All Chapters of The Monster's Protégé: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

AURORAI had already grilled Lilliana more than a couple of times, and by now, I already knew that she had no knowledge of Ralph’s existence or connection with her. Despite that, I had developed an acute sense of hatred given the chaos she brought into our lives.  Dominic was torn apart, Sammy was in shambles, and even though Lorenzo was to be blamed for that, Lilliana was indirectly involved. And now, Ralph was missing. You do not abduct the ex-enforcer of the Mafia Kingpin of Chicago, and if you do, you need to have the balls to follow through the storm you have raised. And as it turned out, they did not have the balls. Ralph was found two days later, alive but barely. When Viktor called me middle of the night to inform me that, I froze. He was barely breathing

AURORASomething in me always snapped when I saw Lilliana. It was like a fuse blowing. My blood would burn, and reason would vanish as if it had never existed.She wasn’t like the monsters we’d faced before. No, Lilliana was something else entirely…a quiet kind of chaos that ruined everything she touched. The storm she brought left wreckage in its wake, and the names on her list of casualties were far too close to home: Dominic, Ralph… and Sammy. That last name cut the deepest, a wound I still couldn’t put into words.And now, with the storm finally over, there she stood, untouched, unharmed, like she’d walked through hell and come out gilded. It made my fury crawl beneath my skin. Because Lilliana never seemed to lose. She came out of every disaster with more power, more sympathy, while the rest of us were left bleeding in her shadow, expected to handle her like some fragile, untouchable thing.I had avoided going to Marco’s, but I had no other choice because Ralph was there. And no

AURORAThat was the thing about Marco. He knew; he always knew, and I was not in any mood to back down either.I lifted my chin and looked him dead in the eye, which was difficult, on account of the towel. On account of all the naked torso between me and any thought I'd planned on having. Water still gleamed on his shoulders. His hair hung over his forehead in dark strands, and the dim light made him look like a sin I'd already committed and was about to repeat on purpose."Answer the question," he said. "What are you doing in my bedroom?""I…uh…I was passing through."He took a step closer, and the room contracted around him like it always did, like the laws of physics had signed something with him privately. "Aurora. The honest version, please. I'll know if it's wrong. I always know. That's the tragedy of your life, sweetheart: you were trained by the one man you can't lie to."Sweetheart. Two letters of endearment, and he deployed them like artillery, and I hated that my pulse answ

AURORAI was a little tired of the Romano mansion, and I needed a place to crash. Knowing full well that Marco was away with Dominic, I needed access to his special stash of alcohol because it was one of those days when alcohol kept with happy. A few weeks had passed since Viktor announced the engagement between Dominic and Lilliana, and the entire household was still adjusting to the idea. It was very rare for a celebration at the Romano mansion, but in a way, it was nice…and normal. Mia was pretending she wasn’t secretly orchestrating every security detail, and Viktor was looking ten years older, trying to hold the family’s reputation together.And me? I was just trying to stay out of it.Love wasn’t something I believed in anymore. Not i

AURORA People channel grief in their own way, and so did I. I did not believe in God, or at least prayed for a long time except for a few visits to church when Ralph insisted. I’d failed to realise how a man like him ended up with a rosary in his hand when blood was all he spilt. And blood was all I could see in my deepest, darkest moment of grief. A quiet, razor-sharp clarity filled my bloodstream like venom and turned every breath into purpose, every thought into a weapon. That was what the world became for me the moment Viktor said Marco had been shot. Everything before that was panic, a blur of white corridors and sterile smells, voices overlapping until I couldn’t distinguish fear from rage.But the moment I stepped out of that hospital, the moment I inhaled the cold nig