business overlapped with pleasure, where politicians, crime lords, and CEOs alike came to sip rare whiskey and trade whispers that decided futures. Lia had insisted on coming, brushing off Ruben’s protests.Inside, the atmosphere was thick with cigar smoke and s
The house belonged to her.And everyone knew it.At the long dining table, Ruben sat stiffly at the head, his shoulders broad but weighted with something invisible. The men, his allies, his brothers-in-arms, filled the seats on either side. They had come to hear him, but their eyes drifted down the table to the woman dressed in black. Lia sat in the middle of the length, not beside him, not at the edge, but perfectly centered as though she were the axis of the world.Her dress was silk, the color of midnight, clinging to her form with deliberate elegance. A diamond glinted at her throat, sharp as ice. The room seemed colder with her in it.She didn’t look at Ruben. She didn’t need to.“Gentlemen,” Ruben began, his voice hoarse. He cleared his throat, forcing steadiness. “We are gathered here to strategize on reclaiming our borders. The opposition”“Its fractured,” Lia interrupted smoothly, her voice like velvet dipped in venom. Heads turned toward her. “They’ve lost two of their top c
The morning was pale when Daphne arrived at the estate. The grand gates loomed tall, black iron twisted into cruel patterns like a cage, guarding the world within. Even the air seemed colder once she stepped through, as if grief itself had taken residence in every stone, every echo of the halls.Daph’s heels clicked faintly as she walked, her heart heavy with dread. She hadn’t seen Lia in weeks, not since the wedding that had felt more like a funeral than a celebration. Everyone whispered about how Lia had changed about her new black dresses, about the way she looked like a queen carved of obsidian, untouchable, untouching. But Daphne knew better. She knew there was still flesh beneath the marble, still a heart beneath the armor.And she feared what it must look like now.When the maid led her to the west wing, Daphne paused outside the heavy doors of the master bedroom. She hesitated. The last time she had stood here, Lia had spoken with eyes made of fire, her voice sharp as knives.
The city didn’t sleep. Not anymore.Neon lights pulsed against rain-slicked streets, reflecting on the glass towers that reached into the sky like sharpened blades. At the heart of the chaos, whispers spread through alleyways, poker dens, and smoke-choked bars whispers of her. The Black Widow of the Delwuncos. The woman who wore her son’s ghost like armor. The woman who had turned a wedding into a funeral, and a family into an empire.And tonight, for the first time since her return, she would be seen outside the estate.A convoy of sleek, black cars cut through the rain-soaked avenues, engines purring like predators. The city’s underbelly gang lords, politicians, businessmen, even her enemies watched from the shadows as the fleet slowed outside the grandest hall in the district. The Delwuncos had called a meeting, and the world had no choice but to answer.Inside the car, Lia sat poised in the backseat, draped in a gown the color of midnight. Her lips were painted blood-red, her fing
Her presence had shifted the very bones of the house. The portraits of Delwunco men that once loomed in the grand hall now competed with the shrine of Julian that spread across the master wing. Black silk hung along the banisters, draped as though the mansion itself was mourning. Even the servants whispered differently half in awe, half in terror.Lia walked those halls like a crowned widow, her black dress cutting sharp against her pale skin, her hair pinned back like a queen preparing for war. She did not soften for Ruben, and certainly not for Ken.Ruben sat in the study, the whiskey glass trembling faintly between his fingers. He had married her again. He had told himself it was for love, for redemption, for the child they had both lost. But every day since that lavish wedding, he felt more like he had handed her the keys to his kingdom only to watch her transform it into a funeral pyre.Tonight was no different. He watched her through the half-open door as she gave orders to the