LOGINLina’s POV“Rotha, be careful! Don’t get your sister injured!” I screamed for what had to be the thousandth time today. My voice carried across the garden, but it did absolutely nothing.Rotha only laughed, bright, wild, completely unbothered, as she ran past Erla, her tiny feet kicking up grass as if she owned the entire world.“I’m gonna catch you!” Erla shrieked behind her, her laughter just as loud, just as free.I exhaled slowly, pressing my hand against my hip as I watched them. “How do you even have this much energy?” I muttered, already walking toward them. The moment they noticed me approaching, Rotha slowed down just enough to flash me a mischievous grin.“Oh mama,” Erla said, placing a dramatic hand on her chest as she came to a stop, “don’t you think that question is absurd?”I blinked.“We’re kids,” she continued, nodding like she’d just said something incredibly wise. “And kids get enormous energy.”I raised a brow. “Enormous?”She grinned wider.“Yes. Enormous.”I crouc
Carlino’s POVPower doesn’t slip.It’s taken.Or… it’s given away.Tonight, I will do the latter.~~~The hall is already filled by the time I step in.They stand when I enter. Not out of respect. Not entirely. It’s instinct. Conditioned. The weight of my name still presses on their spines even now—seconds before I strip it of everything it means.Council members lined in the front. Old blood. Calculated eyes. Men who’ve seen kings rise and fall and still believe they sit above it all.Behind them—underbosses. Capos. Territory heads. Enforcers. The real spine of the empire.Further behind, shadows. Hitmen leaders. Financial minds. Representatives of allied families. Every piece that makes this machine breathe.Every piece that can turn if handled wrong.Niel stands to my right. Silent. Still. Watching. He’s already learned a lot.I don’t rush.I take my time walking to the center. Let the silence stretch. Let it settle into their bones. Let them feel it—something shifting before I eve
Carlino’s POVSilence used to obey me.Now it suffocates.The room is dark—curtains drawn, lights off, the city reduced to a distant hum I don’t care about. I’ve been sitting here for hours. Maybe longer. Time doesn’t move the same when everything inside you feels… off.Wrong.My elbows rest on my knees, my hands hanging loosely between them. They don’t feel like mine.Nothing does.Except the pain.That—at least—is familiar.A week.Seven days since she walked out of that door like I meant nothing. Like everything between us was something she could just… put down and leave behind.My jaw tightens.That’s not what burns.It’s the fact that I let her. I could’ve stopped her. I’ve stopped men twice her size with less effort. Broken stronger wills. Ended bigger problems. But when it came to her—I stayed still.I exhale slowly, dragging a hand down my face. Because I understood. That’s the part that cut deeper than anything she said.She wasn’t running from me. She was protecting somethi
Lina’s POVI didn’t move for a long time after Mom said those words.We’re leaving. For good.They echoed in my head like something final, something irreversible. The kind of decision that didn’t bend, didn’t wait, and didn’t ask for permission.I sat there on the couch, my fingers laced together so tightly they almost hurt, staring at nothing and everything at once.Leaving.Not just the house. Not just the street I grew up on. It might be the city. The country. Everything.A slow breath slipped past my lips as the weight of it settled deeper into my chest. Maybe… maybe she was right.Maybe leaving was the only way.A fresh start.A place where no one knew me. Where no one knew him. Where the past didn’t cling to me like a shadow I couldn’t outrun.My hand moved unconsciously to my stomach, resting there, light… careful.For my baby.For me.For my family.The thoughts came one after the other, each one trying to convince me, trying to make it easier.Because how could I stay here?I
Lina’s POV “The same Carlino Lacentra?” Dad’s voice came out low. Too low. Like he was trying to keep something from snapping. I didn’t look away. “Yes,” I replied. The deafening quiet didn’t just fall, it slammed into the room. Mom’s lips parted, but no words came out at first. DHer eyes searched my face like she was hoping—praying, I would laugh and say it was a joke. I didn’t. “The Carlino Lacentra… you mean?” she finally stammered, her voice barely holding together. I nodded once. “Tina. Romy. Rooms. Now.” Mom’s voice cracked as she pointed toward the stairs. They hesitated. “Mom—” “Now!” she snapped, louder this time. That did it. They rushed off, confusion written all over their faces. The moment their footsteps disappeared, the air shifted. Heavy and dangerous. Mom turned to me so fast it almost startled me. “How could you?” she demanded, her voice trembling—not with sadness, but fear. Raw, undeniable fear. “Lina, are you crazy? That man is not someone you get in
Lina’s POVFor a second, Mom didn’t move. She just stood there, staring at me like if she blinked, I would disappear. Like I wasn’t real.Then her hand flew to her mouth.“Lina…?” Her voice cracked around my name, fragile, trembling.And then—“MAVIEN!” she screamed over her shoulder, her voice breaking into something raw, something desperate. “MAVIEN, COME HERE—NOW!”“I’m coming, I’m coming—what is it this time?” Dad’s voice floated from the kitchen, half-annoyed, half-distracted. “Why are you shouting like the house is on fi—”His words died the moment he stepped into view.The color drained from his face. His eyes locked on me, wide—too wide. Like he was looking at something impossible.Something that shouldn’t exist.For a heartbeat… neither of us spoke.“…Pumpkin?” he whispered.The name hit me harder than anything else.Mom didn’t wait another second. She rushed forward, grabbing my wrist like she needed to feel me, to confirm I was solid, alive—and pulled me inside.“Come in, c
Lina’s POVDarkness swallowed the hallway. For half a second, no one moved. Then everything exploded.“Backup power— now!” someone shouted.Boots thundered across marble. Radios crackled. The emergency lights flickered on in strips of dull red along the floor, turning e
Carlino’s POVThe lights didn’t come back. Backup generators should’ve kicked in within ten seconds. It had been thirty.Smoke drifted past the shattered upper windows, thinner now, but the air still carried that burnt-metal bite of explosives. Radios were dead. Cameras blind. H
Carlino’s POVBy the time we sealed the estate, I trusted no one.Not the guards on the gates. Not the men in the control room. Not even the ones who had bled for me before. Damien’s absence sat in the air like smoke you couldn’t see but still tasted.“Lock internal com
Carlino’s POVBlind.That was the word that stayed in my head as the screens went dark. Not attacked. Not threatened. Blind.The operations room had a handful of people, but the silence made it feel empty. Phones had no signal. Feeds were gone. Every system we trusted h







