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Chapter 157— What the Architect Built
publish date:
2026-08-17 17:44:17
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The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 158: The Cost of Ricci
Before dawn, Ricci was back to the Villa, restrained but unharmed, and he had been put in the same reinforced room that had once held Marco, and Ferro after him. Nobody spoke much on the drive back, Lucia sat in the front seat beside Lorenzo, her hands folded tightly in her lap, staring straight ahead at a road she couldn't properly see. Marco checked the restraints himself once they'd arrived and when he straightened, his eyes found Lorenzo's across the small concrete room with an expression that carried more history in it than either of them wanted to name aloud. "We should talk," Marco said. "Before this goes any further." They stepped into the hallway. The bulb overhead hummed the same way it always had, indifferent to whatever was said beneath it. "I know what you're going to say," Lorenzo said. "Then say it back to me, so I know we're actually having the same conversation this time." Lorenzo exhaled slowly. "You're going to say he's already given us more than Ferro did. Th
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 157— What the Architect Built
The rotation broke at 2:47 a.m., exactly as predicted.Lorenzo moved silently through the gap with two of Marco's men. The guard at the side entrance was already down before he knew what hit him. Inside, the corridor smelled of cold electronics and recycled air as servers hummed behind a locked door at the rear, cables running in neat black rivers along the baseboards — the structure made physical, just the way Lucia had described it.Marco's voice came low through the earpiece. "The second guard has been neutralized. We're clear to the server room."They weren't.The door at the end of the hallway opened before Lorenzo reached it.Ricci stood in the frame, unarmed, hands loose at his sides, like a man who had waited for this very moment so many times that arriving at it finally felt almost like relief."You were faster than I expected," he said. "Or she's better than I remembered."Lorenzo didn't lower his weapon. "Where's the trap?""You're standing in it." Ricci stepped back from
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 157:The Trap in the Trap
That night, Lucia couldn't sleep a wink.Instead, she sat at the kitchen table long after midnight, the villa had gone quiet around her, a single lamp burning low, as she turned the day's plan over in her mind. From Marco's photographs to the rotation of guards. The server room was still visible through a side window that had been left slightly too easy to see.She was still sitting there when Lorenzo found her."You're still here when you should be resting?" he asked."So should you."He pulled out the chair across from her instead of arguing, and sat down and for a moment neither of them spoke. She studied his face, it was steadier than it had been at the desk that morning, but still carried the tightness of a man who had already committed himself to something and was only now allowing himself to feel the weight of it until he achieved it.."I think something's wrong," she said. "I've felt it since Sofia found that IP address.""The team's confirmed everything. Guards, layout, the v
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 155: Following the Money
Isabella found Lorenzo in the study with three lit-up screens open where there had been one the night before. He hadn't slept. She could tell by how still he sat. "You should eat." "I know…I'll do that later." "You said that yesterday." He didn't answer. She recognized the change that had happened overnight — the man who'd fed his mother's bread to Matteo and kept laughing until his shoulders shook, was gone. What sat behind the desk now was the version of him she'd first met with a gun in his hand. "Lorenzo." He looked up. "Please listen to me. I'm not asking you to stop." Her voice caught in her throat."I'm asking you to remember that there are people in this house who love you whether you win this battle or not." “I know.” A look of ease crossed his face as he took her hand from across the desk. "I remember." But his eyes had already gone back to the screen before he finished the sentence. ********** Sofia and Lucia arrived twenty minutes later, and the r
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 154: Cracks in the Architecture
"It's tied to this property. To the villa." "Show me," Lorenzo said. Sofia turned the laptop towards him. On it was a single line of transaction data, that was routed through an account none of them had mapped, terminated at a property tax service tied to the villa's own utilities. "It's not a threat," Sofia said slowly, working through it. "It's not large enough to touch anything real. Three hundred euros. Nothing." "Then why send it here at all?" Marco asked. Nobody answered. Lucia felt the silence settle into her chest, a weight she recognized from decades ago. "It's not money," she said finally. "It's a signature." Lorenzo looked at her. "What signature? Do explain what you mean by that." "A transfer that small, routed to touch this address specifically, serves no financial purpose at all." Her voice had gone quiet, careful. "It only exists to be found. And that means he wants you to know that he saw the disruption, understood exactly what it was, and deliberately
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 153:The First Move
Sofia had turned one of the walls in the study into a corkboard, using red threads to connect nodes the way she'd once connected them only on a screen. Lucia stood beside her, her coffee going cold in her hand as the both of them were so absorbed in the map that neither noticed Lorenzo in the doorway. "This one." Sofia tapped a printout near the center. "The consultancy account. If you're right about the coordination requirement, this is the one Ricci checks most, because it connects to nearly a third of the structure." "Yes. And it's also the most protected." Lucia frowned at the routing. "A man protects what he can't afford to lose, so he's telling us how much he needs it." "So we don't hit it directly." Sofia was already following the thread. "We need to find something he trusts to not bother watching." “How about that?" Lucia said, pointing to a smaller node near the edge — one Sofia had flagged weeks earlier and dismissed as insignificant. "There. Small transactions. Opera
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 74:The Sound That Doesn’t Lie
The metallic click did not echo. It didn’t need to. In a confined passage like this, where every breath already felt too loud, the tiniest sound was sharp enough to cut straight through instinct and land somewhere that recognized danger before the mind could name it. Lorenzo stopped. Not a gradua
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 3: The Escape That Failed
Isabella didn’t wait.The moment Lorenzo walked out of the exhibition room, the air rushed back into her lungs, but it wasn’t that of relief but panic.Her hands trembled slightly as she gathered her tools, shoving them into her bag with far less care than usual because her every instinct kept scre
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 2: The Man She Ran From
Two nights later, Isabella stood in front of Sofia’s mirror, just staring. The figure in the glass nearly resembled a person she didn’t recognize, it was merely a female figure wearing a navy blue gown, uncomplicated yet graceful, nothing flashy. She had deliberately selected the dress, something m
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 1: The Life She Built
The studio was quiet except the sound of Isabella Romano’s brush moving lightly over the cracked surface of the old canvas. The lamp light bathed the painting in a warm glow as she leaned in close, her steady hand guiding the fine bristles over faded paint. The piece stretched across her wooden tab
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