All Chapters of THE KISS OF VENGEANCE : Chapter 11 - Chapter 16

Francesca's POVI returned to my room shortly after midnight, my boots sounding lightly on the exceedingly shiny floor. The clinic wing had been uncannily quiet. Alessandro was improving, his breathing was smoother, and his reflexes stronger. For the first time in days, I permitted myself hope. Just a little bit.I closed the door softly behind me, listening as the faint click echoed in the quiet house. The amber glow of my bedside lamp stretched out yellow shadows on the cream walls. Everything was too quiet.I shrugged out of the coat and flung it over the chair, pulled off the gloves, bending bruised fingertips from the long day. Red marks around my knuckles pulsed numbly. And the smell of antiseptic still hovered on my palms like a ghost. I stood up, walked over toward the dresser and grabbed my phone. The stillness clung tighter.I fumbled and then dialed the number memorized by heart. It rang twice."Francesca?" my brother's voice came through, warm and worried."Hey," I breathe

Chapter Thirteen.Francesca's PovThe following morning, I paced up and down the corridor outside Alessandro's room, waiting.It did not take long before I heard an unmistakable footstep approaching. "Francesca," Vincenzo's voice called from behind me, smooth but with the familiar bite of authority. "Come."I spun around, my mask in place. I followed him through the hall, down towards the private room where Alessandro was recovering. I braced myself for something, anything but not what I saw.The guy was sitting without a shirt. Eating oranges. The same dude who'd gone almost fatal from a shot to the shoulder. His skin was already re-knitting itself where I'd stitched him up. Steady respiration. Barely in the sling.What the hell? I was even shocked but I attempted to keep my face neutral, but Vincenzo saw it all.I stepped closer. Read his vital signs. Cycled out the dressing. Clean, precise stitches. No indications of infection. Th8e flesh re-knitting itself too quickly."He's… re

Chapter Fifteen.The gates of Vincenzo's villa closed behind me with a gentle swish that grated against the tension that still wound through my muscles. I slid back into the mask that was second nature to me: the detached, clinical professional. But under the surface, adrenaline still thudded through me like a second heart, too loudly, too quickly.Each step I walked down the marble corridor rang in my ears. I trained my face into impassivity, forced my shoulders to relax, and my fists to unclench. A servant walked by with a tray, eyes averted, and I nodded vaguely, already walking by. I needed to conceal that I'd just shaken a tail and lied to my uncle's face about everything being fine.The house was quiet, wrapped in that eerie silence of money and power. But as I rounded the corner along the east wing, a voice cut through the silence like a blade."Where were you?"I stopped. Turned slowly.Isadora was waiting, arms crossed, half-hidden in the shadow of the great archway. Her hair