𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗮 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗲.
I never thought my world would crumble at the hands of a man like Alessandro Rossi-a 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 draped in silk suits and ruthlessness. One moment, I was Yasenia Fraga, daughter of the...
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I held the little note I'd found beneath Geoffrey's lifeless body. "Ring a bell?" It said. Diego's handiwork-words designed to dredge up the darkest corners of my memory, to break whatever pieces of me he'd left unbroken.
Hanging from the ceiling like an animal ready for slaughter, he was left to die with a rope tied around his neck. Geoffrey Brandwyn was a man who'd lived an honest life-a man who had taken me in when my own father had thrown me into hell and forgotten I even existed, a man who did everything he could to protect me, and a man I had failed to protect.
I had never wanted to black out more than I did at Geoffrey's funeral, to avoid watching his casket being lowered into the ground, to escape witnessing his wife and daughter break down in front of me. But Yasenia's voice, of all things, played on repeat in my head: "It shouldn't be so hard to show the people who need you that you're there for them."
Those words kept me upright. Kept me sane when every fiber of me wanted to collapse. They pushed me toward Margaret and Alice, forced me to pull them into my arms, even as I felt like a fucking fraud-like I was the one who had put them on the ground, crying and breaking. Because I was.
Life had always had a cruel sense of humor, stripping away the people I cared about most, leaving me with ghosts and guilt and reminding me, yet again, that monsters like me deserved nothing less. First Billy, and now Geoffrey. Both losses so twisted, so horrific, they'd carved permanent scars into my mind.
Everyone who had chosen to be around me, had unwittingly made themselves a target, an Achilles heel that my enemies -my goddamn father in particular-wouldn't hesitate to exploit.
Some stains sink too deep to scrub clean. Some debts, no matter the cost, demand to be paid in full. And Diego would pay, with his fucking life.
Returning to this house after so many years was the hardest decision I'd ever made. I'd fought it for so long, trying to resist the pull of this place and the memories that came with it. But no matter how far I'd run, the past had always found me.
Every corner of this house was soaked in memories of my mother-the only woman who'd ever loved me. I could still smell the scent of her perfume, it was faint but it was still there. Her laugh, her touch, the way she sang to me when I couldn't sleep-it was all here, living inside these walls. And as much as I'd tried to bury it, she was the ghost I'd never outrun.
But when Luca suggested holding the wedding here, in Italy, I couldn't deny it made sense. Tuscany was far enough from Sicily to stay off Diego's radar, and it felt safer than anywhere else for my family to stay while I dealt with him once and for all.
Wedding preparations had been in full swing, but I'd been more focused on security than floral arrangements. I'd made sure to double the guards patrolling the property, add more surveillance, and ensure no blind spots remained. I couldn't afford a single mistake-not with everything on the line, not with my people in the crosshairs.
