BLOOD TIE AND BROKEN VOWS
Behind it lay an old servant’s passage—long forgotten by most, but she had discovered it as a child.
There, in the shadows, she pressed the note into the palm of a trembling maid she trusted. “To the chapel in Chiaia,” she whispered. “Find a man in black. Say it’s from the donna della rosa. Do not fail me.”
The maid nodded, fear widening her eyes, and vanished down the hidden stair.
Adriana sagged against the wall, her pulse hammering. For the first time, she had chosen. The first chain had cracked.
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Hours later, in a crumbling chapel across Naples, Damian unfolded the note by candlelight. His men lingered near the entrance, their murmured prayers mingling with the smell of old incense.
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