They created the monster

Lucian....

The office door clicked shut behind me, leaving the room in complete silence.

I walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, slipping one hand into my pocket as I watched the rain beat relentlessly against the glass. The entire estate disappeared beneath a blanket of fog, the gardens swallowed by darkness. Normally, the view calmed me.

Tonight, it did nothing.

My thoughts kept returning to one person.

Aria Romano.

A humorless laugh escaped my lips.

She had refused breakfast.

She had refused lunch.

And by now, she had probably refused dinner too.

She actually believed that starving herself was an act of defiance.

She thought she was proving something.

She couldn't have been more wrong.

She had no idea what kind of man she was dealing with.

I picked up the crystal decanter from my desk and poured myself a glass of whiskey. The amber liquid swirled as I slowly rotated the glass between my fingers.

"I want to break her."

The words left my mouth in nothing more than a whisper.

Not because I enjoyed watching women suffer.

Not because I found pleasure in cruelty.

Because Aria Romano carried the same name as the people who had destroyed everything I had ever loved.

To the rest of the world, she was an innocent woman caught in the middle.

To me...

She was a Romano.

And that was enough.

People expected me to pity her.

To feel guilty.

To look at her frightened eyes and soften.

They didn't know me.

Whatever heart I once had was buried years ago alongside my family.

The Romanos made sure of that.

Hatred wasn't something I chose.

It was something they created.

Every lie...

Every betrayal...

Every drop of blood...

It all carried their name.

So why should I show mercy now?

I took a slow sip of whiskey, letting the burn settle in my chest.

She looked at me as though I were the monster.

Maybe I was.

Monsters weren't born.

They were made.

And the Romano family had made me into exactly that.

I remembered the fire.

The screams.

The smoke.

The helplessness of watching everything I loved disappear while the people responsible walked away untouched.

Justice had never come.

So I became justice.

For years, I built my empire one deal at a time. Every company I acquired, every enemy I destroyed, every fortune I made brought me one step closer to the Romanos.

And when they were finally weak enough...

I took the only thing they had left.

Their daughter.

Some would call it cruel.

I called it balance.

Aria still believed this was about winning a small battle over food.

She had no idea this war had begun long before she even knew my name.

If she refused to obey me, she would learn.

Not today.

Not tomorrow.

But eventually.

Everyone has a breaking point.

I would find hers.

If she wanted to starve...

Let her.

If she chose pride over food...

That was her decision.

She could spend the entire night hungry for all I cared.

Even if she collapsed from exhaustion...

I wouldn't change my order.

She had to understand one thing before anything else.

In this house...

My word was law.

Disobedience had consequences.

And I never made empty threats.

I placed the whiskey glass back on the desk and stared into the darkness outside.

Tomorrow she would wake up weaker.

Tomorrow her pride would be tested again.

The question wasn't whether she would obey.

The question was how long she could hold on before she finally realized that stubbornness meant nothing against a man who had spent his entire life learning how to win.

Sooner or later...

Aria Romano would lower her head.

She would obey me.

Not because she wanted to.

Because she would have no other choice.