Ava’s PerspectiveI went back to my room and spread the mafia map across the table.The Clarke family’s power stretched across the whole region, but not every part of it lived by the same rules. We were in the center now, where the main residences, internal command, and the family’s core power were rooted. The north lay beyond it, pressed close to the strait, rich with shipping routes, ports, warehouses, and trade. Trade kept that side gleaming, disciplined, and hungry in a way the center understood well. I had never wanted that world before.The south was different.The further down the map I looked, the colder I felt. Warm climate. Long sunlight. Good soil. Perfect for poppies. That was what made it valuable, and what made it filthy. It was where drugs were grown, refined, traded, and protected by people who would sell anything that breathed if the price was right. Traffickers, mercenaries, smugglers, brokers, killers—every kind of parasite and predator eventually drifted south if th
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