LOGINLina’s POV
The torture lasted the entire day. At some point the hours stopped feeling like hours. Time dissolved into sounds.Metal striking flesh. Chains shifting. Heavy breathing. And that awful laugh.Silvio Lacentra still refused to break. Even when his voice grew hoarse, even when the blows became harder, even when blood began to stain the floor beneath the chair, he still laughed.Not loudly.Not dramatically.Just that same dry, mocCarlino’s POVMalder stood there, studying me like I was something he had already judged and buried.Then he spoke.“You think you’re powerful now, right?” His voice was calm, but it carried something heavier beneath it. “Mafia king. The man whose words stand above all. Untouchable.”I didn’t react. AHe took a step closer.“You finally took Silvio’s dirty path.”That made my jaw tighten.Not visibly. But enough.Confusion didn’t hit me like panic—it came controlled. Sharp. Calculated. Because nothing he was saying lined up with reality.We had wanted the same thing.Not this.Not a throne soaked in obedience and fear.We wanted to break it.“Talk clearly,” I said, voice low, steady. “What are you driving at, Malder?”For a second, he stared at me.Then he laughed.Not normal laughter. Not amusement. It was sharp. Hysterical. Like I had just said the most ridiculous thing he had ever heard.It echoed through the empty space.And then it stopped. Just like that. His expression snapped.
Carlino's POV The word hit, harder than I'd ever felt. But not how he expected. Not confusion. No immediate reaction. Just… stillness. Because that didn’t make sense. Not even a little.Traitor?To him?Impossible.I had never thought of betraying him, talk less of acting on my thoughts.Not even once.Turned my back on Malder. Not in childhood. Not in blood. Not in loyalty. We didn’t operate like that. We were on the same side. Always. Nothing ever went wrong.So what was he talking about?My gaze hardened slightly. “Careful,” I said quietly. “You’re starting to sound delusional.”His eyes darkened further.“Delusional?” he repeated, almost laughing again. “You really want to play that game?”I didn’t respond. Because I wasn’t playing anything. I was waiting. Observing. Measuring.“Say it clearly,” I continued. “Because from where I’m standing, you’re the one who was supposedly burnt down in that flame in the warehouse. You’re the one who came back from the dead and started a war.”
Carlino’s POVFor a moment, everything inside my head went silent. Not calm. Not peace. Just… silence. The kind that comes before something breaks.Malder.The name didn’t sit right in my chest. It dragged against something old. Something buried. Something I had sealed and locked away the day my father told me my brother burned alive.Dead.Gone.Finished.I had accepted it.I had built myself around it.And now—He stood in front of me. Breathing. Watching. Holding on.No.My jaw tightened.No.This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Malder died in that fire. Father said it himself. And my father—Silvio Lacentra, does not lie. Not to me. Not about something like that.So what was this? A trick? A double? A man wearing another man’s dead face?My fingers flexed slightly at my side, my gaze sharpening as I studied him. The stance. The presence. The weight he carried in the air—It felt familiar. Too familiar. But I didn’t move. Didn’t speak.Because if I did, I might confirm something I wasn’
Carlino’s POVThe house felt different when I returned. Not quieter. It felt heavier. Like something unseen had settled into the walls. Father and Lina were both gone. Not as if father stayed at home all the time, but tonight? His absence inside this house was louder than ever.I didn’t remove the blood from my hands when I walked in. Let the men see it. Let them understand exactly what kind of night it had been.Niel followed a step behind me, silently — he knew better than to say a word.I didn’t stop until I reached the study. The door shut behind us with a dull click, sealing the world out. For a moment, I just stood there, staring at nothing.Then I exhaled. Slowly.“Kailen,” I said, more to myself than to him.It had always been Kailen. No other man would dare to go to war against me. This wasn’t chaos. It wasn’t desperation.It was a strategy.“He didn’t take my father to run,” I continued, my voice low. “He took him to break me.”Niel didn’t interrupt.I walked around the desk
Lina’s POVThe torture lasted the entire day. At some point the hours stopped feeling like hours. Time dissolved into sounds.Metal striking flesh. Chains shifting. Heavy breathing. And that awful laugh.Silvio Lacentra still refused to break. Even when his voice grew hoarse, even when the blows became harder, even when blood began to stain the floor beneath the chair, he still laughed.Not loudly.Not dramatically.Just that same dry, mocking sound that scraped against the walls and made my stomach twist every single time.Once… just once… I thought I saw a crack, a crack in his facade.When his head dipped slightly forward after a particularly brutal hit. His breathing changed. His jaw tightened. For a second I thought this is it. The moment he breaks.But then he lifted his head again.And smiled.By evening his face barely looked human anymore. One eye had begun swelling shut, dark
Lina’s POVThe room changed the moment the preparations began.No one spoke at first. The silence thickened, stretching across the space like a heavy curtain. The only sounds came from movement—boots scraping against the concrete floor, the dull rattle of chains being dragged closer, metal clinking softly as tools were laid out on a narrow table near the wall.Every small noise felt louder than it should have. My chest tightened as I watched them work.One man rolled a tray closer to the center of the room. Another adjusted the ropes binding the old man to the chair. A third opened a metal case, the hinges creaking softly before revealing rows of cold instruments that glinted faintly in the daylight.My heart slammed violently against my ribs.But the thing that terrified me the most… wasn’t what they were preparing.It was him.Silvio Lacentra. He sat perfectly still in the chair.His back remained straight, shoulders squared despite the restraints biting into his wrists. His silver
Lina’s POVCarlino was still resting against me when I finally spoke. “You don’t get to decide that.”His eyes lifted slowly. Calm. Certain. Like the world outside wasn’t crumbling piece by piece.“I already did,” he said.I pushed his shoulder and stood. “That
Lina's POV The drive back to the estate was completely silent. Carlino sat beside me, still and unreadable. Cold. Numb. His eyes were fixed on nothing, like the world outside the window no longer existed. I’d had my chance to leave. To escape this hellhole. To walk away from his crumbling, rotti
Carlino’s POV The drive to the warehouse was quiet. Not the relaxed kind. The kind where everyone is thinking the same thing and no one wants to say it first.Damien built that place with me. Every blind spot. Every reinforced panel. Every fall back exit.If this was a
Lina’s POVThe hallway felt longer than before. Every step away from that room felt wrong — like retreat instead of escape. My pulse hadn’t slowed. If anything, distance made it worse.Footsteps sounded behind me.I didn’t turn.“You walk fast when you’re runni







