جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 120

The gallery had found its rhythm over the past month.A steady flow of visitors throughout the week.Serious collectors mix with curious tourists.Local artists are dropping by to study the current exhibition.The kind of organic energy that made a space feel alive.I’d hired two assistants: Sofia, a recent art history graduate with an infectious enthusiasm for contemporary work, and Carlo, an older gentleman who’d managed galleries in Florence for twenty years before retiring to Rome.Having them handle the daily operations gave me time to focus on what I loved most.Discovering new artists.Curating meaningful exhibitions.Building relationships with people who shared my passion for art.This afternoon, I was doing my usual walk-through.Checking that everything was properly lit.Making sure the information cards were positioned correctly.Observing how visitors moved through the space.The current exhibition was a group show featuring five emerging painters.Each with a distinct vo

Something was wrong with Miles Benedetti from the moment Victoria first mentioned his name.I couldn’t place why.The name felt familiar in a way that made my skin crawl.Like a half-remembered warning I should have heeded.When Victoria had stopped talking about him, I’d been relieved.But also more concerned.If she was hiding their interactions from me, it meant she knew I would disapprove.Which meant she was probably seeing more of him than I’d realized.I woke up Saturday morning to an empty bed.Victoria’s side was cold, like she’d been gone for hours.Probably at the gallery early, working on some new project.She’d been throwing herself into the business lately with an intensity that both impressed and worried me.Aria was still sleeping when I checked on her.Curled up with her stuffed elephant, dark curls spread across her pillow.Peaceful and perfect, she was completely trusting that her parents would keep her world safe.I kissed her forehead and headed to my office.The

I sat in the hospital chair staring at my hands.Blood still stained my knuckles from hitting Miles.But it wasn’t enough blood.Not nearly enough to balance what had been done to Victoria.To our child.Our child.The words kept echoing in my mind like a prayer and a curse combined.Victoria had been pregnant.With my baby.She’d been coming to tell me the most wonderful news in the world.Instead, she’d walked into hell.Isabella’s hell.My ex-wife had orchestrated the kidnapping of a pregnant woman.Had ordered the murder of an unborn child.Had arranged for memories to be erased so completely that Victoria couldn’t even grieve what she’d lost.For two years, I’d mourned the loss of Vanessa.For two years, Victoria had lived with phantom grief she couldn’t understand.Neither of us knew we’d both been mourning the same losses.The same child.The same future that had been stolen from us.I wanted to kill Isabella with my bare hands.Wanted to make her suffer the way she’d made Vict

Miles had been pathetic when Marco finished with him.Broken legs weren’t enough to keep him from talking.Fear was a powerful motivator.“Please,” he’d whimpered from his hospital bed. “I never meant for it to go that far.”“Then why did you do it?”“She paid me. Said she just wanted photos that looked compromising.”“Isabella.”“Yes. She said your wife had stolen her family. That she deserved to suffer.”Every word had made my blood boil hotter.“How much did she pay you?”“Two hundred thousand euros.”“To assault my wife.”“To seduce her. To make it look like she was cheating.”“But it escalated.”“She… your wife was so resistant. So loyal to you. Isabella got angry, saying, " I needed to be more convincing.”“So you decided rape was convincing?”“I lost control. I’m sorry, I—”That’s when I’d grabbed his throat.When Marco had to pull me away to keep me from finishing what I’d started.“Where is Isabella now?”“I don’t know. She paid me half up front, half after. But she never cam

The safe house in Montenegro was cramped and smelled like cigarettes and desperation.Nothing like the luxury I was accustomed to.But it was secure.Hidden.Beyond the reach of Alessandro’s network.For now.I stared at my phone, reading Carlos’s latest message for the third time.*Miles compromised and talked before elimination. Victoria’s memory is fully restored.*Victoria’s memory.The one thing I’d hoped would never return.The one advantage I’d held over Alessandro and his precious wife.Gone.“Merda,” I whispered to the empty room.Everything was unraveling.Miles had been supposed to be simple.Seduce Victoria, create compromising photos, destroy her marriage.Clean and efficient.Instead, the idiots had let it escalate into an assault.Had given Alessandro justification to torture information out of him.Had confirmed every suspicion Alessandro might have had about my involvement.My phone rang.Carlos.“How bad is it?” I answered.“Bad. Alessandro’s people have been asking