DarkInkAnnie
Rome wasn't meant to be an escape. It was meant to be a test.
Alyssn left everything behind to study architecture at Sapienza, to build something that was hers alone.
But she didn't leave Aidan.
Thirty-nine, ruthless, and impossible to forget, he is the man who taught her that love and control often wear the same face. Their relationship was never clean, never safe. It started in the shadows of Trieste's underworld, and now distance is the only thing standing between her and the weight of his world.
Letters stall. Calls end too quickly. The silence between them grows heavy with things neither of them will say out loud.
In the Vanderbilt family, silence means one of two things: loyalty being tested, or betrayal already underway.
Whispers move faster than bullets in Rome. Old allies resurface with new agendas. Family lines fracture, and Alyssn finds herself caught between two truths - the life she's trying to build for herself, and the name she can't outrun. Aidan built an empire on obedience and blood. He expects the same from the people he keeps close.
She isn't sure she can give it anymore.
In a world where trust gets you killed and family is both shield and blade, Alyssn has to decide where her loyalty lies. To the man who owns her heart, or to herself.
Because when the Vanderbilt name is called into question, everyone has to choose a side. And some choices can't be unmade.
Some loyalties cost more than blood.