CHAPTER 4

SELENA'S POV

Two days have passed after that encounter with that masked Castellano. I tried to shake the uneasy feeling for him. Some part of me is like being pulled toward him. It was my wedding with Enzo.

My father used to tell me that every woman remembers two moments forever.

The moment she falls in love... and the moment her entire life changes.

As I walked down the cathedral aisle toward Enzo, I truly believed those two moments had finally become the same thing.

The massive doors behind me slowly closed while violins filled the church with soft, beautiful music. Candlelight flickered against gold-covered walls, and stained glass windows painted the marble floor with colors that looked almost heavenly.

White roses lined the aisle so perfectly that the entire cathedral smelled sweet and delicate. Everything looked like a dream. My dream.

My trembling fingers tightened around my bouquet as I lifted my eyes toward the altar. Toward him. Enzo stood beneath the glowing chandeliers wearing a white tuxedo that made him look unreal. Beautiful. Dangerous. Mine.

The moment our eyes met, his expression softened completely. And God...,that smile... that smile was the reason I had survived five years of terror. Five years of sleepless nights. Five years of praying he would return alive every time he disappeared for another mission.

”He’s here,” I told myself, my heart drummed a frantic rhythm against my ribs. ”He actually made it. The nightmare is over.”

Nobody understood what it felt like loving a man like Enzo Ravelli, to the world... he was charming, intelligent, and untouchable. But I knew the darker truth, Enzo worked for El Paso, an underground organization so secretive and powerful that even politicians feared whispering its name.

Officially, they operated against criminal syndicates across Italy. Unofficially… I learned long ago that men trained to live among monsters eventually became monsters themselves.

And that truth terrified me every single day. Especially during the last mission... La Casa delle Ombre. Even thinking about the name made an uneasy crawl beneath my skin like insects.

The Castellanos.... the most feared mafia family in Italy. I still remembered the night Enzo told me he had been assigned to infiltrate them.

"You can leave," he had said quietly, his voice devoid of emotion as he packed his weapons months ago. "Before this life destroys you too."

I almost slapped him then. My hands had curled into fists, my knuckles white, because the anger was the only thing keeping me from shattering into a thousand pieces.

Instead, I cried. I begged him to quit. I pleaded with him until my voice went raw, and one night, he finally pulled me into his arms, burying his face in the crook of my neck.

"One last mission, Selena," he had whispered into my hair. "Then freedom and peace... then us."

He survived... In God's grace because against all odds, he walked back into my life. Not in a coffin, not bleeding and not broken. He was alive.

When he resigned from El Paso, I felt as if the air had finally entered my lungs for the first time in years. I allowed myself to imagine a future without fear constantly poisoning it. Children. A home near the sea. Growing old together. Normal things. Beautiful things.

Now here I was, walking toward him while hundreds of guests watched from the pews, and for the first time in years, Enzo looked peaceful too. Not like an operative, not like a killer... just a man waiting for the woman he loved. Tears blurred my vision, turning the candlelight into soft, golden stars.

Enzo noticed immediately. His smile deepened. "Don’t cry yet, amore," he murmured softly as I finally reached the altar. His voice was a velvet rasp that still made my knees weak. "You’ll ruin your makeup before becoming my wife."

Several guests laughed quietly. I let out a jagged, watery breath, a laugh escaping my lips. ”God, he’s perfect,” I thought. ”He’s my harbor. My sanctuary.”

The priest began speaking, but his voice drifted away like smoke. My attention stayed fixed entirely on Enzo. The warmth of his hand around mine. The way his thumb brushed softly against my skin. The familiar, jagged scar near his wrist from an old mission he refused to explain... a ghost of a life we were leaving behind. Real. He was real. He was here... safe, finally safe.

"You may now recite your vows," the priest announced gently.

Enzo’s gaze never left mine. His eyes were dark, intense, and filled with a devotion that made me feel like the center of the universe.

"Selena Fortezza," he said, his voice dropping into that rough, low register that always sent a shiver down my spine. "My Sel, my beautiful Sel... you are the only good thing I have ever had in this life."

Emotion clogged my throat. I couldn't speak, not yet. I could only stare at him, absorbing the love, the regret, and the relief written on his face.

"You loved me when I didn’t deserve it," he continued, his grip tightening around my fingers. "You waited for me when no one else would have. And no matter how dark my world became… you remained my light."

A tear escaped, tracking down my cheek. Enzo smiled softly, reaching out to brush it away with his calloused thumb. His touch was a promise.

"I swear before God," he whispered, a solemn vow that felt heavier than a legal contract, "that from this moment onward, no one will ever hurt you again."

Something inside my chest tightened painfully. It wasn't the joy of the moment; it was a sudden, primal spike of adrenaline. I don’t know why... maybe it was the sudden shift in the air pressure of the room. Maybe it was the way Enzo’s posture transitioned from relaxed to something lethal in a heartbeat.

His eyes shifted... just for a fraction of a second, toward the cathedral entrance behind me. The warmth in his expression vanished, replaced by the chilling, blank void of the operative I had feared for years. His jaw tightened and his shoulders squared. Every instinct inside him seemed to sharpen, turning him into a predator waiting for a strike.

"Enzo…?" I breathed, my voice barely audible.

The priest turned toward me, oblivious, a kindly smile on his face. "And you, Selena..."

The first gunshot exploded through the cathedral.

The sound was so deafening, so violent, that for one horrifying second, I thought the ceiling itself had collapsed. The stained glass shattered, sending glittering shards raining down like deadly confetti. Then the screaming erupted—a chaotic, shrill sound of pure terror.

”Ahhhhh” the crowd screamed.

The massive church doors burst open with a crash of splintering wood. Armed men wearing black-and-gold uniforms—the crest of the Castellanos... stormed inside, their machine guns raised, their faces hidden behind tactical masks.

Enzo didn’t scream. He didn’t hesitate. With a feral grace, he pulled me behind the stone altar, his body shielding mine before I even realized we were under fire.

"Stay down!" he roared, his voice no longer the voice of my lover, but the voice of the man who lived among monsters. He reached into the tuxedo’s hidden lining... a place I had hoped would stay empty forever, and pulled out a compact, black handgun.

As he checked the chamber, he looked at me, and for a terrifying moment, I saw the ghost of the life I thought we had escaped. My dream hadn't ended; it had simply turned back into the nightmare.