"I always thought I was the one holding the deck, controlling the game. I never realized that from the moment I chose him as my target, I had already lost." *** Alessandra Beaumont had spent years turning her past into a weapon. To her, human beings were nothing but flesh-and-blood assets to be played, broken, and discarded. Love was a fatal defect she had successfully purged from her system, leaving behind a cold, calculating machine wrapped in silk. She was completely invincible because she was already dead inside. Until Axel Valtieri looked at her with pure indifference and walked away. His rejection didn't just insult her; it threatened the fragile illusion of her absolute control. Axel didn't care about her empire, her money, or the crown she used to hide her scarred soul. That defiance triggered a twisted, feral hunger within Alessandra. She became consumed by a dark obsession, willing to tear down her own rules and hunt a man who belonged to another woman-not to love him, but to possess his total ruin. What started as a game of dominance quickly mutated into a lethal fixation. As the lines completely dissolved between her thirst for vengeance and a sickening, toxic dependency on his touch, Alessandra was no longer playing the cards. The cards were burning her alive.