Lies are like shadows. They grow with the dark and shrink when the light strikes. But even when the truth shines through? Some shadows refuse to vanish. The truth hit like a bullet. Cold. Unexpected. Fatal. Isabella killed my brother. And she said it with such a quiet calm, you’d think it was just another piece of the story, another casualty in a war long fought. But I heard the name. Rafael. The brother who’d vanished all those years ago. The one I never stopped searching for. The one who should have been dead. But had been murdered by the woman who stood before me now. “You…” I started, my voice raspy, foreign. I couldn’t find the words. “You killed him?” She didn’t flinch. Didn’t look away. “I had no choice.” “No choice?” I repeated, stepping closer. “You didn’t have to kill him. You didn’t have to betray me.” Her face hardened. “It wasn’t betrayal. It was survival.” “Survival?” I laughed bitterly. “You don’t understand the meaning of the word. You’ve been manipulat

The edge of a blade is sharpest when you least expect it. That’s when it cuts deepest. And me? I was standing at the edge, waiting for the inevitable strike. I didn’t have time to think about Isabella’s betrayal. The weight of it hung over me like a storm cloud, but there was no time to wallow in the agony. Elena’s men were here, and they didn’t come for tea and a chat. They came for war. The noise in the hall was deafening, people shouting orders, scrambling for weapons, securing exits. But the fear, the real fear, was in the air—the same kind that clung to the walls, suffocating everyone. This wasn’t just a threat; it was an invasion. I knew the game had changed the moment Elena's men set foot in the compound. The rules we’d been playing by had been rewritten. The stakes? Everything. Viktor was already in action, barking orders to the men who had been stationed around the mansion, coordinating defense, securing the perimeter. But I could see the fear in his eyes too, that flick

The world didn’t feel real anymore. One moment, everything had been falling into place: the strategy, the power, the promise that nothing could tear my empire apart. Then came the gunshot, and with it, everything I thought I understood about loyalty shattered. Isabella. My right hand. The woman who had been more than just an ally—more than just a tool in my game. She had been the thread that held everything together when I couldn’t. She was my lifeline. And now, she had pulled the trigger. I couldn’t believe it. The weight of it crushed me, pressing down on me like a suffocating force. Isabella’s eyes locked onto mine, the gun still hanging loosely from her hand. Her lips barely moved, but when she spoke, her voice was venom. “You’ve been so blind, Luca. So damn blind.” My heart slammed against my chest, every beat a reminder of the betrayal that was unfolding in front of me. I’d known something was off, I’d felt it in the air, but I refused to see it. I thought I could control

The weight of the gun in my hand felt heavier than ever. Every breath I took was shaky, every thought fragmented by the moment of reckoning that had arrived. The sound of the wind rustling through the courtyard was the only thing that broke the tense silence hanging in the air. But it wasn’t enough to calm the storm inside me. Isabella stood before me, her eyes locked onto mine, the challenge in them clearer than ever. She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t backing down. And it made me sick to my stomach to realize how far she was willing to go to destroy everything I had built. The woman I had trusted, the woman I had let in, was no longer someone I recognized. I didn’t move, not at first. I couldn’t. My entire body was locked in a battle between revenge and reason. What had I become? Was this who I was, who I had always been? The man who would do anything to survive, even if it meant tearing down everything I had ever loved? Isabella tilted her head slightly, studying me, the faintest smi

I couldn’t breathe. My chest felt tight, as if the weight of the world had been placed on my shoulders and it was crushing me, squeezing the air from my lungs. Viktor was gone. Just like that. One moment he was breathing, the next, his life had been ripped away, and I was left with nothing but the aftermath of my own mistakes. His blood stained the floor, his eyes wide and empty. I should’ve been the one to die. I should’ve been the one to fall, not him. I was the one who had dragged him into this mess. I was the one who had made every choice that had led to this moment. I reached out, my fingers brushing against his cold skin, and it felt like the last piece of humanity inside me shattered. He was my closest ally. My brother in arms. And I had failed him. And for what? To play a game with a woman who never cared about anything other than her own power? I was nothing but a tool, a puppet in her hands. I stood up, my body trembling with the force of my rage. The gun was still in my