Lucian Moretti – POV The adjacent room was soundproofed, equipped with a single speaker that fed audio from my study and a one-way mirror made of polished obsidian. From my side, it was a window. From hers, a dark, impenetrable wall. A perfect metaphor. I watched as Matteo guided Seraphina inside. She moved with that infuriating, unerring grace, her head high, believing she was stepping into a new role as an advisor. She believed the bridge she had built was sturdy. She would soon learn I controlled the foundations, and I could collapse them at will. She sat in a lone chair facing the black mirror, her hands folded in her lap, a picture of serene anticipation. She was ready to listen, to analyze, to counsel. I turned away from the mirror and picked up the secure line, dialing the number she had provided. The Cardinal answered on the second ring, his voice a practiced, unctuous baritone. “Your Eminence,” I began, my tone devoid of deference. “Lucian Moretti. I trust you’ve had a c
Seraphina Vellaro – POV The ghost of his heartbeat pulsed against my palm, a frantic, trapped bird against my skin. Long after he had stormed from the study, the memory of that rhythm lingered, a secret more intimate than any I had pulled from the journal. I had touched the monster and found a man. A desperate, furious man. And in doing so, I had forged a new weapon. He thought my threat was about demanding pretty things, more privileges. He misunderstood. I was no longer bartering for scraps from his table. I was renegotiating the terms of my captivity entirely. The ledger was my leverage, but his obsession was my true capital. And I was learning to spend it wisely. When Appy came to bring me my evening meal, her steps were hesitant. "Miss? Are you well? Mr. Moretti, he seemed…" "Angry?" I finished for her, my voice calm. I sat by the window, the cool glass a comfort against my forehead. "He was. But it is a focused anger. Like a scalpel. It will pass." She was silent for a mom
Lucian Moretti – POV Her words were a slow-acting poison. “The performance will cost you more.” They echoed in the sterile silence of my study, drowning out the satisfying click of the vault door as I secured the newly transcribed pages of the ledger. She wasn’t making a threat; she was stating a new economic reality. The price for her cooperation was inflating, and she was the one controlling the market. The three names she had provided were a down payment. Inspector Riggs, a man on my payroll already, but now I knew why he had been so easily bought—my mother had already owned him. Judge Albright, a paragon of false morality, whose secret taste for underage girls was now documented in Razo’s clumsy, phonetic script. Senator Moore, a hawkish voice on defense committees, who had quietly diverted arms shipments to a rival family for a cut of the profits. This was the true currency of our world. Shame and the certainty of ruin. I had acted on the Senator first. A single, anonymous co
Lucian Moretti – POV The gala ended with a silent, seismic shift. The guests departed with hurried farewells, their eyes avoiding mine, their minds racing to process the apparition on the balcony. The blind Vellaro heiress was no longer a rumor; she was a fact. And her presentation at my side had been a declaration I hadn't fully intended to make, yet found myself fiercely satisfied with. Rose had left without a word, a storm contained within a sheath of silk. Her father, Don Velenti, had offered a terse, formal goodbye, his earlier smugness replaced by a wary calculation. He had expected to expose a vulnerability. Instead, I had showcased a strategic advantage he couldn't comprehend. I stood in the now-empty hall, the ghost of Seraphina’s presence lingering on the balcony like a perfume. The string quartet was gone, the clatter of cleaning staff the only sound. Her words echoed in the vast space. True power is silent. She saw through the pageantry with an unnerving clarity. While
Lucian Moretti – POV The main hall was a spectacle of manufactured elegance. Crystal chandeliers blazed overhead, their light glinting off champagne flutes and the diamond-hard smiles of the city’s elite. The air thrummed with the sound of a string quartet and the low murmur of calculated conversation. It was a beautiful lie, and I was its centerpiece. Rose clung to my arm, her grip possessive, her smile a brilliant, practiced mask. She was in her element, playing the future queen of this domain. But her eyes, whenever they flickered towards me, held a sharp, questioning edge. She had heard the rumors. She knew about the hours I spent with the Vellaro girl in my study. This gala was her attempt to reassert her claim, to remind everyone—and me—of the established order. It was a tedious, transparent gambit. My attention was not on the politicians or the rival family heads making polite, veiled threats. It was on the ledger, now being transcribed in my study by Seraphina and my illit
Seraphina Vellaro – POV The study was my battlefield, and the journal was my enemy and my ally. For days, I had returned to the clay map, my fingers tracing the paths I had created, searching for a flaw in my own logic. The lily, the Alps—it felt right, but it was too broad. A continent was not a address. Lucian’s presence was a constant, silent pressure. Since the reunion with Gloria, his scrutiny had intensified. He no longer sat across the room; he paced, a restless panther circling his prey. The scent of violence that sometimes clung to him was a stark reminder of the world outside this gilded room, a world he ruled with absolute, terrifying authority. But I was learning to navigate his silences. The longer he paced, the more he needed what I had. Today, I had abandoned the map. The next layer of the code wasn't in the structure; it was in the details I had overlooked. My mother was a master of misdirection. What if the key wasn't in the symbols themselves, but in the spaces be