Lahat ng Kabanata ng RUIN ME: ENEMY DADDY: Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

SINS OF THE FATHERSOFIA POVThe meeting place Dimitri chose was nothing like I expected. No mansion, no gold, no men standing guard at every corner like Luca's house. Just a quiet restaurant tucked between two closed shops, empty except for us, candles burning low on a single table set for two.He stood when I walked in, an old fashioned gesture that felt strange coming from a man I'd only known for three days."You came alone," he said, studying me as I sat down across from him."I asked for alone. It would have been strange to show up with company."Something close to approval moved across his face. "Good instincts. You'll need them."A waiter who clearly wasn't a waiter set down two glasses of water and disappeared through a back door, and I understood then that every person in this building worked for Dimitri, that this entire quiet restaurant was his, down to the candle flickering between us."Tell me what happened," I said. "All of it. No pieces missing this time."Dimitri folde

TAKENSOFIA POV"No." I was already on my feet, pulling my jacket on with hands that wouldn't stop shaking. "No, no, this is my fault. She's only in this because of me.""Sofia." Alessio reached for me but I pulled away, pacing the small room like a caged animal, panic clawing up my throat faster than I could push it back down."I'm the one who dragged her into this when I used her guard's debt to sneak out that first night. I'm the one Luca wants. He took her to get to me." My voice cracked wide open. "If anything happens to her, it's on me. All of it.""Look at me." Alessio grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to stop, forcing me to meet his eyes. "This is not your fault. This is Luca using a defenseless girl as a weapon because he's too much of a coward to come after you directly. That's on him. Not you.""I don't care whose fault it is." I pulled free and grabbed my shoes. "I care about getting her back."Something shifted in his face, the lover from an hour ago disappearing completely

BLOOD DEBTSOFIA POVThe hospital hallway smelled like bleach and fear, the kind of smell that soaks into your clothes and stays there long after you leave. I sat on a hard plastic chair outside the operating room, knees pulled up to my chest, Gianna's blood still dried brown along the edge of my sleeve where I had pressed my hands against her wound trying to keep her alive.Nobody had told me anything in almost two hours."She's strong," Alessio said quietly beside me, his hand resting over mine. "She's going to make it.""You don't know that.""No," he admitted. "I don't."I appreciated him more for not pretending otherwise.The warehouse had turned into a slaughterhouse in the chaos after that first shot, Luca's men and Alessio's men trading gunfire across crates and catwalks while I half carried, half dragged Gianna toward the exit with Nikolai's help. Somewhere in all that smoke and noise, Luca had vanished. Of course he had. He always slipped through the cracks like water, never

THREE FRONTSSOFIA POVThe safehouse had turned into something closer to a war room, maps spread across every flat surface, red marks circling properties that belonged to Luca, blue marks tracking whatever Nikolai's people could find on Dimitri. Three enemies now. My brother. My father. And whoever those Bratva men in the black SUVs had been working for that first night, a thread nobody had managed to pull yet."We are stretched too thin," Nikolai said, rubbing his eyes, exhaustion carved deep into his face. "Luca's men on one side, Sokolov's people watching every move we make on the other, and now we have no idea who those shooters at the docks actually report to.""Someone wanted Sofia alive but hidden that night," Alessio said, leaning over the table, jaw tight with concentration. "That rules out Luca. He wants her found and brought home. It rules out Dimitri too, he already had his man in place to force a confrontation, not avoid one.""So who does that leave," Katya asked. She sto

THE PRICE OF HELPSOFIA POV"Absolutely not," Alessio said. "You want me to do what?"I stood frozen by the door of the small side room where Elena had asked to speak with him, close enough to catch every word through the thin wall, my heart slamming so loud I was sure it would give me away."It's not a radical idea." Elena's voice stayed calm, measured, like she was discussing a business merger instead of a marriage. "My family controls shipping routes across three ports you don't have access to right now. Combine that with your forces and Luca and Dimitri wouldn't stand a chance, not even working together. It's simple math, Alessio.""I'm not marrying you to win a war.""You considered it once." Something softer crept into her tone, old and worn, like a wound that had never fully closed. "Before all of this. Before whatever's happening with that girl in the other room. We talked about it, Alessio. You and me. Years ago.""That was a