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Chapter One Hundred and Three : The Countess's Gambit

Author: Zainab
last update Last Updated: 2025-12-28 17:10:30

(Isabella’s POV)

The car ride to the museum was a silent, tense journey. I was no longer Isabella Rossi, the art restorer who was engaged to the most powerful man in the city. I was Countess Alessa Petrova, a reclusive, wealthy, and slightly arrogant European noblewoman with a passion for rare art. I repeated the details of my new life in my mind, a quiet, steadying rhythm. I was born in Florence, educated in Switzerland, and my family’s money was old, vast, and discreet. Alessa was confident, poised, and unimpressed by the flashy displays of new money. She was everything these people were not.

My heart was a frantic drum against my ribs, but my hands, resting in the lap of my emerald green gown, were perfectly still. I felt the cool, heavy weight of Elara’s necklace against my skin, a silent, powerful reminder of the man who was watching over me, and the love that was my true armor.

The car pulled up to the grand entrance of the museum. The night exploded in a sea of flashing
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