LOGINThe night air was cold and deadly. Lorenzo stepped out of the car without hesitation or fear just like a man who had already decided how this would end. Behind him, doors slammed open in unison as his men followed, armed, silent and waiting for the command that would turn tension into violence.Across the empty stretch of road, the black SUV idled, its headlights cut through the darkness, blinding and provocative butLorenzo’s gaze didn’t waver.“Stay behind me,” he said calmly.But his men spread out anyway, they knew this wasn’t just a confrontation. It was a setup.From the phone pressed to his ear, Sofia’s voice came through, sharp and controlled.“Six visible,” she said. “There are two more behind the second car that just pulled up.”Lorenzo’s eyes flicked slightly to the left, he didn’t turn or react but he saw them.“They're definitely waiting for something,” Sofia continued. “This isn’t just a simple exchange.”“I know,” Lorenzo replied, his voice quiet.The SUV door opened as
The city didn’t sleep, it watched from the rooftops and tinted windows, from silent cameras mounted where no one thought to look Milan pulsed with quiet surveillance. And tonight, somewhere beneath that glittering surface, a war had just begun.Inside a dimly lit apartment across the city, Sofia leaned back in her chair, her eyes were fixed on the glowing screens in front of her. There were six monitors positioned in different angles.The screen was lined up with traffic cams, street feeds and private security grids she definitely wasn’t supposed to have access to. Her fingers moved lazily across the keyboard, but her eyes were sharp and focused.“Come on…” she muttered under her breath.A grainy image sharpened on one of the screens. It was a black SUV with no plates of course. “Amateurs.” Sofia smirked faintly.Her fingers moved faster now, pulling up adjacent feeds and tracking the vehicle’s movement across multiple cameras. It had appeared twenty-three minutes ago outside Matteo’
“No!” The word tore out of Isabella before she could stop it.But Lorenzo didn’t flinch as he had already made the call, setting things into motion. With men like him, once decisions were made, they were never undone.“Lotenzo! You don’t understand,” Isabella said, her voice rising now, panic breaking through her control. “You can’t just take him like that, he’s not part of this world!”“He became part of it the moment he was born mine.” Lorenzo replied, his cold and steady gaze remaining fixed on her.The words hit harder than any slap.“No. No, you don’t get to say that. You weren’t there. You didn’t see what I saw. You don’t even know what they’re capable of…” Isabella shook her head, backing away from him.“Then tell me,tell me what I don’t know.” The sharpness in his voice cut through her panic.She froze, because she couldn’t at least not yet. Not without risking everything.“Or I will find my own way.” Lorenzo took a slow step toward her.Her breath hitched.“You already are,”
Way before Isabella was dragged back into Lorenzo De Luca’s world, the illusion of her safety had already begun to quietly crack in subtle ways she didn’t immediately recognize. For all the years Isabella had lived as Elena Rossi, and had made sure of one thing which was to remain invisible.Isabella had moved around carefully making sure not to stay in one place for too long, never forming connections that could be traced and most importantly; to never do anything to draw attention to herself or her son, Matteo. She enrolled him in a small, discreet private daycare and made sure to give them strict instructions that no visitors were allowed to access her son without her permissiom, no personal information must be shared and no other forms of deviations from routine. To Isabella, that was safe and controlled enough but in her world, safety was always temporary and what she didn’t know was that she had been watched for weeks. It had started with something small; a man that always sat
The room became saturated with heavy, suffocating silence that was waiting to explode. Lorenzo didn’t take his eyes off Isabella not even for a second.“What child?” he repeated, his voice calm. Too calm.Isabella’s pulse roared in her ears. Her every instinct told her to deny it, to shut it down before it became real but the look in Lorenzo’s eyes told her he already sensed the truth. And Lorenzo De Luca was not a man who asked questions without reason.“Boss, we tracked activity linked to her movements. There’s a child…” The guard shifted slightly.“Leave.” he snapped, the command was immediate, cold and final.The man didn’t hesitate. He stepped back and disappeared, the door closing quietly behind him.Now it was just the two of them again and the truth hanging between them. Lorenzo began pacing towards Isabella, who didn’t move. Her body felt frozen, her mind racing through a thousand lies and escapes but none of them would work especially not here and definitely not with him.“
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 hallway beyond was nothing like the noise and glamour of the gala downstairs. It was quiet, dimly lit and private. The kind of place where decisions were made and secrets buried.At the far end, a set of double doors stood open and inside…Lorenzo De Luca was waiting.He stood by the window with his back to her, one hand tucked into his pocket while the other rested lightly against the glass. From this height, the entire city of Milan stretched beneath him, glittering and alive.The guards released her and stepped back, the doors closing after them with a soft click. The sound echoed louder than it should have, sealing her in.For a moment, neither of them spoke.Isabella wrapped her arm







