บททั้งหมดของ The Don's Ruthless Empire: บทที่ 241 - บทที่ 250

POV: Isabella"Someone left this at the gate an hour ago, addressed only to you, and no one saw who delivered it."Enzo's voice was tight as he handed me a plain white envelope, his eyes scanning the courtyard as though the sender might still be watching from the shadows, and I felt my own pulse quicken to match the alertness in his expression before I had even opened it. My fingers trembled as I unfolded a single sheet of paper inside. A photograph fell out first, and my breath caught painfully in my throat.Nico, walking home from the market two days ago, captured from a distance close enough to prove he had been followed the entire way, his familiar careless walk frozen mid-stride, utterly unaware of the lens tracking him from somewhere across the street.Beneath the photograph, a short, typed message. Your brother walks alone more often than you realize. Six days until the ceremony. Choose wisely what you reveal."Adriana," I whispered, the name tasting like poison in my mouth, bi

POV: Isabella"You told the entire household you confessed everything, but Adriana says there is more, and I need you to tell me the truth before she turns whatever you are hiding into the weapon that finally destroys us."Matteo's voice cut sharp through the quiet study, and I watched Salvatore's face drain of color under the accusation, the shadows of the late hour making him look even older than his years. We had woken him from an uneasy sleep, and he sat now in his nightclothes, looking older and smaller than I had ever seen him, the weight of the confession he had already given seeming to press down harder now that another one was being demanded of him."I told you everything that mattered," Salvatore said, though his voice lacked the conviction it needed to be believed, wavering just enough to confirm what none of us wanted confirmed."Then tell me whose idea it truly was," Matteo said. "Adriana says the plan to bury Corrado's death was not entirely your own. She says someone el

POV: Isabella"Elena is gone, and the guard we posted outside her room says he never saw anyone enter or leave, which means whoever took her either had Marchetti access or Marchetti help."Enzo's voice shook with barely controlled fury as he delivered the news, and the floor seemed to tilt beneath me all over again, the fragile hope from the night before collapsing so fast it left me briefly unable to speak. We stood in the empty guest room at the Marchetti estate, Elena's belongings still scattered exactly where she had left them the night before, no sign of struggle, no evidence of forced entry, only her absence and the terrible implications trailing behind it like smoke after a fire already burned out."That is not possible," Camilla said, her composure finally cracking under the weight of an accusation aimed directly at her own household, a rare crack in the poise she had maintained through every prior conversation. "My family gave their word. We do not betray witnesses under our

POV: Isabella"That warehouse has been empty since my father lost everything, and if Adriana chose it deliberately, she wants me to feel exactly what I am about to walk into before I ever cross the threshold."My voice barely rose above a whisper as Matteo and I stood at the edge of the property, the building looming ahead of us in the fading evening light, familiar and foreign all at once, its outline exactly as I remembered from childhood and yet somehow entirely alien in the dusk. Enzo and a dozen Rossaro soldiers spread quietly around the perimeter, securing every exit before we approached, while Camilla's men held the road behind us in case Adriana intended more than a simple confrontation.Matteo's hand found mine, steady despite the tension radiating through his entire body, a small, grounding warmth against the cold spreading through my chest. "You do not have to go inside," he said quietly. "I can lead this myself.""She wants to see my face when she reveals whatever she has

POV: Isabella"Three days ago I was certain we would walk into that ceremony facing an enemy determined to destroy us completely, and tonight I am not entirely certain what we are walking into at all."I spoke the words quietly, standing beside Matteo on the balcony overlooking the harbor, the compound behind us finally settling into a fragile, uneasy quiet after everything the last week had cost all of us, the night air carrying the faint salt smell of the water below and the distant sound of a single gull calling somewhere in the dark.Elena had returned safely to Rosa's care, both women finding unexpected comfort in each other's company after years of secrets neither had chosen to carry, their laughter drifting faintly up from the kitchen earlier that evening, tentative but real. Salvatore had spent the last three days working alongside Enzo, an uneasy partnership slowly building toward something that might, eventually, resemble genuine trust. Dante had called twice more, his voice