Crimson vows

Prologue

The city was a living, breathing entity—its pulse a constant hum of machinery and life. Beneath its glittering veneer, shadows danced, and secrets festered. In one of those shadows, a world was crumbling.

Marco Russo, the man who had once commanded the streets of New York with an iron fist and an unyielding gaze, lay dead in his office, the air thick with the acrid scent of gunpowder and betrayal. His empire, once invincible, was reduced to chaos in a single, violent night.

The world outside carried on, blissfully ignorant of the power shift taking place behind closed doors. For the Russos, the night marked the end of an era—a seismic shift that would send shockwaves through the criminal underworld and beyond. For Valentina Russo, it was the beginning of a new, darker reality.

At the funeral, the sky wept with rain, a bitter reflection of the mourning within the church. Those who had once feared Marco Russo now lingered, their eyes gleaming with opportunistic hunger. Among them, Luca Moretti stood apart—a figure of danger and power, watching with a detached curiosity that belied the role he was about to play.

Valentina, standing at her father's grave, was the embodiment of lost innocence. Her world had shattered, her future uncertain. As she glanced at Luca, she sensed the invisible chains tightening around her. His presence was a stark reminder of the deal struck in the aftermath of her father's death—a deal that bound her fate to his.

The rain fell harder, mingling with the tears that stained her cheeks. The last vestiges of her old life were slipping away, replaced by a new, unforgiving reality. Luca's gaze lingered on her, calculating and cold. He was here to protect her, but in a world as ruthless as theirs, protection often came at a steep price.

The funeral ended, but the real story was just beginning. The city's shadows were ready to envelop Valentina, and Luca Moretti, whether she liked it or not, was her unwilling guide through the darkness. In the heart of New York's underworld, where loyalty was fleeting and power was everything, the true cost of survival was yet to be revealed.

As Valentina stepped into her new life, she did so with a heart full of unresolved grief and a future clouded by uncertainty. Luca's eyes followed her retreating figure, his thoughts a mixture of duty and something deeper, something he refused to acknowledge.

The empire had fallen. The game had changed. And in the midst of it all, two lives were about to collide in a way neither could have foreseen.