All Chapters of His Sinful Empire : Chapter 171 - Chapter 180

Then where was she? The firefighter’s words echoed in my head. There was nobody inside. Relief should have washed over me. Instead, panic settled even deeper. If Giulia wasn’t in the penthouse… Where the hell had she gone? I turned and hurried back toward Anne, my pulse hammering against my ribs. “Where is she, Anne?” She stared at me, her face pale beneath the flashing red and blue lights. “I… I don’t know.” “No.” I shook my head. “Think.” My voice was louder than I intended, drawing the attention of nearby officers and reporters. “Victoria’s call…” I muttered, trying to piece everything together. “It means she really started the fire.” Anne swallowed hard. “I guess she did.” “That means Giulia went back to Victoria.” Anne nodded slowly. My stomach twisted into a knot as my voice broke. “Giulia started the fire.” The words tasted like poison. I dragged both hands through my hair. “How could she?” She’d believed I’d betrayed her. God… “What

“Why are you quiet?” My voice was shaking now. “Why are you not saying anything, Dimitri?” Nothing. “Answer me!” The words burst out louder than I intended. Loud enough that somewhere outside the office I heard movement stop. He exhaled slowly. “I didn’t know how to bring it up to you.” His voice was low. Rough. “It was important and I didn’t want to lose you Giulia. I thought if I could just get through the two months without—” I stopped hearing the rest. My legs folded under me slowly and I crouched down right there on the floor of his office and covered my mouth with both hands. Part of me had still been hoping. Even after the document. Even after Victoria’s face. Even after the bridge and Matteo’s couch and the whole sleepless night. Some small stubborn part of me had held onto the possibility that there was an explanation. That I’d misread something. That Victoria had forged it or twisted it or made it into something it wasn’t. But the way he’d just said it. ‘I d

NICO’S POV The hotel room was quiet. Giulia was lying on the couch. She had been there for the past hour since we arrived, curled up on her side, still wearing the same clothes from Dimitri’s office that morning. Her shoes were off, and her bag sat on the floor beside her. Her phone rested on the coffee table, turned off since last night. She wasn’t sleeping. I could tell by the way she was lying there, too still, that something was off. Her deliberate stillness suggested she was trying to convince her body to rest, while her mind refused to cooperate. It was as if sleep felt too vulnerable at that moment, as if closing her eyes would mean losing control over something she was still trying to hold onto. I sat in the armchair across from her, scrolling through my phone without really seeing anything on the screen. News notifications popped up, messages from people I hadn’t responded to, and articles with headlines I couldn’t bring myself to fully read. Fire at Kostas Penth

ENZO’S POV I remembered Bruno had called me last Tuesday. I was in Milan, at the estate I barely go to the office. I was going through paperwork that didn’t need my attention but gave my hands something to do while my mind stayed few minutes away from Nina. Five months of the same room. The same machines. The doctor choosing his words carefully every time I asked the same question. I picked up Bruno’s call automatically. “Boss there’s something you need to know, I think it might be a big problem,” he said. His tone said everything before the words did. Business. “Talk,” I said. He talked. Fifteen minutes of no interruptions. Just Bruno laying it out what he’d found. What he’d passed to Nico and what Nico had said in response. ‘I’ll handle it myself. Don’t tell

“Don’t expose him yet,” I said. “Enzo, I have everything I need to—” “You have pieces,” I cut in. “Ricci is a thread. Pull that thread without knowing what’s attached to the other end, and you’ll give the people behind this enough time to disappear.” I held his gaze. “The Russians operating through Ricci aren’t just after Senate votes. They’ve been moving through Milan. Through my territory. Through contacts that connect to networks far bigger than some political scandal in Rome.” Dimitri went completely still. “If you expose Ricci now,” I continued, “you get one senator. His name splashed across the papers for a month. His career destroyed.” I paused. “And everyone above him scatters. They move their operations somewhere else, change their faces, change their routes…” I leaned back. “And I lose them completely.” “So what exactly are you suggesting?” Dimitri asked carefully. I looked at him. “I’m suggesting you let me show you how big this actually is before you m