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- Parts 11
Est was never meant to survive the underworld. Gentle, quiet, and artistic, he is completely discarded by his own family when they use him as a sacrificial pawn to settle a massive debt with the city's most ruthless mafia syndicate. Stripped of his freedom, Est is delivered like a signed contract to the sprawling, heavily fortified fortress of William-the notoriously cold, unyielding mafia boss.
Expecting a monster who will break him, Est arrives trembling and terrified. But what he receives is something far more crushing: absolute indifference.
William doesn't abuse him. He simply treats Est like an insignificant piece of furniture. Forced into a gilded cage, Est becomes a ghost in the massive estate, mapping out the hallways just to avoid the William's terrifying, heavy footsteps. When they pass each other, Est bows his head in pure survival instinct, while William walks right past him without a single glance. Est is completely alone, trapped in a silent world where he doesn't matter.
But in a life drenched in blood, greed, and betrayal, a ghost is hard to ignore.
Slowly, inadvertently, microscopic cracks form in William's wall of ice. A glimpse of Est reading by the window, the way he flinches at loud noises, the raw terror in his beautiful eyes-the innocent boy William claimed was insignificant begins to consume his thoughts.
And when rival factions mistake William's cold silence for a lack of protection, the monster awakens. Because just because William doesn't speak to his hostage, doesn't mean anyone else is allowed to touch him.