LOGINShare
Chapter 41: The Hidden Level
publish date:
2026-04-26 18:46:23
Latest chapter
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 154: 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 room fell in
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 153: 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 chose, to answe
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. Operational
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 152: What She Knows
She waited three more days before she found the courage. Not because the fear had lessened — if anything, it had sharpened. But because she needed, first, to be certain she was choosing to tell him for the right reason, and not simply because the guilt of withholding it had grown too heavy to carry silently any longer. She found him alone on the fourth evening, in the small sitting room where they'd first spoken honestly about the wasted years. Lorenzo sat with a glass of wine he'd barely touched, staring into space and Lucia recognized, the same restless weight she'd noticed building in him all week, ever since the conversation she'd overheard in the hallway. "You've been distracted," she said, settling into the chair across from him. "All week. I've noticed." "It's nothing. Really. It's just work," Lorenzo said, which wasn't quite a lie. "The financial tracks Sofia's been tracing," Lucia said carefully, watching his face. "The one that keeps resisting every attempt to trace it
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 151: The Words She Recognized
Lucia couldn't sleep that night.She kept tossing and turning until she couldn't any longer as her mind kept circling back to the conversation she'd overheard through the study door, over and over again.Compartmentalized every transfer point so completely that even knowing one link tells you nothing about the next.She had built systems like that once. Not once… dozens of times, over the years, for reasons that she had felt were justified. Protecting money from tracing and people from exposure. The empire needed as much protection as it could and by extension the family, from enemies who would use the tiniest bit of information they had as a rope to hang them all. She had been good at it, better than good, and she had taught the principle to exactly three men during the last years she'd been active inside Dante's operation, each of them she had chosen carefully and entrusted with a piece of knowledge she'd believed would only ever be used for protection.Unable to lie still any longe
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 150: Old Habits
By the end of the first week, Lucia had stopped counting the days. There was nowhere to leave to now, she belonged here now and Isabella and the household staff made sure of that.They kept refilling her sunlit flower vase before the flowers actually died just as Isabella had instructed, also making sure that the the guest room she occupied was always in good shape because she want leaving anytime soon as nobody would even allow it... She found herself falling into small routines with an ease that unsettled her a bit, because of how naturally it came. Her mornings were usually spent in the kitchen with her new assistant Matteo who attention span barely survived the first ten minutes of any task. Afternoons were spent on the terrace with Isabella, who gently asked questions about the years Lucia had spent away and Lucia caught herself answering then more than she'd expected to and the two women began to slowly build genuine affection.Her evenings were increasingly spent with Lorenzo
The Mafia Boss's Estranged Bride. Chapter 4: The Cage
The elevator doors slid open with a soft chime and for a second, Isabella simply stood there, her breath shallow, her mind trying to process all that had happened. The guards waited silently and unyielding behind her, their presence pressing against her back like a warning.She stepped out slowly.
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
You may also like
Sweet Dreams
Josie frank1.1M viewsThe Heartbreak Prescription
Glazed Snow1.4M viewsBillionaire's Match
Tangy Candy3.9M viewsWhen His Eyes Opened
Simple Silence25.1M viewsMarried to my Ex's Billionaire Father
Lyra James69 viewsMy billionaire ex-husband wants me back
Virbey105 viewsMy Professor, My Stepfather, My Sin
Sophia Clarks77 viewsThe Billionaire Ex's Secret Baby
Monique15 views
