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Adrian’s Pov“What did you do to him?” I asked, my voice steadier than I felt. “What did you do to Leonardo?”Nikolai’s jaw tightened, and I could see him weighing his options.“It doesn’t matter,” he said finally, moving toward the bathroom. “What matters is that he understands now that there are consequences for targeting my family.”“It matters to me.” I followed him, unwilling to let him retreat behind his usual walls of calculated distance. “Nikolai, this isn’t just about your family anymore. Leonardo is my father, whether I want to claim him or not. If something happened to him…”“Then maybe you should have thought about that before you chose sides.” His voice was cold.But I wasn’t backing down. Not this time. I caught his arm as he reached for the bathroom door, forcing him to turn and face me.“I chose you,” I said, my voice carrying all the frustration and fear and love that had been building inside me for weeks. “I chose us. But that doesn’t mean I want you throwing yoursel

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Adrian’s PovThe phone’s shrill ring cut through the tension between us like a blade, but after three rings, it fell silent. Nikolai stared at the device in his hand, his face pale in the dim lighting of his bedroom. Leonardo’s name had appeared on the screen for just long enough to send ice through both our veins before the call ended.“Why didn’t you answer it?” I asked, though I suspected I already knew the answer.“Because I’m not ready to deal with the consequences of what I did tonight,” Nikolai replied, setting the phone on his nightstand with deliberate care. “Not yet.”The blood-stained shirt still hung from his hands, a reminder of the violence that had preceded this moment. But as the immediate crisis of Leonardo’s call faded, I found my attention wandering around Nikolai’s bedroom, taking in details I’d never noticed during our previous encounters here.The room was decorated with expensive but understated pieces—a mahogany armoire that probably dated back generations, oil

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Nikolai’s POV Three weeks had passed since the warehouse incident, and I’d watched Isabel’s gradual recovery with the careful attention of someone monitoring a patient’s vital signs. The tears had eventually stopped, the hollow look in her eyes had begun to fade, and slowly—so slowly—she’d started to resemble the confident young woman she’d been before Sophia’s betrayal had shattered her trust in love itself.What surprised me was how much time she’d been spending with Adrian.They’d always maintained the polite distance appropriate to their arranged marriage, but lately I’d noticed them together more often—sharing quiet conversations in the library, taking walks through the estate gardens, even laughing occasionally at some private joke. It was the kind of companionable intimacy that looked, to outside observers, exactly like a marriage that was finally beginning to work.The irony wasn’t lost on me. As Isabel grew closer to Adrian in their public roles as husband and wife, Adrian w

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Adrian’s Pov The champagne toast ended with enthusiastic applause and warm embraces, but even as I accepted congratulations from Gabriel and Liliana, even as I smiled and nodded at appropriate moments during their excited planning discussions, I was acutely aware of the storm brewing in Nikolai’s dark eyes.He stood at the edge of the celebration like a statue carved from ice, his face a perfect mask of polite interest that didn’t quite hide the fury radiating from every line of his body. I’d learned to read his moods over the past months, had become an expert in interpreting the subtle shifts in his expression that others missed entirely. Right now, he looked like a man barely containing the urge to destroy something beautiful.The family conversation swirled around logistics and timelines—when to begin the IVF process, which fertility specialists to consult, whether we should announce our plans to the wider family immediately or wait until we had more concrete news to share. Isabel

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