All Chapters of Waking up to my sin: Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

The night air in the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat villa was heavy, a thick, velvet curtain of Mediterranean humidity that made the skin tingle with a restless, electric heat. In the master suite, the light was kept low, filtered through amber silk lampshades that cast a golden, honey-like glow over the massive circular bed. This was the temple of the lie Sienna had meticulously built, and tonight, she was the high priestess of my undoing.​I stood by the edge of the bed, my chest bare, the fading yellow-and-purple bruises on my ribs acting as a map of a past I couldn't remember. Sienna approached me first. She was a vision of lethal, predatory elegance in a sheer lace robe that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. She didn't just touch me; she claimed me with the entitlement of an owner. Her hands, cool and soft, slid up the planes of my chest, her thumbs tracing the lines of my pectorals before her fingers tangled deep in my hair, pulling my head back with a sharp, possessive tug tha

​The Mediterranean moon was a cold, silver coin hanging over the jagged limestone cliffs of Cap-Ferrat, but it offered no warmth to the woman I had become. It was a mocking light, illuminating the vast wealth of a world that had tried to bury me. I stood perfectly still in the dense, thorny brush at the far edge of the Villa d’Amour’s perimeter, the air a thick, suffocating mixture of salt-heavy spray and the cloying, chemical scent of expensive fertilizer filling my lungs.​In my right hand, Malakai’s Glock 17 was a heavy, comforting weight—a cold, matte-black anchor in a world that had gone completely adrift. I had spent the last hour meticulously charting the guard rotation through the thermal binoculars I’d "borrowed" from Henri’s stash back in Nice. They were cocky, these Vane loyalists. They moved with the lazy, entitled posture of men who believed their high walls, their buried infrared sensors, and the untouchable reputation of the High Council were enough to keep the rest of

​The silence that settled into the master suite after Silas’s final, mocking toast was heavy, filled with the low, artificial hum of the air conditioning and the distant, rhythmic crash of the Mediterranean against the cliffs far below. I sat on the edge of the massive circular bed, the gold silk sheets tangled around my legs like clutching vines, cool and slick against my skin. My head was throbbing with a dull, pulsing ache behind my eyes that seemed to beat in perfect, agonizing time with the flashing amber lights of the crystal chandelier above.​I took another slow sip of the wine Silas had handed me. It was a 1945 Bordeaux, a vintage that costs more than most men make in a year—thick, dark, and smelling of earth—but it tasted like bitter copper on my tongue. Every swallow felt like I was drinking down a lead weight, settling in my gut, anchoring me to a floor I didn't recognize.​"You're drifting again, Malakai," Sienna’s voice drifted over me, as smooth and dangerous as a silk

The silence of the long, marble hallway was a cold, bracing comfort after the suffocating, jasmine-choked heat of the master suite. My skin felt tight, buzzing with an electric agitation, like a suit of armor that didn't fit my frame anymore. The "Good Sin" of the earlier hours—the sweat, the silk, and the forced intimacy—now sat in the pit of my stomach like a bucket of cold lead. I needed a moment of absolute stillness, a single breath of air that hadn't been filtered through the lungs of the siblings who claimed to own my soul.​I had stepped out under the pretense of a restless mind, pacing the length of the silent gallery for ten minutes. I stared out at the dark, white-capped Mediterranean waves crashing against the cliffs, feeling the spray of reality on my face. My mind was a broken compass, the needle spinning wildly in a vacuum, trying desperately to find north—trying to find the face of the woman who haunted my dreams. Trying to find Leona.​I finally turned back toward the

The red alarm light pulsed against the stark white walls of the guest room like a rhythmic, bleeding wound, casting long, distorted shadows that danced across the ceiling. Each crimson flash illuminated Leona’s face with a cinematic intensity—her sharp, new haircut, the lethal, unyielding set of her jaw, and the way she held her weapon with a practiced ease, as if the steel were a natural extension of her own soul. She looked like an avenging angel carved out of obsidian and spite. ​"Malakai, get behind me," she commanded, her voice a low, steady hum that cut through the blaring siren. ​"Not a chance in hell," I growled, my voice reclaiming its gravelly depth. I reached for the heavy, solid brass floor lamp standing near the bed, ripping the cord from the wall with a single, violent jerk. It wasn't a firearm, but in my hands, it was a skull-cracking club with the weight of a sledgehammer. My memory was still a fractured, jagged mosaic of gray fog and strobe-light